"Jesus H Christ," you're saying. "Get off the Ben H. Winters kick, for the love of all that's holy and good. It's like you're feckin' stalking him, for crying out loud."Look. Let's just everybody calm down, okay?What *happened* was I was in the library. I was nearly done with The Last Policeman. I searched the library database (no card catalog, what are we, barbarians?). They had Countdown City! Woohoo! Upstairs, in fiction!So up I went. W - W - W - W, Winters, here we go... The Last Policeman... Bedbugs... ugh. That's it. No Countdown City. The computer lied to me. So I grabbed Bedbugs. It looked reasonably entertaining, anyway.Trudged downstairs. The kids and I checked out our books. Thought of the shelves near the checkout desk, the new releases shelves... figured I'd check it out... No, no such, HANG ON! COUNTDOWN CITY! Woo!So I *did* get Countdown City... and then I *did* get World of Trouble on the iPad, because I couldn't make it to a bookstore or wait for Powells to mail it off to me.And when I was done with those... well, I had this other library book to read... and so I did.Bedbugs was fine. A fun little horror story. Not The Last Policeman, by any means, but the writing wasn't bad. I hated the protagonist, she just wasn't a likable character, as other people have mentioned, but it was an interesting experience, reading a horror book about someone to whom you kind of hope bad things are going to happen. Again, as with The Last Policeman, you kind of knew how it was going to shake out... and, as I've professed elsewhere, I don't usually go out of my way to try and figure out whodunit, so maybe Ben Winters just isn't great at disguising mysteries. But, hey ho, it gave me something to read.I *was* interested in the differences between the bios for Mr. Winters between Bedbugs and the Last Policeman trilogy -- Bedbugs, pre-Last Policeman he mentions his past as co-author with Jane Austen on some of the Jane Austen Book and Some Sort of Monster series, but once he gets his trilogy he seems to have buried that a little deeper, so much so that it doesn't warrant a mention in the bio. Of course, with his recent success, why would he, right?Next up, a review of Ben H. Winters's shopping list from last Friday. Winters has a creepy crawly idea but isn't really a good enough writer to pull it off in all of its creepy crawliness.That might sound harsh, but it's a pet peeve of mine when writers rely on dropping brand names instead of descriptions. It's the lazy writer's way of creating atmosphere, and it doesn't work. I don't need to know what kind of knives (Henckels) or bed (Design Within Reach) the couple owns, or what kind of denim jacket (H&M) the nanny has, what kind of technology (MacBook, iPhone) Susan uses, or where she grocery shops (Trader Joes). But Winters drops it all for absolutely no useful point. He's capitalizing on the bedbug frenzy in New York, but he just dates his novel instead.If he'd intended to paint the couple as likeable yuppies, he missed the mark. He should have shown those bits of pricy setting and props instead of just naming them. And his laziness carried over to the denouement, which felt rushed and not as creepy, tense, or gory as I wanted it to be.A note on the audiobook: the narrator, Elisabeth Rodgers, does a fine job, but she has to read the couple's four year old, Emma, and she "does" a child's voice, which is uber cute and absolutely hateful. I don't want an adult woman to read a four year old's "adorable" (it's not adorable) lispy and excited voice. I'd have read a hard copy if I knew this beforehand.
What do You think about Una Casa Perfetta (2012)?
This story would make a great horror movie. It was creepy and made my skin crawl.
—Saprophite
As freaky as bedbugs are, I would watch a movie based on this book!
—robin
What a delightful book - I was up all night, scratching!
—Jess
