Pest is a fun, short and offbeat YA novel. 

I picked up Pest at the library when I went to get a new library card. I like to look around for books from indie publishers that don’t get the press that books from the Big Five do. This one caught my eye. Love the cover. When I read on the cover copy that the protagonist lives in Santa Barbara, CA and is desperate to make her exit, I wanted to find out why. I went to college in Santa Barbara and my roommates and I were all aching to live there permanently. But none of us had the money for such a pricey area, so off we went after graduation. (“This was Santa Barbara, after all, a town where every parking lot looked like a Range Rover rally.”) What would make a teen want to flee from one of the country’s most beloved destinations?

Hallie (Hal) doesn’t have the stereotypical Santa Barbara life. Her divorced parents are opposites. Her woo-woo mom owns a pond cleaning service and her libertarian dad owns a pest control business. Hal works part time at the pest control, exterminating a variety of bugs as well as vermin. For this, she is known as ‘bug girl’ at school. She also does periodic shifts at a golf course. Her working class life continually brings her in contact with the wealthy of Santa Barbara and the uber-wealthy of Montecito. For teens who are unfamiliar with Montecito, that’s where Oprah and the Sussexs (Prince Harry and Meghan Markle) live. Hal’s evaluation: “Rich Montecito weirdos made all other rich weirdos look like amateurs.”

Hal’s parents are at odds in a childish way. While they compete for time with her, neither actually does much of anything she likes. They mostly want her to listen to their drama and do work. Hal’s plan upon graduation is to attend a prestigious college in the east, putting a continent between her and her parents. Her tight work schedule is necessary if she is to achieve this. Even so, it’s not enough. She’s also depending on the Verhaag Scholarship.

Unfortunately, the Verhaag Scholarship always goes to a Verhaag family member if one happens to be graduating from Santa Barbara High School that year. In Hal’s senior year, a Verhaag family member transfers into SBHS, and Hal needs to quickly find some extracurricular activities to boost her college applications in case the scholarship falls through—though through a funny loophole, it seems she still has a chance. 

Some pretty crazy antics ensue as Hal ends up trying to solve a mystery in order to belong to the yearbook staff and ends up landing herself in crime scene. She also gets unexpected help in her college quest from her rich, hot neighbor whom she had always thought of as a self-centered jerk. 

“Basically I’m surrounded by Spencer Salazar. My house occupies one of the tiny parcels of land along the street that the fifties-ear developers of our seaside neighborhood carved out of the deep, oceanfront lots. Spencer’s dad purchased the houses on both sides of mine and demolished them, building a garage to the left and a swimming pool and cabana to the right. (My dad declined to sell, so the Salazars’ pétanque court remains an unrealized dream.) Behind all of this, their house stretches along 150 feet of cliff-top ocean frontage, offering the Salazar an unobstructed view of the Pacific and the Channel Islands beyond. I, on the other hand, have an unobstructed view of the six-foot wall that separates my yard from Spencer’s.”

There’s a bit of romance here, but whether the reader will enjoy the final act of the novel depends on how quirky they like their endings. It’s pretty wacky and some fun for those who are looking for the not-so-typical novel.