Peeps

by Scott Westerfeld

Nineteen-year-old Cal Thompson is a carrier of a parasite that causes vampirism. It's pretty contagious so he has to hunt down all his old girlfriends, which isn't easy. They don't want to go with him for treatment. In fact, they don't want to see him or hear his voice. That's one of the effects of the parasite, it makes it's "host" hate everything they used to love. Strange things start happening all over New York City and it's about to get worse!
In between each chapter, Scott Westerfeld inserts little microbiology lessons. Some are really gross, some are scary but all are interesting. This is a very hard book to stop reading and if you're not too squeamish, give it a try! If you like it, there's a follow up book called The Last Days that continues the story of the strange happenings in NYC.

Jackie