The Last Days

Book: The Last Days
Author: Scott Westerfeld
Audience: Teen
In a Nutshell: supernatural rock summons giant evil worms

In this sequel to Peeps, when strangers Moz and Pearl save a precious Stratocaster guitar from a fall out a window, it's the birth of their rock band. Along with Zahler on bass, Alana Ray on drums (make that paint buckets), and somewhat functional peep Minerva on vocals, they make otherworldly music with Minerva's ancient, inhuman lyrics that draws peeps (vampires) like, well, like vampires to a blood bank. Eventually the higher purpose of their music becomes clear as they team up with Cal, Lace, and the rest of the Night Guard from Peeps, who finally show up about two-thirds of the way through the book, and stage a series of outdoor concerts that draw out both the worms and the peeps to fight them.

The majority of the book is heavily descriptive of the formation of the band and the music they learn to make together. It's interesting reading if you're into music, but I've gotta say I was glad to see Cal and Co. finally show up and get the plot moving. It all wrapped up pretty neatly and quickly, seeing as how the music part took up so much real estate, but vampire fans, fans of Peeps , and rock-band-minded readers will probably like it.