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Bedbugs
From the subway tunnels of Boston to the rain-swept streets of Quebec City to the deepest snow-filled forests of Hilton, Maine, no one in these chilling stories by horror master Rick Hautala is safe from the darkness or the dangerous things that lurk in the shadows. Waiting for us. Reaching for us...
390 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
11 people are currently reading
208 people want to read
About the author
Rick Hautala
137 books125 followersAKA A.J. Matthews
Rick Hautala has more than thirty published books to his credit, including the million copy, international best-seller Nightstone, as well as Twilight Time, Little Brothers, Cold Whisper, Impulse, and The Wildman. He has also published four novels—The White Room, Looking Glass, Unbroken, and Follow—using the pseudonym A. J. Matthews. His more than sixty published short stories have appeared in national and international anthologies and magazines. His short story collection Bedbugs was selected as one of the best horror books of the year in 2003.
A novella titled Reunion was published by PS Publications in December, 2009; and Occasional Demons, a short story collection, is due in 2010 from CD Publications. He wrote the screenplays for several short films, including the multiple award-winning The Ugly Film, based on the short story by Ed Gorman, as well as Peekers, based on a short story by Kealan Patrick Burke, and Dead @ 17, based on the graphic novel by Josh Howard.
A graduate of the University of Maine in Orono with a Master of Art in English Literature (Renaissance and Medieval Literature), Hautala lives in southern Maine with author Holly Newstein. His three sons have all grown up and (mostly) moved out of the house. He served terms as Vice President and Trustee for the Horror Writers Association.
Sadly, Rick died on March 21, 2013.
Rick Hautala has more than thirty published books to his credit, including the million copy, international best-seller Nightstone, as well as Twilight Time, Little Brothers, Cold Whisper, Impulse, and The Wildman. He has also published four novels—The White Room, Looking Glass, Unbroken, and Follow—using the pseudonym A. J. Matthews. His more than sixty published short stories have appeared in national and international anthologies and magazines. His short story collection Bedbugs was selected as one of the best horror books of the year in 2003.
A novella titled Reunion was published by PS Publications in December, 2009; and Occasional Demons, a short story collection, is due in 2010 from CD Publications. He wrote the screenplays for several short films, including the multiple award-winning The Ugly Film, based on the short story by Ed Gorman, as well as Peekers, based on a short story by Kealan Patrick Burke, and Dead @ 17, based on the graphic novel by Josh Howard.
A graduate of the University of Maine in Orono with a Master of Art in English Literature (Renaissance and Medieval Literature), Hautala lives in southern Maine with author Holly Newstein. His three sons have all grown up and (mostly) moved out of the house. He served terms as Vice President and Trustee for the Horror Writers Association.
Sadly, Rick died on March 21, 2013.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
January 31, 2016
If this review pops up repeatedly in my status feed, it's because I've updated it with another story review.
I'll be reviewing each story individually as I work my way through the book - possibly, but not necessarily, in order.
I'm not sure if I've read anything by Hautala before, perhaps a short story in an anthology somewhere. Looking forward to seeing if his writing lives up to all the praise.
SPOILERS MAY FOLLOW, PROCEED WITH CAUTION
**** The Back of My Hands
Really nice, classic-style first person horror tale, along the lines of Poe's Tell-Tale Heart. An identical twin is jealous that his brother is more talented than him in everything they do, especially art. Why did his brother have to be the one born with talented hands? Well-told and recommended.
*** Schoolhouse
A man returns to his hometown, wife and child in tow, and decides to face his fears and visit the empty schoolhouse he attended as a child, the same place that has been haunting him in his dreams for years.
This writing in this story was somewhat amateurish with a rather limited vocabulary, repeating many of the same words and phases over and over with diminishing results. The story itself seemed to be highly influenced by eighties supernatural horror movies and televsion.
Although intermittently interesting (for several pages it got pretty damn good), I found it to be an ultimately forgettable tale. Not bad, not good, just okay.
***** The Voodoo Queen
A recently laid-off man, sick of his pregnant wife and three year old son, falls in lust with a dancing Voodoo Queen at a traveling carnival show. But would a man like him even have a chance?
The writing in this story was a big upgrade from the previous - what a wonderful and skillfully told tale. While it didn't break any new ground necessarily, it hit all the right notes and tickled that "Tales from the Crypt" sweet spot in all the right ways. Loved it!
Highly recommended.
*** Tunnels
A young grafitti artist runs down into the subway tunnels of Boston to escape the cop who is pursuing him, but does the darkness hold other, more sinister, dangers?
This story started off strong and was well-written, but the build up was wasted on a too-short and ultimately forgettable climax. Very much like a so-so episode of Tales from the Darkside.
***** From a Stone
This story was dedicated to Joe R. Lansdale, and I imagine it would please him very much. Quite experimental, in that it is written in a merry-go-round of first-person perspectives of the individuals involved: a man who has awoken to find himself bound to a table in a basement, his abductor, and...well, to say anything more wouldn't be fair for a story as short as this one.
Frightfully effective, and highly recommended. A style that might be fun to emulate someday!
***** Crying Wolf
This story was dedicated to Richard Laymon, and you'd easily be forgiven for thinking you'd stumbled onto a lost Laymon tale while reading it.
A boy tells his best friend's older sister that he thinks an escaped criminal is living in the cellar of the old deserted Laymon house out in the woods, and wants her to help him investigate. What follows is pure horror poetry.
Superb!
*** The Sources of the Nile
If you've ever gotten turned on while kissing away a tear, then this story might provide a glimpse of where that particular road leads, should you choose to follow it to the point of obsession.
Short, pulpy goodness. I guess we're doing shout-outs to writer friends, because this one is dedicated to J.N. Williamson.
***** Silver Rings
Not horror, but this story is a thing of exquisite beauty. I plan on re-reading it again soon.
A young man on spring break in Quebec meets a French woman in a cafe, she's wearing silver rings on every finger, and she takes him home...but this story's not about the plot, it's about the feeling - and boy does it have feeling in spades.
Elegiac and highly recommended.
(Since Hautala's been dedicating the last few stories to specific famus writers, I thought I'd try and guess who he dedicated this one to. I guessed Ed Gorman, but I was wrong. Cryptically dedicated to "C.R." I wonder if she wore silver rings.)
**** Colt .24
A clever little Faustian tale, told in a series of jailhouse letters. Why do these deals with the devil never work out? Why?
*** Bird in the House
Another first person-type tale, with the narrator speaking almost directly to the reader. Can belief in superstition and folklore be taken too far, crossing over into the obsessive and delusional?
Apparently so, and this brief story might be about that.
Decent, but not all that groundbreaking.
***** Cousins' Curse
This story could also be titled "Horny Little Suckers" - at least that's what I would have called it.
Some really fine writing chops on display, and Hautala dips into erotica with much more finesse than most author genre writers.
This story could have made the foundation for a fine novel. I was disappointed when it was over, such a peek into an interesting set of circumstances that I would have loved to see unfold further.
A must read.
*** Speedbump
I'm not a big fan of yokel accents in written form, especially in a first-person tale.
The format of this one has a lot in common with the preceding "Bird in the House" story, even though the subject matter is different, the effect is the same.
Not bad, not great, not essential reading.
***** Rubies and Pearls
Wow. What a great short story.
A serial killer, now in prison, has a stroke and catches a glimpse of what awaits him in the afterlife.
This tale was absolutely amazing - the language, the feel, the imagery the words evoked actually made me giddy. This story has a live volt of electricity running through it. Stunning. I'll be studying this one, for sure.
**** A Little Bit of Divine Justice
A very clever concept, well executed.
A drunk driver accidentally hits a pedestrian during a snow storm in the middle of nowhere, knocking him off a bridge and into the icy river below.
Nobody saw it happen, the pedestrian is surely dead, and there's nothing he can do to help. Should he just drive on and pretend it never happened? Or should he find a phone, call the police and ruin the rest of his life?
No matter what road he chooses to follow, one thing is certain: you've just entered The Twilight Zone.
*** Karen's Eyes
A college girl calls her boyfriend in a panic. There are eyes embedded in the wood of her closet door, staring at her. no, there no just knots in the wood, she insists. They're real eyes...please, come help me!
And thus begins a story that starts off strong, with quite an intriguing premise, but struggles to the end and expires with a whimper. The obvious course of events is usually the least interesting, and this story only serves to bolster that notion.
** Master Tape
A singer had a crappy record contract, and the record exec is an ass. A satanic spell should fix that, right?
This story has all the earmarks of an inside joke written for friends. Not wonderful.
*** Breakfast at Earl's
It's hunting season. The chef doesn't like to hunt. The hunters love his stew. People keep going missing.
Remember what I said in a previous review about the obvious course of events? If you haven't figured out where this story is going by the end of the second paragraph, you need to get out more.
It's nicely written, but I'm not sure WHY it was written. Surely there had to be a more creative place to go with it.
**** Closing the Doors
What if Jim Morrison's death was a hoax? What if he wrote this story?
I really enjoyed this non-horror speculative tale, but imagine younger generations would be lost if they read it.
** Worst Fears
This story seems to be shooting for the same lofty literary heights that the story SILVER RINGS hit with ease. This story to me was turgid, stagnant and stilted. No sir, I didn't like it.
**** Winter Queen
At around thirty pages, Winter Queen is one of the longer stories in the book so far. A rock star finds himself fighting for survival amidst the dead bodies of his band in the wreckage of his plane, deep in the frigid, snowy woods of Maine. Is something watching him from the darkness each night?
This story reminded me of the movie The Grey for a good duration, but then it changes into someting else. It is written in a fairly unique way, and is only really marred by a sudden splooge of exposition near the end. As with quite a few stories in this collection, I found the journey to be more enjoyable than the destination.
I'll be reviewing each story individually as I work my way through the book - possibly, but not necessarily, in order.
I'm not sure if I've read anything by Hautala before, perhaps a short story in an anthology somewhere. Looking forward to seeing if his writing lives up to all the praise.
SPOILERS MAY FOLLOW, PROCEED WITH CAUTION
**** The Back of My Hands
Really nice, classic-style first person horror tale, along the lines of Poe's Tell-Tale Heart. An identical twin is jealous that his brother is more talented than him in everything they do, especially art. Why did his brother have to be the one born with talented hands? Well-told and recommended.
*** Schoolhouse
A man returns to his hometown, wife and child in tow, and decides to face his fears and visit the empty schoolhouse he attended as a child, the same place that has been haunting him in his dreams for years.
This writing in this story was somewhat amateurish with a rather limited vocabulary, repeating many of the same words and phases over and over with diminishing results. The story itself seemed to be highly influenced by eighties supernatural horror movies and televsion.
Although intermittently interesting (for several pages it got pretty damn good), I found it to be an ultimately forgettable tale. Not bad, not good, just okay.
***** The Voodoo Queen
A recently laid-off man, sick of his pregnant wife and three year old son, falls in lust with a dancing Voodoo Queen at a traveling carnival show. But would a man like him even have a chance?
The writing in this story was a big upgrade from the previous - what a wonderful and skillfully told tale. While it didn't break any new ground necessarily, it hit all the right notes and tickled that "Tales from the Crypt" sweet spot in all the right ways. Loved it!
Highly recommended.
*** Tunnels
A young grafitti artist runs down into the subway tunnels of Boston to escape the cop who is pursuing him, but does the darkness hold other, more sinister, dangers?
This story started off strong and was well-written, but the build up was wasted on a too-short and ultimately forgettable climax. Very much like a so-so episode of Tales from the Darkside.
***** From a Stone
This story was dedicated to Joe R. Lansdale, and I imagine it would please him very much. Quite experimental, in that it is written in a merry-go-round of first-person perspectives of the individuals involved: a man who has awoken to find himself bound to a table in a basement, his abductor, and...well, to say anything more wouldn't be fair for a story as short as this one.
Frightfully effective, and highly recommended. A style that might be fun to emulate someday!
***** Crying Wolf
This story was dedicated to Richard Laymon, and you'd easily be forgiven for thinking you'd stumbled onto a lost Laymon tale while reading it.
A boy tells his best friend's older sister that he thinks an escaped criminal is living in the cellar of the old deserted Laymon house out in the woods, and wants her to help him investigate. What follows is pure horror poetry.
Superb!
*** The Sources of the Nile
If you've ever gotten turned on while kissing away a tear, then this story might provide a glimpse of where that particular road leads, should you choose to follow it to the point of obsession.
Short, pulpy goodness. I guess we're doing shout-outs to writer friends, because this one is dedicated to J.N. Williamson.
***** Silver Rings
Not horror, but this story is a thing of exquisite beauty. I plan on re-reading it again soon.
A young man on spring break in Quebec meets a French woman in a cafe, she's wearing silver rings on every finger, and she takes him home...but this story's not about the plot, it's about the feeling - and boy does it have feeling in spades.
Elegiac and highly recommended.
(Since Hautala's been dedicating the last few stories to specific famus writers, I thought I'd try and guess who he dedicated this one to. I guessed Ed Gorman, but I was wrong. Cryptically dedicated to "C.R." I wonder if she wore silver rings.)
**** Colt .24
A clever little Faustian tale, told in a series of jailhouse letters. Why do these deals with the devil never work out? Why?
*** Bird in the House
Another first person-type tale, with the narrator speaking almost directly to the reader. Can belief in superstition and folklore be taken too far, crossing over into the obsessive and delusional?
Apparently so, and this brief story might be about that.
Decent, but not all that groundbreaking.
***** Cousins' Curse
This story could also be titled "Horny Little Suckers" - at least that's what I would have called it.
Some really fine writing chops on display, and Hautala dips into erotica with much more finesse than most author genre writers.
This story could have made the foundation for a fine novel. I was disappointed when it was over, such a peek into an interesting set of circumstances that I would have loved to see unfold further.
A must read.
*** Speedbump
I'm not a big fan of yokel accents in written form, especially in a first-person tale.
The format of this one has a lot in common with the preceding "Bird in the House" story, even though the subject matter is different, the effect is the same.
Not bad, not great, not essential reading.
***** Rubies and Pearls
Wow. What a great short story.
A serial killer, now in prison, has a stroke and catches a glimpse of what awaits him in the afterlife.
This tale was absolutely amazing - the language, the feel, the imagery the words evoked actually made me giddy. This story has a live volt of electricity running through it. Stunning. I'll be studying this one, for sure.
**** A Little Bit of Divine Justice
A very clever concept, well executed.
A drunk driver accidentally hits a pedestrian during a snow storm in the middle of nowhere, knocking him off a bridge and into the icy river below.
Nobody saw it happen, the pedestrian is surely dead, and there's nothing he can do to help. Should he just drive on and pretend it never happened? Or should he find a phone, call the police and ruin the rest of his life?
No matter what road he chooses to follow, one thing is certain: you've just entered The Twilight Zone.
*** Karen's Eyes
A college girl calls her boyfriend in a panic. There are eyes embedded in the wood of her closet door, staring at her. no, there no just knots in the wood, she insists. They're real eyes...please, come help me!
And thus begins a story that starts off strong, with quite an intriguing premise, but struggles to the end and expires with a whimper. The obvious course of events is usually the least interesting, and this story only serves to bolster that notion.
** Master Tape
A singer had a crappy record contract, and the record exec is an ass. A satanic spell should fix that, right?
This story has all the earmarks of an inside joke written for friends. Not wonderful.
*** Breakfast at Earl's
It's hunting season. The chef doesn't like to hunt. The hunters love his stew. People keep going missing.
Remember what I said in a previous review about the obvious course of events? If you haven't figured out where this story is going by the end of the second paragraph, you need to get out more.
It's nicely written, but I'm not sure WHY it was written. Surely there had to be a more creative place to go with it.
**** Closing the Doors
What if Jim Morrison's death was a hoax? What if he wrote this story?
I really enjoyed this non-horror speculative tale, but imagine younger generations would be lost if they read it.
** Worst Fears
This story seems to be shooting for the same lofty literary heights that the story SILVER RINGS hit with ease. This story to me was turgid, stagnant and stilted. No sir, I didn't like it.
**** Winter Queen
At around thirty pages, Winter Queen is one of the longer stories in the book so far. A rock star finds himself fighting for survival amidst the dead bodies of his band in the wreckage of his plane, deep in the frigid, snowy woods of Maine. Is something watching him from the darkness each night?
This story reminded me of the movie The Grey for a good duration, but then it changes into someting else. It is written in a fairly unique way, and is only really marred by a sudden splooge of exposition near the end. As with quite a few stories in this collection, I found the journey to be more enjoyable than the destination.
August 22, 2013
This is a surprisingly good collection of short stories. I'm not a big fan of Hautala's longer fiction, but this actually hits the spot. There's a lot of gruesome horror and a few tales that are old fashioned. Others tie in to Dracula and Frankenstein's monster in interesting and new ways. The only problem is, too many of them are moralistic stories, where bad things happen to people because they did something bad. It's not enough to hinder the book, though. Most of the stories are good, with a few great ones, and maybe a couple of all-right ones.
October 25, 2017
This is a mediocre collection of horror stories. I usually expect collections of short stories to be mostly lame stories with a few gems. This is full of some okay stories, with mostly lame endings, and every once in a while a pretty good story. I didn't think any of them were gems though.
November 4, 2018
I'm a fan of Rick Hautala's work, I especially liked Reunion and Indian Summer. Bedbugs, unfortunately, fell short for me and sadly I had to give it two stars. I found it to be a mediocre collection of suspense/horror stories that were forgotten as soon as I finished reading them.
On a more positive note, I have the rare Cemetery Dance edition of the book that features fantastic artwork by Glenn Chadbourne.
On a more positive note, I have the rare Cemetery Dance edition of the book that features fantastic artwork by Glenn Chadbourne.
November 16, 2010
it was kind of campy like that old tv show tales from the darkside went pretty fast I liked some of the tales & twists better than others but that's what to expect with a collection of shorts
March 8, 2012
Good collection of short stories from a very capable horror author!
August 16, 2023
I enjoyed this more than Glimpses, the "best of" compilation of Rick Hautala's short fiction. The batting average here was a little higher, though inexplicably both volumes contain "Schoolhouse" which must be his worst short story. Some of the entries in Bedbugs contained Hautala's finest prose--very polished and atmospheric. A handful of these stories had an uncanny, eerie atmosphere that I think prove how talented (and under-appreciated) Rick was. Favorites include: The Sources of the Nile, Cousins' Curse, Rubies and Pearls, Silver Rings, Karen's Eyes, Breakfast at Earl's, Worst Fears, and Piss Eyes. Also of note was the story "Surprise" which is the rare piece of fiction I've seen written in the second person. The story itself is slight, but I appreciated Hautala's willingness to try something different. Overall, a strong collection. As with any book like this, Bedbugs has a few stories which are merely average, but I really enjoyed most of the content.
February 21, 2018
I managed to finish this book before the end of the month, and now I can finally put it away. The blurb on the bottom says "Move over, Stephen King. Hautala is about to claim a piece of the horror fiction pie." A very small piece, indeed. The short stories in this collection would be better classified as suspense. IMO, these stories are all incomplete, and seem more like opening chapters to a longer tale. The premise to some seemed promising, but far too many of them were just "meh". Hautala showed promise, but if he tried tip expand on the stories for more than 15-20 pages, this may have been a much more fulfilling read.
My rating: 2.5/5 stars
My rating: 2.5/5 stars
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January 31, 2022It was a very interesting book. It really held my attention. I had read work by the author before and he was a very satisfactory writer. It was short stories and they mostly managed to be entertaining.
December 26, 2025
IMHO, the author is third tier horror at best. But at least the short stories are over quickly. 90% of them are written in first person, follow the same misdirection and don’t add up to much. We all deserve better.
February 9, 2019
Abandoned at 77%, at which point the boredom became unbearable.
Only a few of the many short stories that comprise this book are vaguely interesting.
Two stars.
Only a few of the many short stories that comprise this book are vaguely interesting.
Two stars.
September 8, 2011
This book is a horror based book that is about a woman who thinks she has bedbugs in her apartment. She moves in with her daughter, her husband into the dream apartment. Her landlady, Anita, is a little bit odd, and there is something sinister about the house. But when Susan starts itching, she suspects she may have bedbugs and calls in an exterminator. I honestly was very very engrossed in the plot, up until the last 50 pages, when the book took a turn for the ridicolous and then lost me completely.
September 24, 2016
The tales in this collection of short stories from one of my favorite authors will have you feeling creepy crawly with suspense, anticipation, shivers, goosebumps, and questioning all the creaks and things that go bump in the night. Checking and make sure all the doors and windows are locked. Rick is skilled at giving the reader scares with his characters and atmospheric scenes. A natural born story teller who left us too soon, a writer who would have been fabulous at narrating audio books as well. Highly recommend his works, they are true artistry from a luminary writer from New England
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews