Peeps By Scott Westerfeld

Peeps By Scott Westerfeld


Published: September 2006
Pages: 312
Age Group: Young Adult
Publisher: Penguin Group

Okay, let's clear up some myths about vampires. First of all, you won't see me using the v-word much. In the Night Watch, we prefer the term parasite positives, or peeps for short.

The main thing to remember is that there's no magic involved. No flying. No transforming into bats or rats either. We're talking about a disease.

After a chance encounter with a mysterious woman one night, Cal Thompson's life is changed forever. He's been infected with an insidious parasite. The good news: he's only a carrier- still sane, without the worst of the symptoms. The bad news: he's infected all his former girlfriends- and now they've turned into what Cal calls peeps. The rest of us call them vampires. And its Cal's job to hunt them down before they create even more of their kind...

Incase you haven't realized yet... yes I am one of those lame people addicted to the paranormal, particularly vampires. Oh, and yes I do love Scott Westerfeld books as well. This being said, I had to question my love for both after finishing Peeps. To be comopletely honest, my favorite part of the book was its cover.

Right from the beginning, I was confused. Westerfeld dives right in, giving explanations for things after they have already happened. Then, as if I wasn't already confused enough, Cal explains that how Sarah was acting when he caught her wasn't normal (uh hello- you never told us what normal was!)

After things become a bit clearer I actually started to enjoy it. I have always had a certain respect for authors who take a such a common book theme, like vampires, and change it around completely. The first difference was the lack of a sappy love story. Yes I do love to read them, but the direction Peeps took romance was intriguing in a unique way. Because Cal is infected, he can't have a girlfriend. Worse than that, he can't even kiss a girl. That's right, if he does anything besides touch a girl they get infected. Talk about a twist.

The next difference I liked was the vampires, or peeps, themselves. In nearly every vampire book written, they are free to roam (though they usually spend most of their time out of the sun.) Even more, they are functional, and usually sane. In peeps, unless you have a rare case, like Cal's, the transformation leaves you schizophrenic, angry and anti-social to the extreme. They are in fact so different and creepy that they live mostly underground, with a brood of rats. I'm talking hundreds of them.

After taking in the differences between Peeps and most vampire books, I was bored again. Cal and Lacey's relationship never has any flame and only seems to become more and more boring with every page. When things start getting hectic, both Sarah and Morgan re-enter Cal's life and the book is once again confusing. On top of this, the build-up of meeting Morgan is completely pointless because the interaction between her and Cal is quick and unexciting. In fact, the only real contact they have is Cal running away from her house when she seems him and then him agreeing with her about spreading the disease. After a whole book of looking for her... that's it.

Unlike the Uglies series, Scott Westerfeld failed to impress me with this novel. The ups were mediocre and the down were boring, leaving me glad to be finished.



2/5

Extras By Scott Westerfeld

Extras By Scott Westerfeld
Published: October 2007
Pages: 432
Age Group: Young Adult
Publisher: Simon Pulse

It's a few years after rebel Tally Youngblood took down the uglies/pretties/specials regime. Without those strict roles and rules, the world is in a complete cultural renaissance. "Tech-heads" flaunt their latest gadgets, "kickers" spread gossip and trends, and "surge monkeys" are hooked on extreme plastic surgery. And it's all monitored on a bazillion different cameras. The world is like a gigantic game of American Idol. Whoever is getting the most buzz gets the most votes. Popularity rules.

As if being fifteen doesn't suck enough, Aya Fuse's rank of 451,369 is so low, she's a total nobody. An extra. But Aya doesn't care; she just wants to lie low with her drone, Moggle. And maybe kick a good story for herself.

Then Aya meets a clique of girls who pull crazy tricks, yet are deeply secretive of it. Aya wants desperately to kick their story, to show everyone how intensely cool the Sly Girls are. But doing so would propel her out of extra-land and into the world of fame, celebrity...and extreme danger. A world she's not prepared for.


Being the oblivious person I am, I had NO idea this book wasn't from Tally's perspective until i started reading it. (Yeah, I was so dumb I didn't even read the inside cover.) So naturally when I started it I was pretty confused. Actually I was also a bit angry. I was convinced that the Uglies series was ruined because the book was written from the WRONG person.

Eventually I calmed down enough and decided that since I had the book in front of me that I had to finish it. Wow, am I glad I did. I love the perspective the book came from, and how a futuristic book showed the future of its original series. (If that makes sense.)

Aya is a powerful character in an interesting way. I was drawn to her because Westerfeld is amazing at making characters interesting and addictive. I love the way Aya is a pretty shy and normal girl (looking for popularity, self conscious, and jealous of her sibling) but yet, she is built into a character that is brave, strong and everything the opposite of how she feels inside. I felt like I could relate to everything she was going through (except diving hundreds of feet under the city in the pitch black on a hoverboard.)

I also love how the book is set in Japan. I have never been there, but this book views them in the only way I have ever seen them. They are constantly looking for crazy new ideas, popularity, and have crazy ideas. I absolutely love it!

When Tally came into the book, I was actually shocked. Her mindset seemed so much different than the other books. Before she seemed like your normal teen, trying to rebel against authority while finding herself. But in this book she seemed powerhungry and controlling. It bothered me at first, but then I thought more about it and came to the conclusion that is probably the only way she has been able to think since she has assumed the position of protector of the world. She probably doesn't have the time to second guess herself.

There are a few things that bother me though. I want to know if Tally and David will ever get together. I also wish there was more written about the sly girls, and how Jai, Kai, Lai, whatever her name is, changed her mind and what events happened to them while Aya was away.
Overall I loved the book, possibly the most out of the entire series, and wish that Westerfeld would write more from Aya's point of view.

I LOVED it! 5/5!

Specials By Scott Westerfeld

Specials By Scott Westerfeld
Published: September 11, 2007
Pages: 400
Age Group: Young Adult
Publisher: Simon Pulse

Tally Thought they were a rumor, but now she's one of them. A Special. A super-amped fighting machine, engineered to keep the uglies down and the pretties stupid.

But maybe being perfectly programmed with stremgth and focus isn't better than anything she's ever known. Tally still has memories of something else.

But it's easy for her to tune that out- until she's offered a chance to stamp out the rebels of the New Smoke permanently. It all comes down to one last coice: listen to that tiny, faint heartbeat, or carry out the mission she's programmed to complete. Either way, Tally's world will never be the same.

The Uglies series never slows, which reoccurs in Specials. It's so frusturating to watch Tally finally get a grasp of her own thinking, only to see her thrown back into a new surgery that changes her yet again. But I think that is what makes Specials so addicting. Just when I start to think I can predict what will happen, everything changes.

Specials is just as adventurous as the others, maybe even more-so now that Tally is practically a superhuman. I felt that this book spent more time describing the mental games and processes within Tally than the others. Instead of focusing primarily on events and the grand scheme of things, Specials spent time describing everything from Tally's perspective, the mastermind behind everything.

To me, Specials is the most detailed and well thought out of the series, and made me extremely hungry for the next book, Extras.

Loved it of course! 4/5

Pretties By Scott Westerfeld

Pretties By Scott Westerfeld

Published: November 1, 2005
Pages: 384
Age Group: Young Adult
Publisher: Simon Pulse

Tally has finally become pretty. Now her looks are beyond perfect, her clothes are awesome, her boyfriend is totally hot, and she's completely popular. It's everything she's ever wanted.

But beneath all the fun- the nonstop parties, the high-tech luxury, the total freedom- is a nagging sense that something's wrong. Something important. Then a message from Tally's ugly past arrives. Reading it, Tally remembers what's wrong with pretty life, and the fun stops cold.
Now she has to choose between fighting to forget what she knows and fighting for her life- because the authorities don't intend to let anyone with this inpormation survive.


Just like Uglies, Pretties starts out with a bang creating an addiction from the start. But this time its because you can't believe what is happening. Tally is a pretty, and she is happy about it! This made me so angry, yet addicted, and I had to keep reading.
My girly side also falls in love with Zane because he is a bubblehead (which makes him gorgeous) but yet he has an original and serious side to him. How could a girl ask for anything more in a man?

This book is thuroughly addicting, and constantly changing. Just when you think you know whats going to happen, something changes. I love the relationships they create in this book, although i thought one character, Fausto, wasn't explained very much. I love that Westerfeld turned around the entire image of bubbleheads, and gave them the potential to change things from how they have been for the past 300 years (with the help of Tally of course.)

Just like the last book, this one has a cliffhanger ending, forcing you (not that you will need any extra push) to read the next one.

Another great book, 4/5

Uglies By Scott Westerfeld

Uglies By Scott Westerfeld

Release Date: February 8, 2005
Pages: 425
Age Group: Young Adult
Publisher: Scholastic Trade

Tally is about to turn sixteen, and she can't wait. Not for her license- but for turning pretty. In Tally's world, your sixteenth birthday brings an operation that turns you from a repellent ugly into a stunningly attractive pretty and catapults you into a high-tech paradise where your only job is to have a really great time. In just a few weeks Tally will be there. But Tally's new friend Shay isn't sure she wants to be pretty. She'd rather risk life on the outside. When Shay runs away, Tally learns about a whole new side of the pretty world- and it isn't very pretty. The authorities offer Tally the worst choise she can imagine: find her friend and turn her in, or never turn pretty at all. The choise Taklly makes changes her world forever.

Uglies is one of the few books that has ever captured me from the first page. After being an avid Twilight fan (like the majority of YA female readers) I had almost given up on finding anything to fill the void I felt. Then a friend convinced me to read Uglies and I haven't looked back since. Of course this book is nothing like Twilight, but I felt it was equally as addicting.

The book is the perfect combination of friendship, action, romance, and suspense making it impossible to put down. Being the first book by Scott Westerfeld I had ever read, I ordered five other books by him the day I finished Uglies.

The book is a futuristic sci-fi which usually isn't my favorite, but what drew me in was the possibility it has of being a very acurate non-fiction in the future. The futuristic prediction this book has is very believable and left me thinking for hours about humanity and the future. (It was a very deep internal conversation with myself I can promise you :-P)

I give it a 4/5.