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Bedbugs: A Novel of Infestation Paperback – September 6, 2011
| Ben H. Winters (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
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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.
- Print length256 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherQuirk Books
- Publication dateSeptember 6, 2011
- Dimensions5.26 x 0.7 x 8 inches
- ISBN-101594745234
- ISBN-13978-1594745232
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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
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.
Amazon Exclusive: Q&A with Ben H. Winters
Q: You tackled sea monsters in the New York Times best seller Sense & Sensibility & Sea Monsters. What made you turn to bedbugs?
Ben H. Winters: The monsters in Sea Monsters are very big and very over-the top: giant super-intelligent lobsters, an island that comes to life, that sort of thing. Silly, campy, fun. In BEDBUGS I challenged myself to create a different kind of monster: serious, dark and deadly, and drawn from reality.
Q: BEDBUGS is told from the perspective of Susan Wendt--a former lawyer turned artist and stay-at-home mom. As a man, was it difficult to write in a woman's voice?
BHW: It was hard, although I would argue that gender is a very small part of what makes us who we are. In other words, it was challenging to get inside Susan's head mainly because I'm not a lawyer, a painter, or a stay-at-home parent, not necessarily because I'm not a woman. The hardest thing was writing in the voice of any kind of person, man or woman, being driven slowly insane by malevolent supernatural bugs.
Q: It is obvious that you have done your homework on bedbugs. What was one of the most surprising facts that you learned about these nasty pests?
BHW: It's pretty horrifying once you start to grasp how long they can stay alive without a host, and also how rapidly and exponentially they reproduce.
But the nastiest fact is something called traumatic insemination. Seriously. Just look it up.
Q: In BEDBUGS, you make many references to Rosemary's Baby. What is it about Rosemary's Baby that inspired you?
BHW: Ira Levin was a master of turning the screw: he slowly, slowly ratchets up poor Rosemary's sense that something is not right about her home, her marriage, her baby. It's so effective because Levin keeps us in her point of view the entire time, so first of all we come to love her, but also we live with her suspicion and her fear and her terror. That seemed like exactly the right way to frame a novel about a peril as creepy and paranoia-inducing as bedbugs.
Q: Lou the handyman and Andrea the landlord are an odd pair of keepers of this idyllic brownstone--how do their characters drive the story forward?
BHW: Well, I'm just honoring my genre, you know. Slightly off-kilter, slightly menacing older people are a staple of slow-burn horror novels: when you've got weird old people in a weird old house, you just know there's something going on.
Q: BEDBUGS is both a mystery and psychological thriller--how do you get inside the head of readers to scare them?
BHW: My goal was to firmly ground the story in the realistic, day-to-day lives of the characters, stuff like grocery shopping at Trader Joe's, taking the kid to the playground, marital squabbles and make-up sex. With just occasional notes of what's to come: a smear of blood here, an unexpected noise there, an unnamed sense of melancholy and dread. Again, it's something you find in books like Rosemary's Baby, The Exorcist, even The Amityville Horror. There's this careful creation of a realistic, familiar world before the darkness begins to seep in.
Q: BEDBUGS is both a mystery and psychological thriller--how do you get inside the head of readers to scare them?
BHW: My goal was to firmly ground the story in the realistic, day-to-day lives of the characters, stuff like grocery shopping at Trader Joe's, taking the kid to the playground, marital squabbles and make-up sex. With just occasional notes of what's to come: a smear of blood here, an unexpected noise there, an unnamed sense of melancholy and dread. Again, it's something you find in books like Rosemary's Baby, The Exorcist, even The Amityville Horror. There's this careful creation of a realistic, familiar world before the darkness begins to seep in.
Q: In BEDBUGS, Brooklyn is a character in itself--why did you choose Brooklyn Heights as your setting?
BHW: I lived in that area for many years, around the corner from Brooklyn Heights in the neighborhood called Downtown Brooklyn. I find that whole section of the city to be so physically beautiful, and the energy to be so interesting. It's full of weirdos, hipsters, old people, young professionals, city workers, and people of literally every race and religion. And it's definitely a landing pad for couples like the Wendts: smart, ambitious young couples, balancing creative energy, ambition, and little kids.
Q: You're the author of an Edgar-nominated children's novel and a New York Times best-selling adult novel. Is there a difference in how you approach writing each genre?
BHW: Obviously, the differences are legion in terms of tone, vocabulary, and content. But there are nuts-and-bolts things you want to do right, no matter who the audience is: you want a solid structure, a careful building of tension, and interesting characters that a reader will care about.
Q: Bedbugs seem to be everywhere! Do you have any personal experiences with bedbugs that informed the novel?
BHW: No, thank God. I know nobody wants them, but after doing all the reading and video-clip watching I did for this book, I really don't want them. Once, when I was seven, I had lice. Here's hoping that's as close as I'll ever get.
Q: When Susan went to set up a play date for her daughter, a neighbor commented that she saw an exterminator at her brownstone and could not risk exposing her family to bedbugs. How have bedbugs made dwellers pariah amongst their neighbors?
BHW: There are all sorts of household pests--rats, roaches, termites, etc.--but there seems to be something about bedbugs that deeply disturbs people in a particularly unsettling way. As a society, we are just extra freaked out by these pernicious little bloodsuckers. So nobody wants to be the person who gave someone else bedbugs, and that leads to a lot of fear, secret shame, and paranoia. All of which, I felt, were rich themes for a novel of supernatural terror.
Q: What are you working on now? Can you share a little about that with us?
BHW: Oh, dear. Good question. I am currently hard at work on a mystery novel, and outlining a new and extremely silly novel for young readers. Also, my daughter is pressuring me pretty hard to write something about princesses, so we'll see where that goes.
Review
“The author of the monster mash-up hit Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters (2009) offers up a chilling tale of life in the perfect New York abode gone horribly wrong…Winters expertly builds suspense in this chilling thriller.”—Booklist
"Bedbugs infest the life of a young couple who move into a peculiar brownstone in Brooklyn in Ben H. Winter's diabolical tale of paranoia and domestic unrest.”—Vanity Fair Hot Type
“I would not recommend reading Bedbugs in bed; it’s that gripping—and grotesque. . . This creepy story is expertly told, and will having you scratching imaginary itches long after you finish reading.”—Penthouse
“After reading Bedbugs you might want to fumigate any apartment you rent. You also might want to call in an exorcist.”—McClatchy Newspapers
“The book is a lot of fun and a great fall read for when you’re bundled under a pile of blankets that may or may not be full of creepy-crawlies.”—DenofGeek.com
“All in all, Bedbugs is a solid read, a good thriller, and I guarantee you will have the creepy ‘I need to bleach my pillowcases in hot water’ crawlies for days after.”—DaemonBooks.com
“A rich blend of classic psychological suspense and horror. If Alfred Hitchcock were still with us, this is a book he would adapt to film.”—MonsterLibrarian.com
“Bedbugs is one disgusting, fascinating novel. Be warned, and put the exterminator’s number on speed-dial.”—Sacramento News & Review
“You’ll want to crawl under the covers while reading the super-spooky new novel Bedbugs, by Ben H. Winters—but you won’t, because it does for the bed what Psycho did for the shower!”—InStyle
“Bedbugs is a psychological thriller with Hitchcockian suspense.”—Los Angeles Times
“...the bloodcurdling Bedbugs manages to succeed in doing what rarely happens off the screen: Keep things spooky enough that it’s impossible to go to sleep without knowing how it ends. Even then, you may leave the lights on and sleep on the floor.”—NewCity.com
“Clean and taut with soul-baring inner monologues...Winters delivers prose that delicately piles on the novel's mounting intensity, using both light humor and doom...Bedbugs gets under our skin with the best of old-fashioned horror and newfangled gore.”—Creative Loafing’s Daily Loaf
About the Author
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Product details
- Publisher : Quirk Books (September 6, 2011)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 256 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1594745234
- ISBN-13 : 978-1594745232
- Item Weight : 8.3 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.26 x 0.7 x 8 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,582,434 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #4,154 in Ghost Thrillers
- #18,563 in Psychological Thrillers (Books)
- #27,836 in Contemporary Literature & Fiction
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Ben H. Winters is the author of Golden State (Jan, 2017), Underground Airlines (July, 2016) and The Last Policeman trilogy -- The Last Policeman (2012), Countdown City (2013), and World of Trouble (2014). Winters has been nominated three times for Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America and won once (for The Last Policeman); he has also won the Philip K. Dick Award for Distinguished Science Fiction (for Countdown City). He has been nominated for the Chautauqua Prize, the Macavity Award, the Anthony Award, and the Bank Street Award for Children's Books. Both Golden State and Underground Airlines were selected by the American Booksellers of America as "Indie Next" picks, and he has earned placement on numerous "Best Of" lists, including on Amazon, Slate, and NPR.
Ben's earlier work includes the novels Bedbugs, Android Karenina, the New York Times bestseller Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, and the middle-grade novels The Mystery of the Everything and The Secret Life of Ms. Finkleman, a Bank Street Best Book of 2011 and an Edgar Award nominee. Ben is also the author of many plays and musicals for children and adults, as well as Literally Disturbed: Tales to Keep You Up at Night, a book of scary poems for kids. He he has written for national and local publications including the Chicago Tribune, Slate, and the Huffington Post.
He grew up in Maryland, attended Washington University in St. Louis, and currently lives in Los Angeles, California with his wife and three children.
His website is www.BenHWinters.com
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But, man, has it been a long time since I read one of these as good as Bedbugs.
Bedbugs is by Ben H. Winters, who I came to by way of The Last Policeman series. That series – about a policeman who continues to investigate cases despite the impending end of the world – was haunting and wonderful, a strange paean to staying true to your ideals in the face of a hopeless world. It was a series I really enjoyed, and it left me wondering what else Winters could do…but horror wasn’t necessarily on my list.
I was wrong.
Bedbugs is a simple enough story: a young couple moves into a seemingly perfect New York City apartment, one that’s insanely wonderful, perfectly priced, and everything they need. The husband is working on getting his photography business to be sustainable; the wife is taking time off from work to back to her painting. And this house is everything they need for themselves and their young daughter. There’s a slightly batty, but sweet, landlady; there’s a likable maintenance man; and man, that price is right. Sure, there are a couple of small problems here and there – a faint smell they can’t get out of one room, an odd pinging noise they hear now and then – but nothing they can’t live with.
But then Susan, the wife? She becomes convinced that there’s a bedbug problem in the house. Convinced in spite of the fact that there’s no proof, even. She’s been bitten, of course, she’d explain to you…but she’s been scratching so hard at the bites that there’s no evidence left, because of how much she’s torn up her skin.
It’s at this point that Bedbugs hits the gas and never looks back, and sets the reader into a bizarre ride into a world that may be real or may be psychotic, and toes the line perfectly. Books like this demand a lot from the author – in the best situations, you need to either leave the insanity as an open question and not lean too hard one way or the other (Rosemary’s Baby), or else spin so hard into the insanity that it becomes its own story (Repulsion). Bedbugs handles itself perfectly, leaving you constantly questioning things, and ultimately leaning the way the author wants you to lean – just so he can throw a swerve at you.
The result is a gleefully nightmarish ride, particularly for those of you averse to bugs. Winters cranks things up at just the right pace, letting us simmer and then hitting us with another bizarre burst of imagery when we least expect it, and the whole thing ends up feeling wonderfully creepy and unsettling. And the ending? Without saying anything concrete, I’ll say that it sticks the ending perfectly in a way that few of these manage to do – it’s a satisfying ending, and one that seems like it’s not a cheat while still delivering on the book’s promises.
Part of me wants to dock the book for a couple of minor issues along the way. The husband seems a bit too laissez-faire at one point; again, I’m trying to avoid spoilers, but there’s at least one point where it seems like a good husband would take more action than he does. (Luckily, Winters has made us question the husband a bit by that point, but nonetheless, it still feels a bit jarring.) There’s also the story of the previous tenants, which ultimately almost feels too abridged in a way that I can’t get into without major spoilers; I love how it ultimately plays out, but some of the parallels between their lives and Susan’s life seem a bit too convenient.
Ultimately, though, those are issues I had after the book, not during. And really, I could focus on them, but none of that takes away from the gloriously insane ride that Bedbugs gave me, or how perfectly paced it all was. I’ll forgive a couple of minor missteps for a horror novel that’s as effective and unsettling as this one is.
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!








