I enjoyed it. It's typically what I'd go for, but it was a slower paced one than I'm used to. I feel it took a little long to get to the point, but other than that, an alright book I'd recommend.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Quirk Books for providing me with an advance e-galley of this book in exchange for an honest review. Look for it now in your local and online bookstores and libraries.

I hadn't realized before I read this book that it was Ben H. Winter's 'Bedbugs' republished under a different name—not that it took anything away from the reading experience, it's just that I've had Bedbugs sitting on my shelf unread for YEARS, so I'm glad I finally got to it.

Disclaimer: Do not read this book while lying in your bed. Or your couch. Or any porous surface of any kind. better yet, reading it standing up. In the middle of a parking lot, preferably. The Bonus Room was a nightmare of a book, in the best sense. It was the kind of deliberately and indulgently slow narrative that aims to drive both the characters and the reader mad—and mad I was driven. I don't think I'll ever forget the slow unravelling that Winters subjected us to as we're left to wonder if the narrator is truly the unreliable type (which I enjoy), or the type that is truthful to a fault but is ignored due to their position in the world, or their own home (which I also enjoy). Susan was the perfect character to appoint the story's main dilemma with. She was content, but just barely so, and thus perfectly prone to the specific horrors that were occurring (or not occurring), because why not? What's one more problem?

I originally rated this book a 3, because I may not have been in the right mind to read a slow-burn narrative, and there were dialogue and writing-device choices that weren't my favourite (also, some slight racism that didn't seem intentional and thus made me question the author a bit???), but after reading it exactly 2 months ago now, I still haven't been able to get it out of my head—and that means something, right? Sometimes you just need to stew in it a little.

What a creepy crawly read! This short novel had me hooked the whole way through, and kept its pace throughout the whole story. I couldn't put it down, I needed to keep reading to figure out what would happen and who I could even trust. I really enjoyed it and would gladly keep an eye out for more by this author.

Thank you Netgalley, Ben Winters, and Quirk Books for an ARC of this read in exchange for my honest review.

The Bonus Room by Ben H. Winters was intriguing. This was my first Winters novel but won't be my last. I planned to listen to one chapter to get the feel for the book and the narrator but couldn't put it down and read the entire book in one sitting. I loved the sequencing and plot points as well as the characterizations (I'm a sucker for a descent into madness). The audiobook was clear and crisp and the narrator was fantastic.

I received a review copy of this book from the author/publisher through NetGalley for my honest review. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

I enjoyed this book. I think the storyline is creative and unique.It had creepy moments and is written well. Special Thank You to Ben H. Winters, Quirk Books, and NetGalley for allowing me to read a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars? I still haven't learned my lesson-- some authors reacted to 2020-2022 by writing horror, and I gotta quit requesting books without reading the description. I saw the author name and hit that request button without needing (or thinking I needed) any other info. Not what I was expecting, based on the author's previous series!-- starting with [book:The Last Policeman|13330370].

This is a bit weird, and I'm sure there's an audience for it, but maybe I'm not it. I also started this and read a bit, then read [book:The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories|99300] before coming back and finishing this. They are creepy in similar ways for sure.

The primary driver of the story is that off-balanced feeling the character and the reader share, seeing things no one else sees and not being believed by her family, the exterminator, or the doctor. I feel like this quite often, along with probably lots of people (mostly female) with diagnosed or undiagnosed chronic conditions. I can't imagine a scenario in which I myself would want to experience that feeling even more, but perhaps the ending, in which everyone is forced to admit the MC was right all along, could be cathartic for some readers.

This is paranoid horror at its finest! With a classic feel to it (think Rosemary’s Baby and Amityville Horror), this story is sure to give any reader the total creeps. I carried my tablet around with me all day long just to keep reading every chance I got.

Go in blind if you can; it’s way more shocking and cringe inducing if you don’t know what’s coming.

Instagram review/link to come .

Susan Wendt, her husband Alex, and their toddler daughter have been cramped in their one-bedroom apartment for far too long. Susan is keen to move into a bigger place. However, money has been tight ever since they agreed Susan would quit working to focus on her art. When she finds an ad on Craigslist for a two-bedroom for rent in Brooklyn for under $4,000 per month, it seems too good to be true. Thinking it’s probably a scam, they check it out anyway and fall in love. The spacious apartment is perfect for their family. There’s even a bonus room that Susan can use as a studio for her painting. The elderly landlady Andrea is a bit eccentric, but they take to her as quickly as she does to them.

Everything seems perfect as they move into their new home. But Susan knows it’s not. She believes Alex resents her for quitting her career and putting such a huge strain on him. He assures her that he’s supportive of her and shows it with his actions, but she doesn’t believe him. After all, a supportive husband wouldn’t sneak around with the nanny behind her back like she’s convinced he’s doing. He may not admit there’s anything wrong in their marriage, but she knows there is.

The same is true with their new home. Susan starts to notice things wrong with the apartment, like the uneven floorboard on the landing, a pinging sound whose source she can’t locate, and the rancid smell of cat piss in her precious bonus room. Then, there are the bedbugs. The apartment is infested even if nobody else, not even an exterminator, can see them. There are bites on her body to prove it. But when her sanity comes into question, she knows she has to take care of everything herself with her husband, the nanny, and especially the bedbugs.

Ominous, unsettling, and yet mesmeric, The Bonus Room by Ben H. Winters is many things all at once. It’s a dark psychological thriller with mentally stressed characters to mess with your mind. It’s a horror story that makes your skin crawl. And it’s a suspense novel that fills you with so much anxiety, your buttocks clench the seat beneath you as you read.

Reminiscent of Hitchcock, the story is written using a linear narrative style — or in chronological order — meaning there isn’t a dual timeline or flashbacks. It makes the book easy to read, but it’s also what makes your skin crawl. The tension increases as the story is told, as does your sense of fear and unease. While it’s the thought of bedbugs that make you itch, but it’s the narrative style used by the author that gives you such a strong, growing sense of the creeps. The Bonus Room is so shiver-inducing and masterfully written, it’s clear why Ben H. Winters has won so many awards. After this book, the makers of Calamine Lotion probably owe him a commission.

This was an anxiety producing read!! The dread and unease slowly escalated as I read further. At times I was reading while eating and was thoroughly grossed out. I mean, who isn’t grossed out by the thought of bedbugs? I knew this book was a re-release from 2011 previously titled Bedbugs, but I had never heard of it or the author before seeing it on NetGalley. It was quick and fast-paced, but really packed a horrifying punch. The relatability of the main characters and the real fear of blood-sucking bugs makes this even more terrifying when in the midst of reading it. I highly recommend! Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book made me itchy and grossed out in the best way possible.

Susan and Alex Wendt move into a new upstairs apartment with their daughter Emma. They have an elderly landlord and elderly maintenance man. Quiet enough, right? <b><i>Wrong</b></i>. Susan wakes up with bug bites and is convinced there are bedbugs. However, neither Alex nor Emma has a single bite. An exterminator cannot find any evidence of the bedbugs either. Susan is taken to the doctor and is told the problem is all in her head essentially. She knows she’s not crazy but the problem is convincing everyone else something is wrong.

It’s best to go into this book as blindly as possible. This was a unique take on a horror thriller book and was unlike anything I have read before. It was fast paced and had an easy-to-read writing style. It was originally published under the name Bedbugs. I think that title is more intriguing but maybe people were put off by it or something. Anyways, pick this one up if you want a unique thriller/horror read, would recommend!!!

Thank you Ben H. Winters, NetGalley, and Quirk Books for the ARC of this book.

WE LOVE A GOOD THRILLER/horror masterpeice!
I am so thankful to Ben H. Winters, Netgalley, and Quirk Books for granting me advanced digital access to this sick and twisted thriller that kept me intrigued from page one all the way to the end.

A unique thriller not for fans of critters! So much happened in this book I could not put it down. Seeing Susan unravel between the chapters was fascinating. The twist at the end was unexpected.

3.5 stars.

This book made me itchy.

Best to go in blind but just know, you will be second guessing the whole way through whether or not Susan is going mad or if they really have bedbugs. You will start to imagine teeny tiny creepy crawly insects pinging around the room, barely detectable. You will think they are crawling along your skin as you're turning the pages. By the end, you'll wonder if you might just have bedbugs too.

I quite enjoyed this book and the writing was fabulous. I flew through it in a couple days and was really enjoying the story until the last quarter when it felt like it went off the rails. All in all I liked it but it got a little too strange for me at the end .

I enjoyed the first 30% off the book. The rest of it was a little harder to get into. I still finished it and would recommend

When Lucy finds a two bedroom apartment in Brooklyn that’s way cheaper than her and husband Alex wanted to pay Alex thinks it is a scam but when they arrive and meet the kind landlady Andrea Lucy knows she desperately wants to live there. When they veiw the home and Andrea shows them the spare room Lucy feels she must have this house. She quit working to pursue her art a couple of years before but has yet to start painting and this room would be a perfect studio so she is over the moon when Alex says let’s just take it. The night before they move little three-year-old Emma has a nightmare about her grandpa melting and chasing her but this is nothing compared to the strangeness that starts happening when they move in to their dream home. This is a great book because you don’t know if they are really having a problem with bedbugs supernatural T‘s or Lucy is just losing her mind but it is so much fun reading the story to find out. I love a good haunted house story in something as horrible as bedbugs in a changing painting I mean what could be scarier than that and throw in your spouse not believing any of it only heightens the drama. This was such a great book and I could imagine it being a movie with a horrible picture that Lucy painted in a frenzy might I iPad this whole book was awesome I truly and thoroughly enjoyed it if you love a good out of the ordinary horror story then you definitely love The Bonus Room by Ben H Winters . I want to thank Net Galley and quirk books for my free Ark copy please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

I know that for many people (especially in cities), bedbugs are a practically existential horror. Let's imagine, now, an extra layer of dread and paranoia on top of one's baseline bedbug fear, and you can see what works in this book. It's piggybacking on whatever bedbug experience one brings to it -- the book seems to have originally been published as <i>Bedbugs</i> in 2011, in the wake of a bedbug outbreak in New York City the previous year, so I'm sure it would have really captured some people's imaginations at the time -- but hey, other horror books piggyback on people's fears of clowns, murderers, sharks, what have you. And there's some suitably creepy imagery here, which I found effective.

Unfortunately, while certain scenes work in isolation, the plot as a whole really falls apart especially at the end. The book tries to ride the line between "this is a real cosmic horror" and "this is the portrait of a mentally ill person falling apart" but when it finally breaks toward one of the two the surrounding details don't really make any sense (<spoiler>so there was some ghostly cat-pee smell in a room that we come to understand a woman was trapped in, not a cat? Why? How did a 70+ year old woman kill multiple people -- with a hammer, in several cases, in one blow -- and drag their bodies into dumpsters, and why is she doing these monsters' bidding? Why do the <i>badbugs</i> suddenly decide to become visible and tangible to other people?</spoiler>). It's a frustrating ending. One imagines a shorter, more open-ended (and frankly, less "happy-ending"-ish) version of this story that would be really great.

The Bonus Room by Ben H. Winters. Thanks to @quirkbooks and @netgalley for the gifted Arc ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Susan and Alex have found the perfect affordable Brooklyn home for them and their daughter. After moving in Susan wakes every morning with bug bites, but only Susan. No one can find any bugs and Susan thinks she’s going crazy. Until she finds a discovery in the apartments bonus room.

This is a perfect fast paced and quick read for horror fans. It’s intense, but not long winded or complicated. It would be a good starter book for those wanting to get into horror. If you have a sensitivity to bugs, do not read this book. I’m very serious. Parts bothered me and I have a regular mild annoyance to bugs. No matter what, you are going to feel them creeping on you while reading this one.

“The bedbugs were more than bedbugs, they weren’t going anywhere, and they could not be escaped.”

The Bonus Room comes out 8/1.

That was just horrifying and disgusting and creepy and vile and chilling. I did not like bugs before and I like them even less now. Blechhh!!! I think I need a thousand showers and a bleach bath. That's all to say, this was really well done and did what I imagine the author intended.