The Taking of Jake Livingston meets Cemetery Boys in this YA ghost story about a Puerto Rican teen’s battle with a malevolent spirit targeting his apartment building and the all-too-real horrors of gentrification.

It’s the summer before senior year, and Manny has just moved from Texas to the Bronx in New York. So, instead of hanging with his friends and making some spending money, Manny is forced to do menial tasks in his new home, a luxury condo his stepdad is managing, while stressing about starting over.

Thankfully, he meets Sasha, who is protesting the building but turns out to be really cool. And he strikes up an unlikely friendship with Mr. Mueller, the building’s exterminator. Maybe life in the Bronx won’t be so bad.

Then the nightmares begin. And Manny swears he has roaches crawling under his skin. When building contractors start to go missing, Manny and Sasha come to the terrifying realization that Mr. Mueller is not who he says he is. Or rather, he is, but he died decades ago in a fire exactly where Manny’s new building is located. A fire that Mueller set.

Now, in a race against time, Manny must rescue his family from a deranged specter determined to set the Bronx ablaze once again.

Title: Infested

Author: Angel Luis Colón

Genre: Young Adult / Horror / Fantasy

Hardcover: 304 pages

Publication Date: 07/25/2023

Publisher: MTV Books / Simon & Schuster

Language: English

ISBN: 9781665928410

ISBN10: 1665928417

GOODREADS

My Review

Firstly, I’d like to thank R&R Booktours for having me on the tour for Infested by Angel Luis Colón and Simon & Schuster for providing me with a physical copy of the title. This is my first MTV novel but I have heard good things about them in the past. When I saw this opportunity and I read the synopsis, I felt this would make a great match for my reading taste.

Infested is a story for young adults / High school age kids and aside from a cool premise with scary interludes, it offers a great bit of thought that young people can relate to. There are real-life family dynamics under stress, scenarios of finding new friends in a new place, saying goodbye to an old life, and also addressing ethnicities and cultures relevant today.

Manny is about to enter his senior year in High School in TX when his mom, stepfather, and little baby sister up their belongings without much warning to follow a more lucrative work offer in the Bronx of NY for his stepfather. There is this multi-level family housing building that has been unfit for tenants due to pest control issues that couldn’t get resolved in time. As Manny’s stepfather is hired and offered a flat rent-free, it is now up to them to make everything happen before corporate lets tenants from outside NY move in. Due to no rent control, it would almost be impossible for anyone from the local area to move in since the apartments are very pricey and new.

As Manny gets involved over the next few weeks in tidying up the place a prevailing pest of roaches on different floors of the building proves to be a challenge. With tensions rising over time, he finds comfort in conversations with the old exterminator working in the building and a girl named Sasha who sits outside the building every day protesting the influx of tenants from outside the Bronx.

But things go horribly wrong when the amount of creepy crawlies take over Manny’s mind and further the building. Roaches are everywhere and uncontrollable. So, what is up with the old exterminator who isn’t handling the problems correctly?

There are some cool hair-raising moments in the novel that were really well done. The creep factor nestled into it, plays out so real it was perfect. On top of that, it turns out to be somewhat of a mystery. And as the story addresses family relationships and friendships, it adds a very nice touch to the exploration of the neighborhood, like the sandwich shop and his owner that Manny strikes a friendship with and the neighborhood kids with their little tensions. So the Bronx, albeit big, is afforded an eye through the lens of the locals which gives it the flavor difference to say Texas where Manny last lived. Considering his own Puerto Rican heritage and that of his mother, the novel keeps it real with authentic foods and phrases, even those of the German exterminator, so a nice cultural mix that texturizes the entire story.

The novel addresses real-life things that kids are interested in with a nice portion of the heebie-jeebies to propel the plot. So, this is a win for the attended reader group, but anyone can enjoy this one…if you want to get close to roaches that is!

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher.

All opinions are my own.

Thank you!

About the Author

Angel Luis Colón is the Derringer Award– and Anthony Award–nominated author of Hell Chose Me, the Blacky Jaguar series of novellas, No Happy Endings, and the short story collection Meat City on Fire and Other Assorted Debacles. His work has also appeared in multiple web and print publications including Thuglit, Literary Orphans, and Great Jones Street. Infested is his debut young adult novel.

Thank you for reading!

Tour organized by R&R Booktours