good book

i have to say, when i first saw the cover of this book, i was skeptical. it looked like a chick book, but, we all know the saying and in the case of this book it is so true. i was a little confused in the beginning of this book, but i liked the main charecter cal, i like khow they twisted our knowledge of the typical vampire, the whole thing with the crucifixes i found to be very intersesting, because catholocism was a big back in the time period that i would relate to vampires. i was very sad for cal that he was never again allowed to have a sexual relationship, or just a relationship period, with a girl after he was infected. i was half sad, half happy when i found out that lace might be infected, my first thought was that she was going to be a bad vampire, one who ran away from their anethemas, one of wich would be cal, and eat people. but i was very releived to find out about the pills that sarah took, and how shes normal. and now cal and lace could have a relationship and they both have superpowers, way cool. but if they get married i dont know how that would work with the like, centuries of life. i think i would get bored with someone after a couple hundred years.

chelsea

Call only seemed to think he knew the story. What he didn't seem to realize was its not just his ex girlfriends that were infected, it's a lot more then that.

I'm not such a fan of the night watch because they aren't going to be able to help everyone in the world that was infected. They could try to help cals ex girlfriends and people he has infected but they will never gett every single peep.

I thought the alternating chapters on parasites were there to make you better understand everything. they made it seem like the book went a lot faster. But i don't think they were really necessary because you find out a lot about the parasite from cal.

I personally didn't enjoy this book. It's not the kind of book i would recommend to my friends.

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hopefully i'm filling this out correctly.

The truth about peeps seemed to depend on who was talking about them. At what point did you begin to wonder if Cal knew their real story? Why?

cal only seemed to think he knew their real story. what he did not seem to perceive is that there is more people in need of help, not just his ex girlfriends.

What did you think about Night Watch? Did you question any of their tactics? Did you feel the same way about all the members?

i felt that the night watch was helpful... in a way. sure, they want to help peeps, but can they really help so many in the world? it takes too long, and when they finally succeed in cleansing one, a dozen more could become infected.

Why do you think the author included the alternating chapters on parasites? How did they make you feel? Were they necessary to the story?

personally, i felt that the alternating chapters on parasites were just put there to make the book seem a bit quicker to read. i didn't mind them, and the information helped (sorta), but most of it was just unnecessary and not useful.

How would you react towards Cal if you, like Lace, had been accidentally infected? Were you surprised by her reaction? Why or why not?

if i was accidentally infected by cal i'd be more angry than i could express on this website blog.

Did you feel any sympathy for the peeps? Do you think they were victims? What do you think should happen to them?

yes, i feel that the peeps were more victimized than people thought them to be. if cal had a right mind he would have thought before he took such actions and infected so many girls. i feel that what the night watch was doing to them was helpful, but only so many peeps could have been saved.


In his website, the author says his goal was to write a vampire story that was original, tragic, funny, scary, icky and made some sense as far as science was concerned. Did he succeed? Why or why not?

i think the author succeeded in some sort of way, but as i said before, the book contained too much unnecessary information. we understand that peeps are born from a parasite, so why have so many chapters on other kinds of parasites that we do not need to know about? i could enforce my opinion on and on and on and it would be getting no where. i just did not like the book as much as i had the first time i read it because 1) i like "old-school" vampire novels, like the kind anne rice wrote 2) i felt that the grammer was meant for a 12-year-old, and 3) it was just too fictional compared to how other kinds of vampires are perceived. what happened to the blood sucking, red-eyed, seductive vampire that there used to be? dracula? instead we get parasites, bugs, and rats. not to mention a large quantity of the book taking place in the city's sewer system. yummy.

Why do you think the author included the alternating chapters on parasites?
How did they make you feel? Were they necessary to the story?

Scott Westerfeld, the author of Peeps included alternating chapters on parasites because it gave information that helped the reader understand about parasites and how they live. Because Scott Westerfeld included chapters about parasites it gave me a better understanding of them and it made Peeps seem more realistic. If Scott Westerfeld didn’t include the alternating chapters about parasites, his story wouldn’t be believable.
The alternating chapters made the infection of peeps more believable because they the chapters helped me understand how parasites work. In a way the other parasites Scott Westerfeld wrote about were similar to the parasite known as peeps in his book. Without any of the alternating chapter in Peeps, Scott Westerfeld wouldn’t really have a story. The alternating chapters were necessary.
Sometimes I didn’t think they were necessary but once you’re done reading the story they become necessary. In the chapter “Parasites R US” in Peeps that chapter kind of ties up all the chapters about the parasites. After reading that chapter it became clearer to me why Scott Westerfeld included those alternating chapters on parasites.

How would you react towards Cal if you, like Lace, had been accidentally infected? Were you surprised by her reaction? Why or why not?

If I found out I was accidentally infected from Cal I would be upset and angry at him. I would also be shocked that being a vampire also known as peeps is even possible. I was really surprised by Lace’s reaction. Of course she was mad at him at first, but she wasn’t freaking out or wasn’t even upset. I would’ve started to panic because this infection isn’t like any typical infection. When you’re a peep/vampire you begin to hate everything you loved before you were infected, you go insane and resort to cannibalism. Like Lace I’m also a vegetarian and I’ve been a vegetarian for 3 years, so I would be extremely angry at Cal because now I have to eat meat to keep myself and the parasite alive.
However if I knew the infection could be cured I wouldn’t be as angry at Cal. Which in the end you find out the infection can be cured, not fully, but temporarily. With the cure you don’t hate what you loved before you were infected and you don’t go insane and eat people. You still live with the infection, but you can treat it. Having the infection isn’t completely bad though. If you’re infected you can see in the dark, you have really good hearing, eye sight, you have more strength, and you stay fit all the time. So, I guess you have to look more at the positive side of having the infection in order to cope with it.

- Jennifer Guarracino

Overall i enjoyed the book Peeps. It was an interesting story that tought the reader about all different kinds of parasites and how a certain parasite got around to a typical guy who didn't even see it coming. I thought the whole story in general was really cool because you never knew what was going to happen next, except that fact that Lace was going to attrack the disease. I enjoyed Cal as a character the most because he didn't seem like a typical person with a disease, he kept it hidden and spent most of his time learing and hunting his disease then worrying about it.

The End

Peeps was an amazing book from beginning to end. In fact, the ending was one of the best summations of the story that I could have hoped for. I feel it was a bit too happy though, and that took away from the dark attitude that the rest of the storyline worked so hard to build up for us. From the beginning I was sure there was going to be a twist that made the book something more than just Parasite Positives versus the Night Watch. The giant worms weren't exactly where I would have went with that, but it was a nice twist none the less. I would've concocted a slightly more creative enemy, a werewolf pathogen perhaps, something more fitting to a vampire story than a worm. Overall the book tied up it's loose ends very well, and the entrance of Cal's ex-girlfriend to the story was fantastic. After reading Peeps I think I will have to go out and buy the sequel for my own enjoyment.

stephanie rivera 11

The point in Peeps when I really began to wonder if Cal knew the peeps' story is when it seemed like he really didn't know much about them. It was like he was dating them but he really didn't pay much attention to them.I think that the author included the alternating chapters on parasites because he wanted the readers to understand everything about them. They made me feel frustrated because i thought that they were unnecessary and were not needed in the book. It just made the book have more unwanted pages. If I was accidentally infected my reaction would be to flip out on Cal. If it were me I would be really mad and not talk to him ever again. I was surprised because if i were her I would have been a whole lot more angrier than she was. She was pretty calm about it. I felt alot of sympathy for the peeps because the had no other choice but to be this. I felt bad because they did not even know what was going on with them. And yes i do feel that they were victims because as I said before they didn't choose to be this. I think that they should live life as a normal person would and get treated for it as soon as they can. Yes the ending did surprise me. Also the explanations were satisfying because when he told us them I understood the book better. If I could have written the end of the book I would have made it a happier ending. In the sequal I could imagine a happier ending. I think that the author of the book did succeed his goals of the book. I think so because he gave amazing deatail when ever he was describing something. He made it feel like you are there watching it like a movie. My opinion on the night watch is that I think it's a good idea. No I did not question there tactics because they have been doing this for a really long time so they know what there doing.

Jedzel M.

Cal has been infected because of a one night stand. Whats interesting is that he got all his ex-girlfriends infected. Cal called them peeps. The weird part of it is that Lace got infected by a cat. The parasites that infected them spred more and more. But it was hard for Cal to try to track down all the people that were infected.

When i found out that lace was a peep i was not surprised at all. It was not a big shocker to me. I figured if she was going to follow Cal around and stay in his place that she would catch the disease sooner or later. It was interesting how she got the disease from a cat but that also tells the reader that you could atrack the disease from anyone or thing.

Amanda Easterbrook 11

I think that Scott Westerfeld included the alternating chapters on parasites because he wanted to show how in real life, how parasites worked in different ways to show and compare to how the parasites infected and changed the “Peeps”. I thought that putting the chapters about real parasites was interesting, because not only did it relate to the novel, it taught you some interesting facts about parasites. It wasn’t really necessary that they had to be in the book, but it made it interesting. If I was told by Cal that I had been accidentally infected I would have freaked out. I would have been worried that I would be turned into some monster that might eat people and begin to hate everyone and every thing around me. If I was Lace I would have flipped out on Cal. I was kind of surprised because she seemed a little calmer than I would have reacted. She was mad, but she wasn’t having a panic attack like I would have had if I was told by Cal that I was infected. I did feel sympathy for the peeps because they had no idea what happened to them and they didn’t understand what was going on. I do think that they were victims because they didn’t have a choice in it and didn’t know how or why they had become a peep. I think they should get treated as fast as possible to help them return to normal as much as possible.

I did feel some sympathy for the peeps, beginning in the first episode with Sarah. The process Cal explained of becoming a peep is difficult, especially the hating your former self part. All the peeps in the book didn't consent to becoming a peep and in the process completely throw away their lives. Maybe some have regained their normality like Sarah, but their lives still won't ever be the same. I probably sympathize with peeps because to me they are victims, since they didn't choose to change. Also, the parasite within them controls their actions, making them human puppets. However the peeps, at least the ones with the old strain parasite, were able to control the parasite. And to some people becoming a peep might have provided a better life, after the whole Cannibal phase.
I think what happens to the peeps should be up to them, after they regain some control over the parasite. If there was a cure to the disease then they should have the choice of ridding themselves of it. If they choose to keep the powers and the parasite, then maybe they should fight those monsters. I don't think peeps should be roaming around, free to use their supernatural powers. That might lead to a higher level of crime, or just cannibalism if their parasite isn't controlled.

I wasn't surprised at Lace's reaction when she found out she was a peep. She was already exposed to the world of peeps, so she wouldn't imagine becoming a blood-sucking, bat-transforming vampire. However her perception of what a peep is was limited to Cal, Morgan, and Sarah, all who looked sane and pretty normal. She hadn't seen the barbaric peeps Cal had to face. What might have surprised her the most was that she was infected by Cal's cat.

I think the chapters about the parasites are definatly useful in the novel. It gives the reader a sense of what a parasite is and how it relates to the book. If the chapters weren't in the book i think i would have had a difficult time trying to understand what the parasite was and also to understand how Cal felt with the parasite inside of him.

Lace's reaction to finding out that she had a disease was interesting. You would think that she would get mad but she didn't. She seemed to be almost calm and more accepting of the fact that she had the disease and has to to deal with it the rest of her life. I guess you can say she was thinking more about the good things then the bad. She knew that Cal had the disease but Cal woudn't let himself fall in love with anyone because he didn't want to create more peeps. Now that they both have it she feels that she can actually fall in love with him and not have to worry about anything.

Mike M. 11

I thought that the chapters focusing on the parasites were very interesting. It was like Cal was taking a break from the main story, sat down and started to share facts about some parasites and how they influence people. It was better that there were individual chapters about parasites than describing the parasites in the middle of the story because it would disrupt the flow of the story in the chapter. But at the end of each chapter, the story is momentarily put to a halt, so you mine as well fill in the reader on some parasites that Cal will mention in the future by either comparing them to an event or person; just like how he did with hookworms, Toxoplasma, and slimeballs. I feel that the chapters on the parasites were important to understand the story.

katherinex12

i think the real reason why the author put the chapters of the parasites in the book was because it gave the reader a feeling of what a parasite is and how parasites relate to the "Peeps". It also kind of gave the reader an idea of what the next chapter was going to be like in terms of a parasite or in other ways. It was definetly somthing that i thought was necessary for the book to give the reader an image and an idea of what a parasite is and what it really does.

James C. 9

If I were in Lace's situation I would be none too happy. Contracting a disease that permanently alters my state of being and who I am as a person would frustrate me immensly. Especially after hearing about these peeps, a entire diseased population kept secret from the rest of society, my reaction to Cal would just be one of confusion. I was very suprised at how well Lace handled the news. I believe if someone truly found they contracted a disease they would be much more upset and angered at the person they contracted it from. But in the end Lace and Cal both were happy and it was better off that she was inflicted with the disease. All in all I just don't see that reaction ever really happening.