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Book Reviews of The Last Days

The Last Days
The Last Days
Author: Scott Westerfeld
ISBN-13: 9781595140623
ISBN-10: 159514062X
Publication Date: 9/7/2006
Pages: 320
Reading Level: Young Adult
Rating:
  • Currently 3.6/5 Stars.
 22

3.6 stars, based on 22 ratings
Publisher: Razorbill
Book Type: Hardcover
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

3 Book Reviews submitted by our Members...sorted by voted most helpful

daedelys avatar reviewed The Last Days on + 1218 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
This was an interesting sequel to "Peeps". It may be a little confusing to some, since it's written in first-person narrative by several of the books characters. Each chapter being by a different member of the band. Once you get used to that, though, it's a very quick and addicting read. I love how this author manages to write stories that are fresh and new and not so full of annoying teenage angst. I've read several books by him now and definitely need to get my hands on what I haven't yet!
skywriter319 avatar reviewed The Last Days on + 784 more book reviews
Scott Westerfeld is arguably the master of modern-day sci-fi. His books, whether they are set in this present world, or in a future place, are always easy to relate to and understand. Even readers who have not read PEEPS (and you should) will enjoy this one.

THE LAST DAYS is essentially a story about five wannabe musicians getting together to form a band. There's Pearl: musically talented, smart, rich, an entrepreneur, and a little bossy on the keyboard. There's Moz, the talented but untrained guitarist who along with Pearl saves a rare Stratocaster guitar that a crazy woman was chucking out of her apartment window. Zahler is Moz's best friend, guitarist turned bassist, who constantly feels as if he's the band's weak link and has a penchant for making up new words (fawesome!).

The threesome hire Alana Ray, a talented but neurotically challenged drummer who drums on paint buckets and can see what music looks like. And finally there's Minerva, Pearl's friend who was bitten by something and now exhibits vampirish and vaguely cannibalistic tendencies--but whose singing talent somehow connects the whole band together into something paranormal.

When the band rehearses, strange things happen. The ground beneath them rumbles, as if something is struggling to reach them from underground. Meanwhile, the infected Minerva develops a relationship with Moz, as the parasite inside of her tries to spread itself by making her horny and irresistible.

In their journey to find an agent and get signed up to a label, the still nameless band learn that there is something very powerful about their music, as it has a way of summoning up the human race's greatest enemy from deep within the earth where they reside. Now, the five young men and women must use their musical and supernatural talents to help the peeps, infected humans who can control their vampirish tendencies and who were created to help save humanity. Together, they will summon and fight the enemies until nearly all are extinct. Until next time.

The world that Scott Westerfeld has created is creepily realistic. I got chills from reading this novel, and anything that moves me to such a reaction is extraordinary.
GeniusJen avatar reviewed The Last Days on + 5322 more book reviews
Reviewed by Long Nguyen for TeensReadToo.com

Set against the apocalyptic foreground first seen in PEEPS, THE LAST DAYS is a sequel to the former, and definitely does not disappoint.

Scott Westerfeld is one of the most consistently solid young adult novelists today and his latest only keeps the bar high and the readers happy. The Texas native is widely known for his innovative interpretations of "fantasy-esque" worlds and is the highly acclaimed author of THE MIDNIGHTERS and UGLIES trilogies.

THE LAST DAYS is a story based in contemporary New York City with a splash of dystopia tasting. Westerfeld takes on the always fun topic of vampires, and, as seen in PEEPS, revamping the whole legend behind the blood-thirsty immortals into his own super interesting view, basing the theory around "vampireism" as a disease similar, if not identical, to the Black Plague that ravaged the globe centuries before. Westerfeld delves more into a biological explanation, which involves carriers, kissing and biting, and a whole lot of rats.

It's summer, and New York City is going crazy. The temperature is much more intense than usual, even for summer; the sanitation is no longer under control (rats!); people are disappearing, afraid to travel on the subways; and Moz and Zahler are a two-man, kind of half-band. But soon their luck will change when they meet Pearl, a Juilliard music student, and her newly turned carrier friend Minerva. The four of them, along with street drummer Alana Ray, whose mental condition allows her to view farther into the depths than is advisable, join together to write music so epic, even they do not understand the magnitude of what is going to happen. Things are changing faster than you think.

So sit back, relax, and get ready to read these five teenager's soundtrack to the end of the world. It's going to be a good one. Masterfully written, old Westerfeld fans as well as new ones are sure to be blown away by the sheer raw sonic power of THE LAST DAYS.