The Last Days
by Scott Westerfeld
Razorbill (2007)
9780143006206
$19.95
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Reviewed by Ben Payne, May 2007
Moz and Zahler are two teenage guys who’ve been playing music together for years without getting anywhere. That changes when they meet Pearl, a precocious keyboard player, who with her weird friend Minerva and ring-in drummer Alana Ray, set about transforming the band into something special. Of course, nothing ever runs that smoothly, and before long sexual tensions are emerging within the group, not to mention some plain, garden variety tensions, which threaten the newly formed equilibrium. Things aren’t helped by the fact that at least one of the group is infected with a strange new disease, and the city is falling apart around them.
Anybody expecting a straight sequel to Peeps might be put off by the start of The Last Days. While the events of the former novel are in the background of the latter, the protagonists remain for some time (often quite humorously) oblivious, involved as they are in their own concerns. This pacing decision is probably wise, as it allows the reader to get to know the five central characters, and gives us a chance to care about them before the danger hits.
When the plot hits high-gear, about midway through the book, it accelerates rapidly. I must admit that at the half-way mark I was thinking that The Last Days might form the second book in a lengthy series of novels set in the same world. But the rest of the book quickly dispels this illusion, as the book sets about tying up loose ends at break-neck speed. While it does it well, I was a little disappointed. Readers who hate continuing series, on the other hand, may find it a relief.
I found The Last Days to be a stronger novel than Peeps. While I know a lot of people who enjoyed the first book, when quizzed, most of them recall the interweaving parasitic trivia rather than any of the characters or plot (I had to squint to remember the characters’ names). The Last Days, on the contrary, throws the focus firmly onto the story. The characters are vivid and memorable. Westerfeld’s achievement in creating not one, not two, but five central characters in a three-hundred (large type) page novel, and succeeding in making them all easily distinguishable, likeable, and giving each one of them a personal journey underscores his formidable talent. At one point I thought one of the characters’ storylines had been shunted to the side, only to have it re-emerge on the final page and smack me in the face with an emotional upper-cut. Impressive stuff.
There were a couple of things that didn’t quite work for me. Westerfeld keeps his discussion of music, both technically and commercially, on vague terms, no doubt intentionally, perhaps in order to avoid alienating with specificity. But to me some of these sections lacked conviction for that reason. It felt a little like an author hedging his bets, and threw me out of the characters’ heads.
My second reservation was that, as mentioned above, I found the final climax and wrap-up happened a little too quickly. The book gets away with it, but I felt there was a lot more depth that lay just tantalisingly out of my grasp.
These criticisms, though, should be taken for what they are, small nitpicks in what is a strong YA novel, and to my mind a novel that stacks up against any “adult” writer’s work in the field today. In terms of style and control, Westerfeld goes from strength to strength. His ideas are original and plausible, his characters likeable and utterly three-dimensional.
I’m sure I’m not the first reviewer to say: Buy The Last Days. It’s a fawesome book.
Razorbill (2007)
9780143006206
$19.95
Buy this Book
Return to Reviews Page
Reviewed by Tansy Rayner Roberts, May 2007
Peeps is a sharp, science fictional vampire novel that looks at vampirism as a parasitic plague. It is a witty, dark and very contemporary YA novel that managed to make vampires about as sexy as any other sexually transmitted disease. Westerfeld’s vampires reacted to the disease by throwing off all marks of their identity, and giving themselves up to a hunger for raw protein.
The Last Days, a not-quite sequel, goes one step further by showing the apocalyptic effects of the vampire parasite, through the eyes of a group of teenagers far more innocent and starry-eyed than Peeps’ cynical Cal. Moz and Zahler are two guitarists in search of a dream. Pearl is a rich girl and musical genius, who longs to be famous. Together with an autistic drummer with a collection of paint cans, and a recovering vampire with the voice of a demon, they might just get their chance to form a rock band and become world famous before the world comes to an end…
Westerfeld’s YA novels are always readable and always worthwhile. This one felt crunchier than most of them, as if he was truly passionate about the characters and subject. The Last Days is packed with the usual Westerfeldisms of catchy, believable dialogue, running jokes, wordplay, sexual frustration and pop culture. I loved the idea that even rock music could be affected by his intriguing version of vampirism, and the oddly vivid descriptions of the New Sound. I really liked Peeps, but found it somewhat clinical at times, with the focus on the science of vampires constantly pulling the reader away from character interactions.
The Last Days, though, is raw. I felt more scared for and attached to these characters than any of Westerfeld’s other teenagers - they are more vulnerable and less self-sufficient than the cool/weird kids of Midnighters or So Yesterday, and more likeable than Tally-wa and Shay-la of Uglies, Pretties and Specials. I could easily spend more time with these characters than The Last Days allows for.
The only question mark I have over this book is how effective it is without having read Peeps. I spent several of the first few chapters trying to remember what was going on, and it distracted me somewhat. However, if you’re the kind of reader who can enjoy the ride and have patience to not have everything explained up front, I think that The Last Days can still be a great reading experience even without having read Peeps. However, you will get more from it if you read Peeps first - if nothing else, you’ll get more of a kick out of the cameo appearances of a few Peeps characters. And if you did enjoy Peeps at all, you have to read The Last Days - the frustration I was left with at the end of Peeps was more than compensated for by the events of The Last Days, and I came away from this book with a definite sense of closure.
If you’re just going to read one apocalyptic vampire rock music novel this year, make it The Last Days.
