Peep; S. Westerfeld

ETA: Corrected spelling of author's last name.


This is a young adult horror pubbed in 2005 by an imprint of Penguin. Set in modern day NYC & features Cal Thompson & Lacey...can't remember her last name, sorry. Plus assorted parasites, rats & giant mutant worms living under the subway in the city. And here you thought they were only in movies!

Cal has this disease see. He has to track down everyone he mistakenly gave it to, plus the person who infected him. Then he has to get them treatment. Unfortunately, this disease makes them violent & paranoid, thus making his job twice as difficult.

In the course of tracing the person who infected him, Cal meets Lacey. Since he's a college age young adult his hormones are in overdrive & even though he knows he'll infect her he allows her to help him. Lacey, fortunately, isn't stupid (a combo journalism & law student) & figures out the lowdown before Cal actually tells her what the deal is. Did that make sense?

So Lacey helps Cal figure out the deal & decides to become his sidekick. Hint- it involves cross species transmission. They also manage to fall in love/lust. Turns out to be a horror with a dash of romance to it. Not alot of romance- but I was frantically turning pages trying to figure out where things were headed.

The book alternates between narrative & parasitology & biology lessons. Those are hints to the upcoming plot developments. If you are paying attention & read between the lines that is. There are even notes at the end listing the author's sources- if you dare.

This is Daughter's keeper. She only had to wait six months for me to read it. Poor girl.