Bedbugs: A Novel of Infestation - Tapa blanda

"By turns gruesome and compelling, fueled by a slow-burn tension, and full of in-jokes about contemporary Brooklyn culture, Winters's breezy summer read will leave readers compulsively scratching."--Publishers Weekly "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

Alex and Susan Wendt are the perfect couple in search of the perfect Brooklyn brownstone - and the house at 56 Cranberry Street is too good to pass up. Sure, the landlady seems a little eccentric. And the creepy handyman drops too many strange remarks about the previous tenants. But the sidewalk is lined with trees and there's a beautiful playground just down the block, where their 3-year-old daughter Emma can play. Many chapters of slow-building dread and paranoia will ensue - think of this as Rosemary's Bedbugs. Alex loves their new home but Susan is less enthusiastic - something about the new place just doesn't feel right, and she's having trouble sleeping. In the mornings, Susan awakens to find drops of blood on her pillowcase -and soon her wrists are speckled with bites. She immediately suspects bedbugs but she and Alex and the landlady search the apartment without uncovering a single creature. Even stranger, Alex doesn't have any bites on his body. You're just experiencing some kind of psychosomatic reaction, he suggests. I've never seen any bugs. Exterminators search the apartment and find nothing. But Susan is convinced she's right - she's seen the bedbugs, crawling over her body, feasting on her flesh, and swarming in incredibly vivid nightmares. As her fear and paranoid build to a fever pitch, the story arrives at its horrific conclusion, in which all of the book's many mysteries are revealed. Can Susan contain the bedbugs before they destroy her family? "Bedbugs" may be the first novel that appeals to both horror/Comic Con fans as well as suburban soccer mums - and it's a great gift for anyone who's ever battled bedbugs in real life. Sleep tight!