Spare Room

By: Dreda Say Mitchell

Narrated by: Kristin Atherton

Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's summary

Home is where the nightmare is. The number one international best seller everyone can't stop talking about.

Beautiful double room to let to single person.

Lisa, a troubled young woman with a past, 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 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?

©2019 Dreda Say Mitchell (P)2019 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd

What a nice surprise!

I've probably got 500 or more titles in my Audible library, spanning 12 or 13 years. By now I've gotten just a little jaded, finding it a trial to keep writing book reviews. I'm partial to so-called psychological thrillers, but - honestly now - don't they start to feel a little like the same tale told over and over? How often do the lame publisher summaries start by saying "If you loved Girl On A Train ..." or "Just as great as Gone Girl"? Well, this is a gripping new story and not at all cookie-cutter. Kept me hooked and guessing right to the end. And a wholly satisfying ending it was. Plus the narrator is a perfect match for the story. What more could you want?

Can you suspend disbelief?

If the answer is yes, then this is the book for you! This is a weird and confusing book. Initially I was so excited I preordered the book and couldn’t wait to read it! I thought the premise sounded so creepy and psychological thrillers are my fav. The book started out strong but the petered put pretty quickly. The whole reason behind spare room is so implausible! The characters are all unlikeable, and miserable. Namely, the main character. She was on my nerves from beginning and being in her head sucked. She was a whiny, annoying character. I think the author could have made a few changes and the book would have been far more realistic. But still I didn’t buy the twist it was a let down. The narration was fine, story not so much.

Decent premise and story, ending just dumb..

Spare Room has potential I started to get excited while reading the story of a young girl who agrees to rent out an odd couple's spare room for six months. The circumstances were weird, the couple were secretive, and when, on the second day into the lease, they started asking their new tenant to get out, I knew there was more to the story than just eccentric landlords. The problem is, 'the more' is what I ended up not caring about. Our main character is a whining bore, and I just didn't care about her, or her friends and family. It's hard to care what the 'twists' are when you are ambivalent about the characters.

Meh, read it if you want- but I wouldn't pay a full credit for it, nor would I keep it on my wish list. Might be ok if you get it on sale,or a two-for-one.

-Wendi

I couldn't wait to get back to it

This book drew me in. I started it to pass the time driving my kids, and before I knew it, I was walking around with headphones. A must read.

Uninteresting characters

I’m not sure how i feel about this one. Did i dislike it? No.. did i LIKE it? Probably also no...

Story is about a woman that rents a room from a not so nice couple in a room, and ends up finding hidden messages on a wall from a previous occupant (although the couple claims no one rented this room before her) so she tries to get all Nancy drew on it and figure out what it all means, meanwhile enduring all sorts of petty s**** from her roommate couple.

The characters seemed one dimensional and i couldn’t connect with anyone, maybe Alex a little bit. He seemed the most REAL doing things that a real person would do. The plot twist towards the end was surprising, sure. But not “smack you in a face with a OMG twist” that makes you LOVE the entire story. And what actually happened in that room was bizarre, unbelievable (who would actually do that?!) and the reasoning behind all of characters actions left me unsatisfied and meh...

I was actually glad it was over and i could move on to something else. 2.5/5 stars rounded up to ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Dragged a bit in places. Not bad; not great.

It was really just Ok. Characters were forgettable. Story was predictable and lagged in places at times.

Good Book

I enjoyed this book, though it did start out slow. It wasn’t until chapter 9 that I felt like the book was finally gaining momentum. There were a few twist and turns I didn’t expect but they made the story what it was.
Kristen Atherton did a delightful job of narrating the book and I felt that she truly brought Lisa to life.

Spare Room

Wow! This book sucked me right in! Great characters, twists and turns plus, can’t wait to read more by Dreda, a now favorite author!! Kudos,Dreda!!!

Boring

I just wanted it too end by half way through. Couldn’t take it any more.

Prudish British family drama = not a thriller

I have never been so angry listening to a book. It's hard for me to review without spoiling the book premise but as a reader, you figure out the main "problem" right away and the whole time you're left wondering why the main character doesn't just ask her parents the truth about the past. It's really that simple. There's no mystery. There's no great unknown. Definitely no thrill in the thriller. And as an added bonus to bad plot points this book deals with marijuana as if it's the equivalent to heroin or some other vary dangerous drug which is the stupidest thing you could put in a book for American audiences who could care less about pot. I feel like thrillers, esp British ones, are constantly dumbing-down the premise and content for readers and not creating likable or sympathetic characters. I cannot get behind a MC who spins herself into a tizzy and reacts to life in such a juvenile way just because she can't ask simple questions.

Couldn't finish.

I love psychological thrillers, the twistier, creepier, far-fetched the better. But if you're going to bring in real life topics like mental health and suicide, know what you're talking about.

No one 'pops 2 antidepressants' and 'waits for the magic to kick in'. I'm barely a chapter in....

Bit silly

I generally found this story to be a bit silly. I could not buy into the fact that someone with severe mental health problems would put themselves through the distress of staying in the spare room when it was clearly causing her to have a breakdown. The plot involving the psychiatrist was also unbelievable thinking in the real world of confidentiality etc. That said I did listen to the end.

Absolutely First Class Thriller

This book with the unpromising title turned out to be a first class thriller. With revelations coming along at regular intervals it became so much more than a story about a spare room with a past. We had characters we could believe in and empathise with. Much helped by Kristin Atherton's excellent narration.

In a bit more detail, Lisa Kendall (25) rents a top floor room in a big house in London. She soon finds that the room and the landlords aren't everything they seemed before she moved in and she is not as comfortable in her room as she hoped that she might be. We gradually learn that the room has a past, the landlords, Lisa, Lisa's parents, previous occupants of the house all have a past.

I thoroughly recommend this book to anybody looking for a good psychological thriller.

Extremely disappointing

I had high hopes and the first part of the book appears to set an interesting scene. However, the author had painted herself into a corner, with so many strands that were impossible to reconcile, within the realms of probability. The behaviours and plot this book requires the reader to believe become increasingly ridiculous. This book is more farce than thriller.

grabbed me from page 1, and didn't let go

You know I used to role my eyes when I read the phraise "grabs you and doesn't let go," on so many reviews. I thought it was a way overused expression. On this book however, I can't do so, and have to use it. Because for me, it was the truth. I finished it in one day. I was hooked from the disturbing prologue, all the way through. I try to be someone who sticks to their convictions throughout, but even I had my convictions shaken at points in this book. Truly an emotional rollercoaster from beginning to end. Brilliantly narated as well. Atherton does a great job portraying all emotions. I nearly cried during the horrible scene towards the end, and it takes a lot for a book to do that. I really recommend this book, if you're like me, it'll keep you on the edge of your seat, unable to stop listening. I totally didn't expect the way the story went, either. Made it even more compelling. Really enjoyed it. Really does grab you from the first page, and doesn't let go until the last shocking climax. If you love Psychological thrillers, you simply HAVE to read this!

Great narration, terrible story

Oh good grief! This book was simply dreadful. Utterly improbable and completely unbelievable . How it got published I will never know. It started off quite well, but soon descended into abject rubbish which made little sense. The main character was intensely unlikable and the plot stupid and pointless. I kept listening in the hope it would improve, sadly it only got worse. The narration was however absolutely first class and I will look for books read by Kristin Atherton in the future. I will not, however, look for books written by Dreda Say Mitchell, ever ever again.

Bloody awful

The only good thing about this book was the narrator. It will certainly not keep you guessing and was not full of surprises. It was poorly written and boring, a waste of a credit.

Not For Me

I’m returning this one. The narration is ok but the book dragged on and on. I couldn’t warm to the main character and am not in the mood to wait it out and see if it gets better!

Excellent listen

Keeps you guessing right to the end.

I liked how at first you dislike the main character but the author cannily draws you to her....

Excellent listen ......

Gripping & original

Was gripped from outset & throughout! I couldn’t put this down & ended up listening to it all over the course of one weekend.

Would definitely recommend it, the narrator was great too. I’m disappointed I’ve come to the end!