Bedbugs

Sep 11, 2012 karen rated it 3 of 5 stars

every book starts out as a four-star book for me. i am hopeful, but realistic. and then as i read, the book will either gain a star, or lose one (or more). this one maintained its four-star rating until the very end, when an epilogue i thought was a wishy-washy letdown ruined it for everyone .too brief, too neat, too facile, and it made every flaw of the book that i had let fly before that point more prominent in my mind. we call this bel canto syndrome.

before that ill-considered ending, this bo...more

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Sep 17, 2011 Sheena at Hot Eats and Cool Reads rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads, fiction, paranormal-horror-thriller

I have a huge bedbug paranoia, no joke. So glad this book didn't give me the major creepy crawlies like I thought it would.

I won a copy of this book through First Reads from the publisher, Quirk Publishing. Finding out they also published one of my favorite books Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, I was very excited to read this one.

This book was a fairly quick read for me and I enjoyed it, but I felt it needed more action and more of a climax. The ending was definitely different and...more

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Oct 10, 2011 Trudi rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: horror, 2011-reads, october-country, love-the-premise, judge-a-book-by-its-cover, woman-in-peril, epic-creep

I love, love, love, the slow, subtle creep of this one. Bugs of any sort represent the ultimate squick factor for me, and an entire story dedicated to a bedbug infestation was almost more than I could stand. I'm still scratching and feeling paranoid. I definitely won't be looking too closely at my pillowcases tonight for fear of actually seeing something I just don't need to see: ignorance is bliss on this account. The less I know the better.

In its setup and slow build, the book reminded me a l...more

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Jan 31, 2012 Kaylie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: finished-irp-books

Bedbugs is about when the Wendt family rents an apartment at an very low price in a neighborhood in Brooklyn. The family rent it from an old widow named Andrea Scharfstein, who lives just below on the ground floor. Susan, Alex and their young daughter, Emma, are the perfect family to move in as soon as possible. Basically when Susan first sees it, she falls in love with the apartment. Susan wants to try and “revive” her passion for painting that she had to put aside whenever her daughter Emma w...more

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May 08, 2013 Craig DiLouie rated it 4 of 5 stars

When Susan and Alex Wendt find their dream apartment in New York, they couldn’t be happier–until Susan finds a bedbug. Soon, every morning she wakes up with bites, and it’s driving her mad. Only the rest of her family can’t see them, and the exterminator found nothing. Is she going insane? Soon, a more sinister explanation presents itself. This is the plot of BEDBUGS by Ben H. Winters, a horror novel by Ben H. Winters.

The first half of the novel was a bit slow, in my opinion, even after the bed...more

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Jan 23, 2013 Greta is Erikasbuddy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: No gore but love to be scared

Recommended to Greta is Erikasbuddy by: Sunny

Audiobook read during:
2 Turtle Walks
4 mile walk to library
2 housecleanings
1 halfway knitted hat

Susan, a 34 year old aspiring artist, has decided to quit her job at the law firm in order to pursue her dream. Her husband, Alex, is all for her staying at home and trying it out.

Wait... really? THat's cool with him? They live in NY and that's cool?!! Man!! What a husband!!

And get this... they have a 3 year old with a NANNY and it's cool beans to have Susan stop working and keep the babysitter too? Y...more

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Dec 03, 2012 Franci Franci rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Una lettura che mi ha incollato al letto e successivamente alla poltrona in meno di due giorni e che vi consiglio di non leggere prima di andare a dormire se ci tenete a prender sonno.
I personaggi di questa storia all'inizio non si sono conquistati la mia simpatia: Susan così ansiosa,che deve tenere tutto sotto controllo,Alex che è un uomo di quelli che in casa non muove un dito (tv e lavoro),Andrea,la padrona di casa,la babysitter che trovo insopportabile,perchè sembra che prenda per i fondelli...more

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Sep 19, 2012 Melissa rated it 2 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Sep 08, 2012 Tabitha Bower rated it 5 of 5 stars

Bedbugs is a horror novel narrated by an insomniac, unemployed mother who has anxiety problems.
Told through Susan Wendt’s impressions, the reader is never sure what is truth and what is imagined by this woman who is so influenced by media and her own insecurities. The novel blurs the line between reality and imagination at every turn – it is not until the very last chapter that the reader learns the true story and knows who to believe.

The story begins with Susan Wendt searching for the perfect...more Bedbugs is a horror novel narrated by an insomniac, unemployed mother who has anxiety problems.
Told through Susan Wendt’s impressions, the reader is never sure what is truth and what is imagined by this woman who is so influenced by media and her own insecurities. The novel blurs the line between reality and imagination at every turn – it is not until the very last chapter that the reader learns the true story and knows who to believe.

The story begins with Susan Wendt searching for the perfect place for her family to live. Susan has recently quit her job at a law firm to pursue her painting. Her husband Alex makes decent money photographing jewelry and watches for a commercial company. Their daughter Emma is a well-adjusted child who is watched by a young nanny in the mornings and early afternoon. After months of searching, Susan has found a place that sounds too good to be true – it is a charming, two-story home in Brooklyn with a bonus room in which Susan can paint. The house is everything they have been looking for and they can afford it; they fall in love with it on sight. Susan even loves their landlord, an eccentric old woman named Andrea Scharfstein. Susan and Alex decide to move in.

During the first night in the house, the reader learns that Susan is not as care-free and happy as she lets on. After her husband and daughter are fast asleep, Susan continues to unpack because she has terrible insomnia. She is sure that her husband resents her for not working and staying home to paint while he is stuck in a lousy job instead of taking artistic photographs, she chastises herself for not being able to paint and for wasting money on a nanny when she doesn’t work, she thinks about her mother’s untimely death…all these self-deprecating thoughts make her unable to sleep. That first night she is sure she sees a man standing outside her daughter’s window.

Then things start to go very wrong with the house and her marriage. Alex is stressed about work and Susan blames herself; she starts having horrible nightmares filled with blood and gore. Susan begins to notice little problems with the house – there are cracks, loose outlet covers, uneven floorboards, and most bizarre of all – a faint pinging noise with no discernible source. When Susan finally steps into the bonus room to paint, there is a horrendous smell and a strange photograph with a bloody fingerprint. Andrea tells her the story of the couple who lived there before them, but something doesn’t seem right to Susan. One day, Susan meets Louis – the elderly handyman and friend of Andrea’s – and learns that there was a tragedy in the basement and a subsequent darkening of the houses’ atmosphere. But all of this is just the beginning of Susan’s terror-filled journey…how much is reality and how much is a product of her anxious brain? Is she losing it or is there a menace in her home?

Bedbugs is an intense and suspenseful narrative told from the perspective of a likable woman with glaring psychological issues. From the very beginning, the reader connects with Susan and feels like he truly knows her. He wants to trust her and believe her reality, but at the same time, his objectivity is constantly questioning her perceptions. This novel does a fantastic job of keeping the reader guessing - any time another clue is revealed it only adds to his confusion. This story is a real page-turner – the reader will be hooked until the very last page!
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Aug 11, 2012 Sean McGovern rated it 2 of 5 stars

There's a great episode of CBS Radio Mystery Theater (circa 1970) called "The Real Printer's Devil" - where a married couple (plus one child) rent a "too good to be true" apartment turns out to be just that, with one of those dark endings that doesn't feel tacked on, and leaves you feeling equally sad and invigorated.

Now I told you that to tell you this: Internet Bookstore 002 suggested Ben H. Winter's "Bedbug" to be based on a review I wrote of Joe Hill's "Heart Shaped Box" - and when I read th...more There's a great episode of CBS Radio Mystery Theater (circa 1970) called "The Real Printer's Devil" - where a married couple (plus one child) rent a "too good to be true" apartment turns out to be just that, with one of those dark endings that doesn't feel tacked on, and leaves you feeling equally sad and invigorated.

Now I told you that to tell you this: Internet Bookstore 002 suggested Ben H. Winter's "Bedbug" to be based on a review I wrote of Joe Hill's "Heart Shaped Box" - and when I read the blurb, I could see why. Both "HSB" and "Bedbugs" both have plots that sound laughable - in the case of "Bedbugs," in an insect invasion with a "Yellow Wallpaper" or "Turn of the Screw" type twist - only the protagonist *knows* that the weird happenings are really happening. And like all the great "beautiful, happy people lose their shit" type horror, all of the elements are in play: Slightly strained marriage,cute kid, and a "too good to be true" element that has just been introduced that can only make their lives better.

As Susan (protg.) and Alex (dorky-yet-vaguely threatening husband) move into their net brownstone apartment in Brooklyn Heights, Susan begins to get attacked by the following - general anxiety, fears that her husband is being unfaithful, the smell of urine, fears that her life is a lie, and the title monsters that only she can see/feel so let's add mental state to the list and be done.

Ok. That's pretty much it - because none of these things (save the last one, of course) go anywhere. There's no growing sense of paranoia or even just the mounting dread that the whole world may be arrayed against Susan - the distant tone of the writing has the effect of making you think that everyone is just "annoyed" - which ended up having the same effect of me. I knew the terror should be mounting, I kept thinking "I should be scared. I should be freaked out." But Susan only really takes action against the bedbugs - everything else is just "Oh, my husband might be cheating on me and it's causing me to have psychotic episodes, dum-de-dum" - she doesn't investigate ANYTHING that is supposed to be making her weaker, more frayed at the edges, more open to the "thrilling" climax of the book.

That smell of urine, the first major "something is very wrong here" moment? Never mentioned again.

Her husband's possible trysting with the nanny? Susan only worries about it when she interacts with the nanny.

Oh, sure, she can whine about how she feels like her life is going nowhere - but she does nothing to correct its course, nothing to make you root for her. She's already a corpse, just one that's walking around. I couldn't even get the thrill of rooting for the bedbugs after -------------'s Bond Villain Speech, because I had guessed the who, the why and the how after reading 50 pages and the back blurb. And there was nothing to make me forget my "Huh-it's X" guess through out, no grip, nothing.

Honestly, go to the iTunes podcast page and give a listen to "The Real Printer's Devil" - at least it's enjoyable cheese.(less)

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Feb 29, 2012 McGuffy Morris rated it 5 of 5 stars

Susan and Alex are your typical New York couple. Young, married with one child, they are trying to make ends meet. Alex is working hard in his photography business, while Susan has put aside a law career to work on an art career. Hiring a nanny to accomplish this goal, finances are tight.

When Susan finds the perfect apartment just within their budget, they decide to check it out. When she finds the “bonus room”, she knows this is the perfect place for her to make an art studio. The apartment is...more

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Feb 03, 2012 Rhiannon Ryder rated it 4 of 5 stars

Few words could spark such complete terror in the hearts of City Dwellers than BEDBUGS. I swear to god, I definitely fear them more than rats or zombies, and I was pretty damn worried about rats when I first moved to Toronto. I mean come on, there are very few nice things said about mega cities by dwellers of smallish cities, and RATS were one of the things I heard far too much about before moving here from fellow Saskatoonians. (I will never ever forget the first time someone told me some huge...more Few words could spark such complete terror in the hearts of City Dwellers than BEDBUGS. I swear to god, I definitely fear them more than rats or zombies, and I was pretty damn worried about rats when I first moved to Toronto. I mean come on, there are very few nice things said about mega cities by dwellers of smallish cities, and RATS were one of the things I heard far too much about before moving here from fellow Saskatoonians. (I will never ever forget the first time someone told me some huge honking rat could squeeze through a hole the size of a quarter!!! A quarter people!! Have you seen the size of some of the dead rats in Toronto??? ugh).

So when I stumbled upon this book at Quirk Press' booth at the BEA I was a bit too icked out to even pick it up. I mean I was in New York, staying in a hotel, it just seemed like bad karma to pick up a book with that cover and that title. However, the hubby did not share my horror and picked me up a copy and got it signed. There was much knocking on wood and throwing salt over my shoulder for the rest of our week in the big apple.

From Amazon:
FOR RENT: Top two floors of beautifully renovated brownstone, 1300 sq. ft., 2BR 2BA, eat-in kitchen, one block to parks and playgrounds. No broker’s fee.

Susan and Alex Wendt have found their dream apartment.

Sure, the landlady is a little eccentric. And the elderly handyman drops some cryptic remarks about the basement. But the rent is so low, it’s too good to pass up.

Big mistake. Susan soon discovers that her new home is crawling with bedbugs . . . or is it? She awakens every morning with fresh bites, but neither Alex nor their daughter Emma has a single welt. An exterminator searches the property and turns up nothing. The landlady insists her building is clean. Susan fears she’s going mad—until a more sinister explanation presents itself: she may literally be confronting the bedbug problem from Hell.
I won't lie, this might actually be the creepiest book I've read ever. Seriously. Which is insanely humorous because it was written by the amusing fellow who entertained me ever so much with Sense and Sensibility with Sea Monsters. I know, right?! I think I may have simultaneously gone from totally anxious, to fear of being overly anxious, to paranoia of bed bugs, to intense paranoia of all landlords and possibly husbands in the 256 pages of this book.

I loved, loved, loved the way the horror snuck up on you in this book. For the first little while I was just shaking my head over Susan. She was sooo worried about everything, so anxious and paranoid, I just wanted to hand her a bottle of wine and tell her to kick back and chill out a little. But in no time Winters had creeped me out enough, in tiny little increments, I was starting to feel like Susan and I were both going to need a good bottle of tequila, screw the wine. And the stigma over just the possibility you have bedbugs! Fabulous. I don't doubt for a minute that in the Big Apple people have been snubbed play dates over rumors of bedbugs. Give Toronto a couple more years of bedbug turmoil and I guarantee there will be snubbed play dates.

The sign of a truly creepy book is when you're somewhere all by yourself, and it's quiet, and usually dark, and suddenly some god awful creepy image comes into your head, from whatever book you read it in, even if it was three books back in the reading history, and all you want to do is run and hide under the blankets. Well lets just say I should not have read this prior to staying home alone for four days. Even though I was on a reading binge, and read four other books during those four days I absolutely could not stop thinking about the landlord and the bedbugs and all the lovey ickiness of the story.

This story was so creepy I'm insisting the hubby, a great lover of horror, read it. Although few books live up to his standards I have a feeling this one will.
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Jan 30, 2012 Michelle R. rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror

(Review originally published at Red Adept Reviews.)

Overall: 4 1/4 stars

Plot/Storyline: 4 1/4 stars

I genuinely liked it, but Bedbugs is definitely a slow burn, er, itch. There are no really big scary moments to be had, at least not for the vast majority of the book, and Mr. Winters took his time in ratcheting up the psychological tensions as opposed to the showy terror.

What we have is the story of a woman who, like most people, has reasonable fears and flickering moments of paranoia. As the book...more

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Nov 13, 2011 Theresa rated it 3 of 5 stars

I definitely felt itchy while reading this book. And, even now, I'm a little uncomfortable.

The first great thing about this book were the little bedbugs printed on a few of the pages near the binding. That was creepy and made me start looking around for more...real ones.

The second great thing was how this book totally fed into my paranoia of bedbugs and I felt helpless as I watched the characters deal with the happenings here.

But, I didn't care for the main character at all. She really bugged fo...more

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Oct 28, 2011 Laura added it

Susan and Alex are a couple of typical Manhattanites, living with a small child, who decide that their current apartment is a bit small, and decide to move to Brooklyn. They think they have found the perfect place: charming neighborhood, low rent, quirky landlady. But quickly (seriously quickly, I think the whole book takes place over like a week) things start getting creepy. They might have bedbugs... or worse.

I don't really want to say a lot about this one, because I don't want to give anythin...more

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Oct 18, 2011 Juushika rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: status-borrowed, genre-horror

Susan and her family feel blessed to find the perfect home within their budget, but something isn't right: the previous tenants left too quickly, there's problems with the house, and Susan begins to suspect they have a bedbug infestationor worse. Bedbugs is ridiculous B-grade horror for better and worse. Its premise has potential, and Winters initially achieves a creeping, crawling, albeit transparent atmosphere of dread. It's not art but it is entertainment, consumable and thoughtless, scratch...more

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Oct 15, 2011 Jennifer rated it 5 of 5 stars

As Susan searches for the perfect apartment, she stumbles onto the find of a lifetime.

Little does she know, the perfect apartment can be a renter’s night-mare.

Winters’ Bedbugs is the most insane paranormal thriller I’ve come across. The intensity of Susan’s paranoia is gripping, yet exciting. She is two shakes from the nut house at times, but manages to straddle the line of sanity. I was literally on the edge of my seat, blindly scratching as the bug infestation went from one lone bug to hordes...more

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Oct 05, 2011 Carmen rated it 3 of 5 stars

This was another book that was not what I thought it was going to be. The mere title alone had visions of mutant killer bedbugs rampaging through my brain... maybe swarms and swarms of bedbugs crawling over people, swallowing them down to nothing, you know - scenes like the scarabs in The Mummy films. Full on monster bug attack - not sure why I thought that from the picture of a bed... but I did.

Mostly this was a good, old fashioned thriller - I personally wouldn't class it as horror. The two bo...more This was another book that was not what I thought it was going to be. The mere title alone had visions of mutant killer bedbugs rampaging through my brain... maybe swarms and swarms of bedbugs crawling over people, swallowing them down to nothing, you know - scenes like the scarabs in The Mummy films. Full on monster bug attack - not sure why I thought that from the picture of a bed... but I did.

Mostly this was a good, old fashioned thriller - I personally wouldn't class it as horror. The two books that kept popping into my mind as I read were The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde and The Magic Cottage by James Herbert. Two books, I hasten to add, that I love. I wont say any more than that for fear of spoilers but lots of similarities - I can see where the classic homage comes in. You are never quite sure if what you are reading is what is happening... is the apartment possessed or is Susan bonkers? Is there really an invasion of bedbugs but they only have a taste for her sweet meat? What's with the creepy landlady and why do people in the neighbourhood appear to be suicidal?

I didn't actually like Susan that much as a character so wasn't that bothered with her mental and physical downward spiral if I'm honest. She seemed a bit (very) selfish and prejudiced in all areas of her life, though she did seem to be realising this towards the end. I felt sorry for her hubby and daughter... the childminder and even the exterminator too. But I didn't feel sorry for Susan. She was more irritating than the bugs.

Overall I enjoyed this book, another I can very easily envision as a film. Though I wonder if there is enough money in the world to pay an actor for some of the scenes. It would be such a good film to sit behind someone, wait till it goes quiet and then flick paper pellets! Mwaha!

A good, fun thriller that keeps you wondering who is who and if what is what... I'm still not quite sure if what I think happened at the end actually happened. Though I did guess the villain of the piece quite early on. I read this really quickly over a few evenings, a real page turner but it will leave you itching for days. One word of warning: don't read the book in bed just before you turn off the lights. Do as I say - not as I did!

I'm still checking the ceiling corners and under my pillow each night.

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Sep 22, 2011 Emily rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: giant-crabs, horror

This is a bedbug:

It feeds on flesh for approximately 10 minutes while you sleep--both injecting you with a slight pain killer and a sedative (you won't feel a thing) and feeding off your flesh and soul and blood at the same time. Talk about multi-tasking. Then, the little bugger retreats somewheres like your underwear drawer, or your UGG shoebox, or your bathroom mat to DIGEST your FLESH before he/she comes back again to suck you dry. Newsflash: bedbugs also lay eggs (they look like mini larvae...more This is a bedbug:

It feeds on flesh for approximately 10 minutes while you sleep--both injecting you with a slight pain killer and a sedative (you won't feel a thing) and feeding off your flesh and soul and blood at the same time. Talk about multi-tasking. Then, the little bugger retreats somewheres like your underwear drawer, or your UGG shoebox, or your bathroom mat to DIGEST your FLESH before he/she comes back again to suck you dry. Newsflash: bedbugs also lay eggs (they look like mini larvae/maggots, and they also shed their skeletons (I'm mentioning this in case any of you live in NYC and are remotely paranoid about bedbugs and their criminal, cannibalistic behaviours). They are THE SHADOW BUGS!!! BE AFRAID!!

What can I say? Susan and Alex Wendt are so caught up in this notion of the American Dream (Plague?) that they leave a perfectly nice apartment to go to another, more outrageous apartment in Brooklyn. All seems well although the landlord is slightly weird (oooohhhh, foreshadowing). I don't know...the rest is okay, I guess. Susan starts to unravel as predicted, and the bugs come in and out of the story as if they were feeding on it like a HUMAN, and while the story goes slow and builds suspense, I found it to be somewhat boring, lacking in creativity, and heavily dosed in stereotypes. The idea itself I found intriguing; I love a good bug story and quirky landlords in older homes who make tea and other strange shit--and gotta love the paranoia (YES, YES, YES!!!?????)--Great stuff. But it left me feeling flat. Flat enough that I ordered a diet Pepsi and I NEVER, EVER DO THAT because as we all know SLUTS DRINK PEPSI.

I expected to be scared of bedbugs and geeked out and in need of a sedative before bed. And that's not going to happen; which is why I'm giving this book 2.5 stars. But don't listen to me. It has its merits. Like the bug trivia I mentioned at the beginning of this review. That was some rad trivia.

And if I do have trouble sleeping it's because when I was searching for pictures of "bedbugs" I came across this little guy:

Which reminds me. I have a Diet Pepsi waiting.(less)

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Sep 09, 2011 Nadia rated it 4 of 5 stars

Reading this book gave me the creeps. I felt like bedbugs were crawling all over me - YUCK!! So, it really was the perfect way to kick off Carl's, R.I.P. VI Challenge. There was a bit of the supernatural mixed in with some crazy people and tons of creepy crawly blood suckers swarming about to make you itch and gasp in surprise.

Bedbugs tells the story of the Wendts - Susan (wife), Alex (husband), and Emma (daughter) - a small family looking for a dream home in a better neighborhood. Susan wants...more Reading this book gave me the creeps. I felt like bedbugs were crawling all over me - YUCK!! So, it really was the perfect way to kick off Carl's, R.I.P. VI Challenge. There was a bit of the supernatural mixed in with some crazy people and tons of creepy crawly blood suckers swarming about to make you itch and gasp in surprise.

Bedbugs tells the story of the Wendts - Susan (wife), Alex (husband), and Emma (daughter) - a small family looking for a dream home in a better neighborhood. Susan wants space to set up an art studio where she can paint and Alex wants a kitchen big enough so that he can cook up gourmet meals for his family. All they want is a good school for their daughter and parks nearby where she can run and play. Oh, and a monthly rental payment that will still leave them with money to spare. Talk about pipe dreams, right? Especially considering that they live in NYC, where rent is anything but cheap.

Well, consider Alex, Susan, and Emma extremely lucky, because thanks to the internet, it looks like they have struck gold - a brownstone apartment in Brooklyn Heights for under $4000 a month ( aka DREAM HOME). After checking out the place and talking with the landlady, Alex and Susan decide to go for it and are soon faxing over a signed copy of the lease. The topic of bedbugs does come up, but only as an afterthought. Soon boxes are being moved and excitement fills the air.

Life for the Wendts appears to be good. They are adjusting to their new digs and the surrounding area nicely. Alex is working crazy hours, Susan has set up an art studio and Emma has made friends in the park - everything is moving along smoothly. Until a tiny speck of blood appears on Susan's pillowcase one morning. Bedbugs! The thought crosses her mind rather fleetingly, but she pushes it away and chalks up the stain to paint. However, strange things begin to happen that start to make Susan think that maybe her house isn't as bug-free as she had thought. As the story progresses, bites are discovered, exterminators are called, accusations are thrown and a family is torn apart. Oh, and some pretty creepy stuff begins to happen that makes you wonder if the house is haunted or if Susan is possessed and doesn't even know it. You even start to wonder about the old handyman who takes care of the property and the dotty old landlady, whose moods shift at the drop of a hat. Now, I'm not going to provide any more details, except to say that the ending will definitely leave you SURPRISED - and feeling itchy all over.

Bedbugs was a good, fun, and creepy read. The writing was solid, the storyline current and the characters were caricatures of people you probably know in real life (so they were interesting to read about) - overall a good book to have on a rainy fall day. You will not be disappointed! (less)

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Sep 06, 2011 Rebecca rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: from-publisher, for-review

Well, I know for a fact I will not be able to sleep with my pillow for at least a week! Shoot, I don’t even know if I can sleep in my bed tonight! The bedbugs might get me! And, let me just say right now, I have never been more thankful in my life to not have a landlord.

Bedbugs has a slow build through the first half. I was starting to wonder if the mother (Susan) wasn’t just going crazy. To me she had a pretty easy life: she sort-of worked from home, she has one three year old daughter, she has...more

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Aug 17, 2011 Sahina Bibi rated it 4 of 5 stars

Thanks to Quirk books firstly for sending me this book (: another awesome read, this time, I couldn’t help shivering at the creepiness this book emanated. So a word of warning should you read this book – Do. Not. Read. It. At. Night. No seriously, the saying “sleep tight, don’t let the bedbugs bite?” – too true in this case.

Analysis of plot:
We start the story off with our main character Susan and Alex who move for various reasons and come upon a cheap apartment for rent, and they snap it up as...more Thanks to Quirk books firstly for sending me this book (: another awesome read, this time, I couldn’t help shivering at the creepiness this book emanated. So a word of warning should you read this book – Do. Not. Read. It. At. Night. No seriously, the saying “sleep tight, don’t let the bedbugs bite?” – too true in this case.

Analysis of plot:
We start the story off with our main character Susan and Alex who move for various reasons and come upon a cheap apartment for rent, and they snap it up as Susan finds a bonus room to be perfect for her to start painting again. She feels like this is the room, and the house she wants. So after moving in, things start off at a dreary pace for the couple and child as they settle in, happy, meeting their eccentric landlord, and enjoying the new life they’ve built. As far as horror stories, this is pretty cliché right? Happy days, until terror strikes and while this book is no different in that style, it’s different in a refreshing way.

We find the pace picks up as the author Ben Winters introduces the idea that a series of bedbugs have been infesting in many houses in the area. That’s where, it seems the problems all start. One morning, our main character wakes up to find a small dot of blood on her pillowcase, and slowly comes to the conclusion that perhaps their apartment has come under attack from bedbugs.

After a series of events, Ben Winters turns the heat up as creepy events plague the house, one including Susan’s new painting of a couple, and one morning, being found with a series of bug bites all over the paintings face and Susan has no recollection of doing it herself. I can honestly say, Ben Winters has a talent for creepy-ing out events as the description of what happened to the painting has my skin crawling and thinking about it now, it’s doing the same. Such was Winter’s fluid writing throughout, as he set the pace and slowly, so slowly that you didn’t even realise it, he started to creep you out and plant seeds of doubt within your mind – which had me feeling like I had an itch somewhere on my arms. I loved his writing style as it was simple yet it got to you, and made you feel irked out. If you thought that a horror novel including the main villain being bedbugs couldn’t creep you out – you will be proved wrong after reading this.

The book ended .. well I won’t let you in on that secret, let’s just say along with a knack for scaring his readers, Ben Winters also had more than a few secrets up his sleeve which were revealed in the ending to this creeptastic book.

Analysis of characters:
While there weren’t many characters in the story, I found myself taking a liking to the laughable old Louis, the repairman for the apartment that our main characters lived in. An ageing man who smiled, who looked in on the landlady as she was old and fraying, yet with a talent to fix anything with determination. You can’t help but like his eagerness to fix whatever was bothering the tenants and this made me smile as in the end who tried to fix the biggest problem. Shan’t so no more without giving it all away, yet the other characters, such as Susan, her husband Alex and her daughter Emma were well rounded characters who you could easily connect to.

Overall:
I still stand by the fact that this was a creeptacular book. Do not sit in bed at night reading it or else you will find yourself at the mercy of paranoia. I don’t usually, if ever, get scared by a book, the sole exception being The Exorcists which had me reaching for my blankey. Yet this book will make your mind churn with the horrors within and definitely a book not to be taken lightly. Sleep tight people, and don’t let the beg bugs bite.
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Aug 02, 2011 Cindy rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is a great read. Especially if you are a fan of those books where a couple moves into a too good to be true home where the husband works and the wife stays home and unpacks and takes care of the kids and discovers strange happenings type books. Which I tend to love. But there is something for everyone in this novel especially readers who enjoy a well written thriller with a hint of horror.

The Wendts, Alex and Susan, find the perfect brownstone in Brooklyn from a Craigslist ad. It's owned b...more This is a great read. Especially if you are a fan of those books where a couple moves into a too good to be true home where the husband works and the wife stays home and unpacks and takes care of the kids and discovers strange happenings type books. Which I tend to love. But there is something for everyone in this novel especially readers who enjoy a well written thriller with a hint of horror.

The Wendts, Alex and Susan, find the perfect brownstone in Brooklyn from a Craigslist ad. It's owned by a somewhat charming elderly landlady named Andrea who takes a liking to them. The couple decide to move into the home where their toddler Emma will finally have a room of her own. Alex is a photographer who owns a business, and his wife, Susan is an artist. She plans on painting in the small well-lit bonus room. Things are exceptionally great at first. They have a sitter who watches Emma during the day and Susan runs errands and fixes up the place while Alex works and helps out the best he can at home and the family enjoys the idyllic location which is close to shopping and historical New York landmarks.

There is also talk of bedbugs. People seem to dread the unwanted insects and they are a horror to get out of the house. Rumor has it that hotels have closed for fumigation and people have moved to rid themselves of the pests. Extermination can work, but sometimes, the bedbugs come back. Susan learns more about the dreaded infestations on the internet when she suspects that she has been bitten. She believes the culprit is a bedbug.

A recommended exterminator gives the place a clean bill of health, but it doesn't help Susan's fears. She becomes consumed with the thought of bugs, and she starts to have horrible dreams. Also mysterious is the couple who used to own the apartment who left without paying their last months rent. Susan finds a mysterious picture of the couple stashed away in a window sil. The handyman, Louis, tells her about them.

This is a fun read. You'll probably stay up late, if you dare, into the night because you won't be able to put it down. It will be a great read when the chilly weather of Autumn rolls in. This book is smooth, polished, and very well done. It's a creepy escape that you're going to love. (less)

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May 27, 2011 Jill Keller rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: horror, contemporary, quirk-books

If you are the type of person who sometimes imagines spiders crawling up your arms, or who reads webmd and becomes convinced that you have blastomycosis, this subtle piece of horror will be keeping you up nights. The thing is, we're all that type of person, aren't we?

Winters' novel starts out with a happy(ish) young family ready to move to a bigger place. New Yorkers might think that's basis enough for a horror novel! Winters does a lovely job of creating characters who are likable and believab...more If you are the type of person who sometimes imagines spiders crawling up your arms, or who reads webmd and becomes convinced that you have blastomycosis, this subtle piece of horror will be keeping you up nights. The thing is, we're all that type of person, aren't we?

Winters' novel starts out with a happy(ish) young family ready to move to a bigger place. New Yorkers might think that's basis enough for a horror novel! Winters does a lovely job of creating characters who are likable and believable, and the first half of the novel moves along at a steady clip. The family (Susan, Alex and Emma) find a place that seems to good to be true and move in. Then they find out why it is too good to be true. Now, I should mention that I currently have a case of poison ivy, but it's really not so bad...or at least it wasn't, until the appearance of the bedbugs in this tale. I wish I could pinpoint exactly how Winters did it, but it was remarkably subtle. I was reading quite happily and suddenly my scalp was itching, my stomach, my arms, my feet. You would think they slipped itching powder inside the book!

I greatly enjoyed reading this. It was actually a bit of serendipity that I picked it up at Book Expo this week, because I only saw it as I was waiting in line for a different book. However, the book that I was waiting for has remained in Mt. To-Be-Read, and I finished Bedbugs in two days. What does that tell you?

This section contains SPOILERS:

My only complaint about the book is the inclusion of Anna Mara Lynch, the Medea-type character. I feel like her role in the story, though tangential to the main characters, should have been resolved in some fashion. In the end, I was left wondering why she was included. Her actions made for horrifying nightmares for Susan, but ultimately, I think her only purpose in the story was to make us fear for Emma's life. The story is pretty successful in not letting you know who the villains and victims are, but I felt like that piece of the book was manipulation rather than masterful writing.(less)

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May 19, 2012 Heather rated it 4 of 5 stars

I received a free ARC of this book just last week and I enjoyed it very much. Ben Winters hits a solid home-run with this creepy little novel. He writes a very believable female main-character and I found her relatable enough to keep on reading through a few parts of the story when things slowed down a touch.

The story revolves around a small group of people, primarily a young family and their landlady, and what happens to them after they move into a quirky apartment in an old house owned by a g...more

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Oct 19, 2011 Alexandra rated it 3 of 5 stars

I'm scratching all over.

Brilliant cover. The author's name is teeny tiny, the title is understated and the focus is the bright white of the pillow and sheets.
I really liked that there were no endorsements from other authors on either the front or the back of the book. Just a short blurb on the back to describe what the book is about, and a couple of sentences about Ben H. Winters. It made Bedbugs all the more mysterious. I am very wary of books that come out with tons and tons of praise from all...more

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Jan 19, 2012 Tea Time with Marce rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-on-kindle

From my blog

This had great buildup but a little to long and such a fast closing that it ended up weird, I thought, how odd and disappointing.

It did have a great creepy factor on the kindle version where it had bedbugs on each beginning page of Part 1, 2 and 3. I am sure many felt as if something was crawling on them while reading, that was a good touch. Enough detail to make you a little paranoid and unsure if Susan is paranoid, going crazy or really dealing with bedbugs.

I enjoyed the moving in...more

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Sep 18, 2011 Lrclark83 rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads, horror-stories

Caution: Reading this book in bed will make you itch! Susan and her husband Alex move into a brownstone apartment in Brooklyn thinking how lucky they are to have found such a great deal on an apartment. The landlady seems nice, if eccentric, and the apartment at first appears to be in great condition. Then Susan and Alex slowly begin to find flaws with the apartment and Susan wonders why the last tenants left. Fueled by the city-wide paranoia over bedbugs, Susan becomes convinced her apartment i...more

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Oct 04, 2011 Laura rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviewed

Susan and Alex Wendt are on the hunt for a new apartment, but living in the city and finding afforable housing is hard to overcome, so when they find a beautiful and extremely afforable brownstone in Brooklyn it seems too good to be true, but how could it be? With the sweet widowed landlord living downstairs, and the handman Larry, who is there at their wake and call for anything that goes aray.

So why then is Susan waking up with Bites, and seeing bedbugs attacking her, while nobody else in her...more

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Sep 05, 2011 Ryan G rated it 4 of 5 stars

Normally I love to read horror books once the weather starts to get a little chillier. There is something about having that nip in the air and the shorter days that makes me want to curl up on the couch, with as little light as possible, and delve into something that will scare the hell out of me. Sadly, due to time constraints, I had to read this one when it was over 100 degrees outside and not getting dark until after nine o'clock. For once, that didn't bother me, I was still able to forget ab...more Normally I love to read horror books once the weather starts to get a little chillier. There is something about having that nip in the air and the shorter days that makes me want to curl up on the couch, with as little light as possible, and delve into something that will scare the hell out of me. Sadly, due to time constraints, I had to read this one when it was over 100 degrees outside and not getting dark until after nine o'clock. For once, that didn't bother me, I was still able to forget about my surroundings and get so lost in the story, that I would be checking my pillows for any scurrying creatures before I would set my head down for bed.

I'm addicted to a lot of the horror novels written in the 60s and 70s, and this one has that retro vibe for me. Two of my favorites, Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin and The Sentinel by Jeffrey Konvitz, even start off the same way. Young couple/single woman moves into a new apartment and everything seems to being going right at first. Of course there are always subtle hints that not everything is as it should be. Eccentric neighbors always seem to be around, strange occurrences that only happens to one of them (normally the woman), and a miasma that seemed to hang in the air, slowly suffocating the inhabitants of the apartment.

This book had all of that and so much more going for it. The author had an almost supernatural ability to balance the home life of the Wendt's with the growing sense of apprehension. A lot of horror books I've read will sacrifice the characters for the story. Thankfully Bedbugs isn't one of them. A story that asks the reader to believe in something so personal as a malignant presence that attacks you in the bed, has to have characters that you not only believe, but care about it. As a reader, you have to be able to relate to them. Susan, Alex, and Emma are fully functional, 4D characters that were a treat to know.

The horror was built slowly, it worked it's way towards a simmer, and then boiled over in such a way that the sheer violence of the climax left me holding my breath and gasping for proverbial air. I was horrified, and thrilled by the conclusion even though I saw it coming a mile away. A good horror book doesn't have to throw out an ending that comes out of left field. A good horror novel will allow the reader to figure out the ending, but still horrify them in the end. It's needs to be believable no matter how outlandish the plot points. It's hard to write a credible story that will leave a reader altering their bedtime habits. Bedbugs not only pulls it off, but it pulls it off in such a way that you won't know what hit you until you are going to bed the night after and you are still checking for telltale signs of an infestation.(less)

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