Infested (Fear)

Puerto Rican 17-year-old Manny Rivera is furious at his mother and stepfather: after revealing their sudden decision to move from Manny’s San Antonio hometown to the Bronx, they are only giving him a week’s notice to pack up his entire life. Moreover, they now expect him to help his stepdad finish setting up the luxury condo he’s managing there. On top of dealing with contractors who keep ghosting him and contending with a large cockroach infestation, Manny finds himself in a contentious relationship with Afro-Latina teen Sasha Betancourt, who protests the gentrification that the condos represent. Though his budding friendship with elderly German immigrant Mr. Mueller, the building’s kind exterminator, lifts his spirits, Manny is soon plagued by roach-related nightmares, uncharacteristic bursts of intense rage, and a sneaking suspicion that the condo might be the site of something more sinister than just waylaid new construction. Swiftly moving prose peppered with quippy, multilingual dialogue propels debut author Colón’s tightly paced paranormal thriller. Manny’s acerbic but good-humored first-person POV perceptively renders grounded scenes exploring familial tensions and racism alongside gruesome instances of body horror and abject life-threatening terror. Age 14–up. [em]Agent: Jon Michael Darga, Aevitas Creative Management. (July) [/em]