Scott Westerfeld is one of my favorite young adult writers (I have yet to read any of his books for adults). Peeps was the first book I read by him and it is still my favorite. Peeps brings an all new meaning to vampire, aka "peep" - being the saviors of the human race. Westerfeld's genre of vampires (peeps) are kick-ass, meat-eating, super humans, who freak out when they are first transformed, hating everything they once loved. They are also the only things that can save the human race from the ancient enemies.
Peeps follows a young man named Cal, who is a carrier of the "peep" virus, having all of the advantages of a peep and none of the craziness. His new job is to catch newborn peeps and take them to a compound for their safety and for training, primarily the women he infected before he found out what was happening to him, as well as the woman who passed it to him.
The Last Days is a sequel to Peeps. I say 'a' sequel and not 'the' sequel because The Last Days is about different people than Peeps. It follows a group of teenagers who are trying to start a band as the world is falling apart beneath them. Moz and Zahler are two guys who play guitar together and consider themselves a band. Moz meets Pearl on the street as a woman is going psycho and throwing all of her possessions out of her apartment window. When she throws a rare Stratocaster guitar, both Moz and Pearl run to save it. Pearl, it turns out, is a rich musical prodigy, looking for a new band after her old band broke up months before. She gets back her old peeps-infected lead singer and they find a drummer, Zahler switches to bass. Voila, they have a band...a band that can do what no one alive, peep or human, has ever seen before. Only the most ancient peeps have heard rumors of a band like this hundreds of years ago when the ancient enemies last attacked.
One of the things I really like about Westerfeld is how he handles point of view. He writes in the first person, but with every chapter, he switches characters. I know that this has become a popular writing style, but I think Westerfeld does it very successfully. Each character very much has their own voice and their own mind. He also does this with the Midnighters trilogy.
Overall, these are great books. Violent, yes. Some adult themes, yes. But a unique and interesting spin of vampires. I think they are definitely worth reading. Westerfeld is a highly entertaining writer who is on his way up the ladder of popularity in YA literature.
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