Infested written by Author C.M. Forrest tells the story of female protagonist, Olivia, who wakes up on her bedroom floor in a pool of vomit. Her husband is missing, and her apartment is plunged into darkness. As she starts to try and put the pieces together of what has happened to her husband, she comes face to face with parasites that have invaded the residents of her apartment block. Parasites who take control of their human hosts and force them to kill, but for what purpose? And where did they come from?
Infested is a fast paced story, with plenty of skin crawling and spine chilling moments that keeps the reader turning the pages to its dramatic conclusion. The ending left with a promise of more horror to come, as certain questions remain unanswered. I assume deliberately so by the Author, in preparation for its sequel.
The characters, in the main, I did find believable, with credible dialogue. Although there was a particular scene that occurred with the main protagonist where the author, had swept over the actual truth of her husband’s disappearance. I had expected some sort of an emotional reaction, but instead, the discovery did not appear to register with the protagonist at all. She was more focussed on the horror of the infested, and whilst I understand this to an extent, I did feel that despite what was happening, she would have made reference to it. I expected a reaction of some type whether this would be a barrier to her managing the horrors around her, causing her to make a mistake, or fuelling her survival instincts.
I really enjoyed the twists and turns in the tale. The storyline is not a typical bugs from outer space sent to extinguish the human race and take over the planet kind of plot, which would have been disappointing. The story has much more substance and intrigue, and I am looking forward to seeing what direction the author takes this in its sequel.
There are some minor editing and formatting issues towards the latter end of the book, but generally they don’t distract from the story and can easily be corrected by the author.
Overall I award Infested a solid 4 stars.
