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A review by meesvsbooks
Infested: An MTV Fear Novel by Angel Luis Colón
3.0
3,5⭐️
Infested is a YA paranormal horror story about 17 y/o Manny who has to move across the country because his stepfather bought an entire apartment building in the Bronx, New York. Manny is not excited for the move, and as if it couldn’t get any worse, bad things start to happen once they arrive. Nightmares, crawling roaches and people starting to disappear. Maybe the move wasn’t such a great idea..
What I liked most about this book was how well the negative impact of gentrification was explained through horror. This added lots of depth to the story. The horrifying scenes were written so vividly. The roaches crawling everywhere was VERY imaginable. There was also some awesome body horror!
The book also touches on racism, family issues and gives a very nice insight in the Puerto Rican culture. Especially Manny’s neighborhood in the Bronx was packed with authentic Puerto Rican food, Spanish language, etc.
I think the writer did a great job at capturing the frustration, angst and struggles of young teens. Manny wasn’t always likable with all his complaining, anger and sometimes selfish thinking, but that’s exactly why he was a realistic character!
I do wish there was a bit more backstory on some of the bad guys and their drive. The conclusion in the end was a bit too simple or short for me, which disappointed me.
I still enjoyed the story a lot. I actually upped my rating a few days later after I noticed I kept thinking how well the combination of social issues with horror was done!
By the way, I think it’s more fun to start this book without reading the author’s synopsis! in my opinion reading it beforehand made the book a bit more predictable.
Infested is a YA paranormal horror story about 17 y/o Manny who has to move across the country because his stepfather bought an entire apartment building in the Bronx, New York. Manny is not excited for the move, and as if it couldn’t get any worse, bad things start to happen once they arrive. Nightmares, crawling roaches and people starting to disappear. Maybe the move wasn’t such a great idea..
What I liked most about this book was how well the negative impact of gentrification was explained through horror. This added lots of depth to the story. The horrifying scenes were written so vividly. The roaches crawling everywhere was VERY imaginable. There was also some awesome body horror!
The book also touches on racism, family issues and gives a very nice insight in the Puerto Rican culture. Especially Manny’s neighborhood in the Bronx was packed with authentic Puerto Rican food, Spanish language, etc.
I think the writer did a great job at capturing the frustration, angst and struggles of young teens. Manny wasn’t always likable with all his complaining, anger and sometimes selfish thinking, but that’s exactly why he was a realistic character!
I do wish there was a bit more backstory on some of the bad guys and their drive. The conclusion in the end was a bit too simple or short for me, which disappointed me.
I still enjoyed the story a lot. I actually upped my rating a few days later after I noticed I kept thinking how well the combination of social issues with horror was done!
By the way, I think it’s more fun to start this book without reading the author’s synopsis! in my opinion reading it beforehand made the book a bit more predictable.