This was a really good thriller that had me guessing quite a bit, which is my favorite kind. The main character finds a suicide note in the room she is renting and begins questioning who used to live in the spare room--except the home owners say she is the first renter. While I enjoyed this book, it had some issues and I always get a little annoyed when there are drawn out "dramas" that could have been avoided by people having conversations (although I do know that is part of the buildup). I would definitely read more by this author!

Thankyou to NetGalley, Bloodhound Books and the author, Dreda Say Mitchell, for the opportunity to read Spare Room in exchange for an honest and unbiased opinion.
A good, fast paced book with plenty of twists and turns. I liked it.
Worth a read.

I've had this book for years, I still haven't, unfortunately, got to it, so this is a placeholder review to reduce my shelf for my own sanity, but will replace this if I ever get to the book

This book has great pacing. It moves like a great mustang with a mane of fire. You will have no problem wanting to keep going to find out what craziness lay ahead.

I was never quite sure where we were exactly going and sometimes when I thought I had a clue something else would go down and I would doubt myself.

There are many many books in this genre and it’s hard to keep one from guessing but this was done in a delightful way that I flew through.

The ending was slightly underwhelming, not bad. I was just hoping for a more unexpected reveal. Something was unexpected it just did not come at the end. I also felt like the reasons for what the mother did to be a bit light and I wanted a more sisnister reason.

Great experience!!

I did like this book. For fans of a lot of twists, this book will be perfect. Without spoilers, I can’t say too much. Very interesting ideas and a different type of book for me. The main character has fears that she is a mental patient who can’t remember what happened before. The other characters are interesting yet very sinister. It takes quite a while to know hat actually happened to the main character earlier. There are a lot of red herrings. On the whole- it was well written and held my interest. Thank you NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book!

Brilliant plot, excellent main characters that you invest in. I read this book in one sitting and I would highly recommend it.

SPARE ROOM by Dreda Say Mitchell is a stand-alone dark psychological thriller that will suck you in right from the beginning. I had to keep on reading to figure out what was going on. I am so glad I read this book, because I had to know what happened! This was a winner!

Beautiful double room in wonderful large house in North London to let to single person.

“Lisa, a troubled young woman with a past, can’t believe her luck when she finds a beautiful room to rent in a large house. The live-in owners are a kind and welcoming couple. Everything is fine until she finds a suicide note hidden in her room. But when the couple insist this man didn’t exist and that Lisa is their first tenant, Lisa begins to doubt herself.”

Lisa is a troubled young woman who suffers from terrible nightmares, has physical body scars and the nightmares cause her to sleep walk, so she ties her leg to the bed post every night.

The live-in owners, Martha and Jack want Lisa to be very happy in their home. Lisa will be living in a place that’s not really her own. A place already occupied by the people who own it: two strangers!

Lisa is determined to uncover the truth…to undercover the secrets of the man who lived in the room before her. Then, disturbing incidents start to happen. Is someone trying to cover up the truth?

To reveal more, would disclose spoilers. Let’s just say things are not what they seem!

If you love psychological thrillers then I highly recommend this novel. You won’t regret it.

Many thanks to Bloodhound Books via NetGalley for my digital copy.

I’ve always found sleep walking to interesting and scary! Our main character suffers from sleep walking. It’s so bad that she ties herself to her bed every night! She has scars to prove how badly she has hurt herself in the past.

She is looking for a new place to live, she sees a local add for a spare room in the home of a normal married couple. But her room doesn’t seem so safe. She discovers what seems to be a suicide note... and that’s when things aroundjer new home start to get weird.

She starts to uncovers secrets.. and her sleep walking is getting much worse. She comes to a shocking discovery that she may not have found this spare room by chance. She is connected to it.

This was heart pounding! I can’t wait to see what the author has next.

A girl called Lisa can’t believe it when she rents a large house
Eventually she finds a suicide note and the renters don’t believe it because nobody has rent it before.
Lisa has to get a life for herself
I had an ARC from Blood hound

This is my first book my Dreda Say Mitchell and now I’m hooked! This was a dark twisted thriller that drew me in and had me wanting to know what the heck was going on!! Lisa is a troubled young woman who suffers from horrible nightmares that she believes are from her past she has physical scars to prove it. The nightmares cause her to sleep walk, she ties her leg to the bed post every night so she won’t hurt herself by sleepwalking. On the hunt for a new place to live she stumbles upon a spare room to rent in Martha and Jacks home. While unpacking her stuff she uncovers a suicide note from a mysterious man. After discovering the suicide note sinister things begin to happen, a dead cat mice under her bed hallucinations. After asking Martha and Jack they insist he doesn’t exist. Noticing some wall paper had peeled in her room she leans in closer and discovers writing on her wall that matches the suicide note she can’t decipher it so she asks her boyfriend to look into it. After he looks into they both agree something bad happened in the house. The more Lisa investigates the more she realizes her past has a connection to this house and what are Martha and Jack hiding and why do they keep asking her to just leave. Why does her parents avoid talking about her past and want her to get out of that house, to the point they involve trying to get permitted. The longer she stays at the house the more she starts losing what is real and what’s being imagined. Lisa was so well written she had so many layers to her. The narrative is a slow burn in the beginning and just takes off and grabs you. It was so hard to figure what was going on and what was fabricated and wanted to confuse you! I give this a wonderful rating of four stars! Definitely a suspense thriller and mystery!

"We project one thing to the world but inside there's hurt, there's pain, there's memories chasing us that will never go away."

Lisa Kendal has scars. And we're not just talking about the ones on the outside that everyone can see though she keeps her body completely covered. She's got some serious emotional and psych issues, a past "incident" that was likely a suicide attempt, and many questions about her past. When she can't get straight, honest answers from her parents (Edward and Barbara), she takes matters into her own hands and rents a room in a beautiful house in North London. Despite the near constant nightmares and the crazy rules that the home owners hold her to, she feels drawn to the place. When she finds a handwritten letter at the back of a bedside cabinet, the urge to find out more about its author intensifies leading to quite the roller coaster ride of a story! NO SPOILERS.

I read this in one sitting in a couple of hours because I had to find out all the secrets. I felt the synopsis was a bit misleading, but probably necessary to avoid giving away the real plot. In order to appreciate this crazy tale, you're probably going to have to use every ounce of effort to suspend disbelief and just go along with the spins and twists. A pet peeve of mine is when I am forced to read about a character's dreams, but I was able to gloss over the many times that Lisa's nightmares were related and get on with it. I can't say I liked any of the characters and found it pretty easy to figure out where it all was going, but it was a fun read and I'm sure the author had a blast writing this one.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bloodhound Books for the e-book ARC to read and review.

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This book wasn't at all what I had expected. It was one of those books that was a slow burn. At the beginning it was a bit slow, and then it gradually began to pick up pace wise. By 50% through I was completely enthralled, and couldn't put it down. Throughout I found myself making so many assumptions about what secrets, the house and the landlords were trying so desperately to keep from Lisa. As the story progressed I realized how far off all of those assumptions were.
This was very well written, and the charector and plot development was fantastic. The pace of the story was just right, and it continued to keep me in its grasp right up until the very end.
I highly recommend to anyone that is looking for an edge of their seat thriller.


I also added to a book Facebook group,Instagram, Litsy, and Goodreads.

This book had me hooked from the beginning and I couldn't put it down.  It wasn't action packed but malice and mystery was to be found on every page, making this an addictive read.  

The main protagonist, Lisa, was so well written.  Deeply troubled and disturbed, it's difficult to know whether her issues are down to a condition or suppressed memories.  She's written in a way that takes you along a manic and paranoid ride through the book alongside her.  The story becomes quite frenzied and this cleverly puts you in the same frame of mind as Lisa.  It's so hard to know what is truly going on and what is fabricated.  This adds to the chill of the story.  Martha and Jack are so cleverly developed too, mysterious and malevolent or innocent?

The narrative gathers pace quickly and not one part of the book was unnecessary or seemed to dragged on.  Within the first few chapters it draws you in but leaves you hanging until the very end.  I spent a lot of the time trying to mentally note every little possible clue from the book and attempting to tie it all together.  I did guess the twist to some extent but the ending was well written and shocking despite this. 

An excellent and well written psychological thriller - Highly recommended.

Lisa needs a place to live and decides to rent a Spare Room in Martha and Jack's. When sinister things start happening and she finds a suicide note in her room of a mysterious man, she wants to get to the bottom of it.

When I start reading this book I just kept thinking "why doesn't she just move out?" but then bam the story makes sense. There are some twisted things that have happened in Lisa's life that she needs to remember and come to terms with. Great read.

Lisa has searched and searched for a room to rent. She finally finds the one she has been looking for. However, she signs the lease in haste and is not aware of the "rules". Her landlords, Jack and Martha, are a bit strange. Martha, a decade or two older than Jack, has issues with appearance. Jack has issues with just about everything.

Spiraling downhill, Lisa meets her neighbor, Patsy, who just happens to be the "aunt" of Lisa's ex-boyfriend, Alex. They get along together, he helps her out. - yet they are not a couple at the time. You see, Lisa has an obsession with the past and bears scars to prove it. Although well-developed, Lisa comes off as a spoiled brat (in my opinion).

The book is quite good, yet the characters are almost all self-absorbed. A should read. for suspense and fun!

Many Thanks to Bloodhound Books and NetGalley for a good read!