The Infested
This title was previously available on NetGalley and is now archived.
Send NetGalley books directly to your Kindle or Kindle app
1
To read on a Kindle or Kindle app, please add kindle@netgalley.com as an approved email address to receive files in your Amazon account. Click here for step-by-step instructions.
2
Also find your Kindle email address within your Amazon account, and enter it here.
Pub Date Jun 23 2026 | Archive Date Jul 19 2026
Talking about this book? Use #TheInfested #NetGalley. More hashtag tips!
Description
The American frontier wasn't won...it was surrendered to the monsters.
In 1900, the Infested is a cursed wilderness where ghosts walk openly, monsters hunt the plains, and ancient evils refuse to stay buried. Most people flee its borders. Desdemona's family has survived there for generations.
Sheltered behind powerful wards, their homestead is a refuge for the few brave enough to cross the haunted frontier. But after her mother's death, her father's wagon train is late, and the arrival of a shadow creature unlike any they've faced before, twenty-one-year-old Desdemona must take command of a family already beginning to fracture.
Then the strangers arrive, beautiful, beguiling, and impossible to trust. As the darkness beyond the wards grows bolder her desire for life outside the wards becomes harder to resist, Desdemona must decide who to trust before her family's sanctuary is swallowed by the Infested.
This is the updated Author's Edition- it includes two new short stories and a creature/place index.
Content Note:
This novel and the attached short stories contain mature and potentially distressing themes, including eating disorders, anxiety, grief, death, murder, mild body horror, spiders, disease, animal death ( not a dog or cat), generational and family trauma, colonization, and body image issues.
This novel takes place in an alternate universe/history of the United States during the Pioneer times and is a new adult horror/paranormal/dark fantasy with queer characters.
Advance Praise
"I got to be a beta reader for this novel (what an honor!) and was greatly impressed. Pioneer days in the US.? Check. Paranormal family? Check. Even LGBTQIA+ characters? Check"
"This is terrifying, weird and creepy. I love the pioneer/wagon train aspect. That's my jam. It was good rewriting of history with supernatural elements."
"I absolutely loved this book! This book is a true gem in the world of horror fiction. Lake's storytelling skills are unmatched as she weaves a chilling and immersive narrative that will have you hooked from start to finish."
"An absolutely captivating story! This book was truly amazing!! I loved the characters and the plot. The surprise twists thrown in were shocking to say the least. Desi, Rowena, Ambrose, Marian and Helen were terrific characters! An excellent book for the spooky season!!!!"
Available Editions
| ISBN | 9798257434235 |
| PRICE | |
| PAGES | 265 |
Available on NetGalley
Available to Buy
Buy on Amazon Buy on BN.com Buy on Bookshop.orgAverage rating from 10 members
Featured Reviews
Librarian 1825380
Wonderfully creepy!! I don't really know how to explain this book, I have never read anything like it before, it was exciting, sorrowful and tense.
Emma F, Reviewer
The Infested by Renee Lake
🍵🍵🍵🍵 4 Cups
"Unexpected Biscuit Emergency"
* Needed a second pot.
* Stayed up later than intended.
* Strong urge to discuss characters with anyone available.
WOW! I knew this was going to be my jam from the blurb alone. I could feel it in my bones (just not infested ones!) Lake knows how to weave a story and build a world, answering your questions as everything begins to unfold around you with this creeping dread and delicious horror. The book was arranged into 3 stories of the same world from slightly different points in time. The initial story is told from two points of view: one on the homestead and one on the trail. Each viewpoint builds slowly towards the culmination of events. The creatures in the Infested are horrifying and, at times, oddly beautiful, with some outright terrifying and dangerous, and others seemingly a lot less so... until it's too late. Lake has a great way of building tension and drawing out that panic and distress, especially when focusing on the Caravan on the Trail parts of the story. The Infested was so bleak at times and beautiful in others, and you felt that in the writing; the unease and disquiet that settled in your bones on that journey, never quite knowing what might be lurking.
The other stories are much shorter, earlier points in history, looking at two separate sets of characters and their experience with The Infested, and I enjoyed those little vignettes as well.
I read this on my Kindle well into the wee hours (thankfully not waking my husband), hooked and determined to know what was going to happen next. I didn't want to put it down. Some of the characters perhaps lacked some emotional depth, but the events of the story itself were compelling enough for me that it wasn't problematic.
Perfect for readers who love:
• Horror/Supernatural
• YA
• Queer Romance
• Alternative History
Final verdict:
Great fun read with some fantastic unsettling moments of disquiet and bleak Lovecraftian-esque horror! Would absolutely recommend it to friends, family and others!
Thank you to Renee Lake & Victory Editing for the ARC.
Readers who liked this book also liked:
Yuzuru Kuki
Biographies & Memoirs, Children's Nonfiction, Comics, Graphic Novels, Manga
Kristine Rivers
Crafts & Hobbies, Outdoors & Nature
Ben Clanton; Katie Cook; Brittney Williams; Grace Ellis; Jordan Morris; Michael Northrop; Stephanie Cooke; Annie Nishida
Children's Fiction, Entertainment & Pop Culture, Parenting, Families, Relationships
Publishers Lunch
General Fiction (Adult), Nonfiction (Adult), Teens & YA
Julie Andrews, MS, RDN, CD, FAND
Cooking, Food & Wine, Health, Mind & Body
