In this psychological thriller from the award-winning author of Trap Door, a young woman’s new home has on the brink of madness. Lisa 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 … insist this man didn’t exist and that Lisa is their first tenant, Lisa begins to doubt herself.
Compelled to uncover the secrets of the man who lived in the room before her, Lisa is alarmed when increasingly disturbing incidents start to happen. Someone doesn’t want Lisa to find out the truth.
As the four walls of this house and its secrets begin to close in on Lisa, she descends into a hellish hall of mirrors where she’s not sure what’s real and what’s not as she claws her way towards the truth . . .
This room has already claimed one victim? Is it about to take another?
Praise for International Bestselling Author Dreda Say Mitchell and Her Work
“As good as it gets.” –Lee Child
“A truly original voice.” –Peter James
“Thrilling.” —Sunday Express Books of the Year
“Awesome tale from a talented writer.” —The Sun (UK)
“Fast-paced and full of twists and turns.” —Crime Scene Magazine
Dreda was awarded an MBE in Her Majesty the Queen’s 2020 New Year’s Honors List
Spare Room will appeal to readers of domestic noir, as well as fans of authors like Cara Hunter, Lisa Jewell, B. A. Paris, and Rachel Abbott
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I was very surprised in all the twists in this book! I wasn’t expecting several of them! This was the first book I have read by this author and I will be looking for more! I definitely recommend this book!
I really enjoyed Spare Room. I had never heard of it or the author previously. It kept me turning the pages even though I had some of it figured out. There were still surprises in store.
While browsing Audible one day for an audiobook to listen to, I stumbled upon Spare Room by Dreda Say Mitchell. The book synopsis instantly had me hooked, and I knew I had to listen to this book. I ended up liking Spare Room very much!
Lisa is a young women with some psychological problems. However, she is determined to make it on her own without relying on her parents. When she spots an ad in the newspaper for a spare room in London for a great price, she inquires about the room and ends up living there. After finding a suicide note in her room, Lisa decides to find out more about this man while trying to figure out her own murky past. However, all this will place Lisa in grave danger.
The plot for Spare Room was highly interesting and written very well. Mitchell did a fantastic job at making it easy to transport readers into the setting. I felt like I was with Lisa every step of the way. The pacing, for the most part, is decent, and I found myself having to know more. There were a few spots were the pacing slowed, but for the most part, this book had a lot of action. I had to know more about Lisa’s past. There were times I was questioning whether Lisa was sane horrific things happen to her or if she was just losing her mind. There were quite a few plot twists. Some were predictable, but others, I never saw coming. All of my questions were answered by the end of the book, and there were no cliff hangers which I was happy about.
The characters in Spare Room all felt realistic and like they were real people instead of characters in a novel. Mitchell did such a great job of breathing life into each individual character. Lisa was such a complex woman. I admired her tenacity to find out the truth at all costs even when she had everything going against her. Her determination was fierce, and she never let anyone get in her way. Alex was a sweetheart, and I loved how caring he was towards Lisa and how much he helped her out. Lisa’s parents cared for Lisa, it was obvious, but I found myself wishing they would go about helping Lisa in better ways. Martha and Jack were fantastic! I always found myself not trusting Martha even though she came across as completely innocent to begin with, and I was always wondering if Jack really was as bad as Lisa thought he was. Patsy was probably my favorite character. That old woman reminded me of my grandma a lot of the time.
The narration, done by Kristin Atherton, was pretty good for the most part. I felt like Atherton started out the beginning of the book a bit flat, but she quickly got better. Her accents and voice changes for different characters were fantastic especially for the characters of Jack and Patsy.
Trigger warnings for Spare Room include violence, animal murder, attempted murder, murder, suicide, alcohol, some sex (though not graphic), profanity, and gas-lighting.
All in all, Spare Room weaves an interesting story with a fantastic cast of characters that will suck you right into their world. I would definitely recommend Spare Room by Dreda Say Mitchell to everyone aged 16+ who loves a great solid story.
Couldn’t put this book down. Very unpredictable. I recomnend
Loved the book Was impressed with the writing. Great read!
Very different from anything I’ve read before. Enjoyed the story.
Very twisted, unpredictable story!
The Spare Room – You Won’t Want To Put This Book Down!
*** NO SPOILERS ***
The Spare Room is a great thriller told from the point of view of Lisa, a young adult professional woman. Struggling with some issues. Make that a troubled woman. Perhaps a very troubled woman. Possibly with mental challenges. Maybe with drugs. Who may or may not be suicidal. The author, Dreda Say Mitchell, does such a masterful job of telling the story from Lisa’s viewpoint you become part of the mystery as you try to tell what Lisa sees, hears, thinks, and experiences is real, real but exaggerated, imagined, distorted or whatever and trying as she is to figure it all out. This is the best job I’ve ever read of an author immersing you into the emotionality and confusion of the troubled protagonist.
In looking for a room to rent inside London’s confines to be closer to her work she happens across what seems to be an ideal option. A dramatic looking older house, not one of the many row houses in the city has such a room. The renters seem to be a peculiar pair consisting of a home handyman who is very rough around the edges and then some (Jack) and his meticulously attired and made up wife (Martha) who is significantly older than him. The room itself seems perfect. At least at first. Some problems with the room occur once rented, and the increasingly odd behavior of the couple starts stressing her, and her behavior makes the renters wanting her to leave. The strangeness continues, putting more pressure on her to give up her lease and relocate, and straining her grip on rationality. Add a pair of parents who seem to smother her with concern about “her condition” the angry cat lady living in the house next door, an ex with ghosts in his own past, and yet another psychiatrist who is a friend of her fathers who they pressure Lisa to see as a part of “getting the help you need.” Lisa is convinced there is more than meets the eye and that the house contains the answers she seeks, and that everyone is trying to keep her from learning. (Or are they?)
Remember though since this is told from the perspective of Lisa, you don’t know what is true, what is a lie, what is imagined. In this story with a number of different plot lines and interconnections, you are with Lisa as she tries to gather pieces to the puzzle of her life. But it is like having more than one puzzle. No box covers with pictures to know what they should look like. She has pieces. She can’t fit them together. Which puzzle for which pieces? Do some of the pieces even go to the puzzles? How far gone will she become? Will trying to find out be more than she can handle? Will solving the riddles she thinks are there bring closure? Push her over the edge? Or are there even riddles, and perhaps just a very troubled young woman who thinks she’s found the key loose thread but the more she figuratively pulls it, the more muddled and stressful things become.
This story was very gripping for me and I regretted not being able to read it in one sitting. I didn’t want to put it down. I strongly recommend you give this thriller a read and highly recommend trying to do it in one go.
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Lisa is a mess. She rents a room in a posh London neighborhood and stays there after her landlord hits on her only hours after she moves in. Why does she stay? She finds a suicide letter stuffed in a cabinet in her room and then leaves it on her desk while she goes out. Her landlords refuse to give her a key. Why does she stay? She also takes LSD (later in the book) to see if she can “connect” with memories from her fifth birthday–a pivotal moment in her life. The gothic atmosphere is unsettling, but Lisa spends a lot of time revisiting the same questions about her identity. (The Russian writing on her bedroom wall definitely adds to the certainty that someone lived–and probably killed himself–in this room despite protests from her landlord that there has never been another tenant). This book has received lots of great reviews by well-known authors and fans. And while I don’t share that level of enthusiasm, I found it to be a fast read. The handwriting on the wall is inventive, IMO. I’ll try another of the author’s books to see if a different title may really grab me.
I’m recommending this book but with a couple of caveats. It is well-written and the suspense builds beautifully throughout; there’s a definite feeling of the other shoe about to drop throughout. The author handles descriptions, characterizations, and especially her story arc with easy competence. I’ve always liked reading stories with an unreliable narrator and this one ticks all those boxes. On the other hand… I’m stuck on the implausibility of her plot. Were it not for the emotional high from her writing she’d have lost me on realism or lack thereof. Mitchell seems to be bending reality to conform to her plot and that leaves the reader feeling betrayed. It feels that with some more work this book could have been brilliant, and she just didn’t put in the work.
Chills! “Spare Room” was a truly gripping psychological thriller/suspense. Lisa, a young woman struggling with depression and anxiety, rents a room in an old Victorian house to recover from her recent “accident” in peace. But is it truly her only motive? And what dark secrets do her new landlords, Martha and Jack, hide behind the seemingly perfect facade? There were so many twists and turns, I never saw the next plot twist coming. Perhaps it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but I personally love stories that keep me on the edge of my seat and keep messing with my brain with countless possibilities of what’s really going on in the unreliable protagonist’s head. In “Spare Room,” I felt that the technique was executed perfectly. I’d definitely recommend it to all fans of the psychological thriller/suspense genre. Dark, haunting, and keeps you guessing.
This is an outstanding thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat.
From the first page I was completely hooked.
The writing is superb and the story top notch.
Anyone who loves a fast paced thriller with jaw dropping twists, this is the book for you.
Absolutely loved it.
I love being able to read a book that I can feel as I am reading it. I was scared the whole time! Great book
Slow reading, uses so many adjectives you almost forget what she’s describing. I guess she needed so many words before her publisher could accept.
Couldn’t go into it. Deleted it.
Sad, Lisa’s parents could not be truthful about her past. Certainly caused an enormous emotional burden and impact in her young life. The story line is staying with me.