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The Nightmare Club #5
The Room
While wandering down a back staircase at the Night Owl Club, teenage prankster Harold "Funny Bone" Fenimore stumbles upon a secret room of teen partiers, and soon he becomes obsessed with The Room.
- GenresHorror
220 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published October 1, 1993
91 people want to read
About the author
Vincent Courtney
31 books13 followersVincent Courtney was born with a pen and paper in hand which made for a very uncomfortable delivery for his mother. He is the author of 18 books. He also created a writing course, "Scary Good Writing with Mr. Butt and Bonefish," used by teachers across the United States to teach their kids the parts of speech and how to write effective essays.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 1, 2016
I'm going to just put it out there - this is a love story between two guys!
Of course, Bone and Tony never hook up, as this is mid-9os teen horror, but I sure wanted them to!
It delivers as a decent demon-summoning thriller too.
Of course, Bone and Tony never hook up, as this is mid-9os teen horror, but I sure wanted them to!
It delivers as a decent demon-summoning thriller too.
February 25, 2026
My version is a reprint paperback of the fifth book in The Nightmare Club series from back in 1993.
Vincent Courtney got most of his books reprinted in the early 2020s, so they have been updated with the latest technology and a lot more colorful language. The setting is reworked where all of the YA books take place in the same town of Bitterbrook and at a nightclub called The Elemental with mentions of other stories.
This is another book where we deal with male protagonists. Tony Sims is more or less the main character with his best friend, Harold "Funny Bone" Fenimore sort of an anti-hero which is hard to explain.
The blurb on the back sets up that "Bone" is the class clown, good at making people laugh but not very good at talking to girls. He has a crush on a girl but is always endlessly ribbing on her friend to the point that he is seen as a nuisance. It is never stated that he is unattractive, so Bone just happens to fall in the loser category.
Wondering around one night at The Elemental, Bone happens upon a room hidden behind the back staircase. Inside is a party in full swing with teenagers galore and they treat Bone like he is the Big Man on Campus, the king, the cat's meow...you get it. A girl named Ashley hits on Bone and makes him feel a little light-headed but giddy that he is getting all the attention for both his jokes and having another girl named Lori flirting with him too.
Bone ends up staying at the club way past his curfew and gets in trouble with his dad when Bone tells him the truth but since he is a permanent jokester, his dad does not buy it. Bone starts skipping classes, sneaking out at night and going to the club as well as becoming sort of nasty to even Tony.
Tony and Bone have a sort of Arnie and Dennis friendship from Stephen King's Christine, but we get to see a little more insight into Tony. His parents died in a car crash when he was eight and has lived with his Aunt Ann ever since. Being a heavy smoker, Aunt Ann is now dying from lung cancer and always spouting out weirdness when overdosing on her morphine for the pain of a fall.
This makes Tony unable to say "I love you" to anyone so he can't even say it to his supportive girlfriend Pam. Once Tony notices the changes in Bone mostly for the fact that he wraps Tony into his lies to covering his whereabouts for his parents. Also, the fact that his best friend couldn't seem to care less that his aunt is dying when Tony pours his heart out to him over the phone.
From the beginning thanks to the back of the book, we all know that The Room is there for a horrifying purpose when we hear the other teens talk with a few bits of outdated slang and wearing clothes from different decades like it was a Halloween costume party. Why wouldn't a loner like Bone not feel welcomed and fall prey to such a seductive scene?
Once it is actually revealed just what the exact reason is behind The Room, it turns into a book of cosmic horrors and visceral gore. Even then, it is also a bromance story between Tony and Bone with an ending that is haunting because even the prologue tells us so.
Whether you get your hands on a reprint from Amazon or can find a decent priced original on-line of The Room, it is worth reading if you are a fan of King or even Lovecraft and enjoying revisiting YA horror.
Vincent Courtney got most of his books reprinted in the early 2020s, so they have been updated with the latest technology and a lot more colorful language. The setting is reworked where all of the YA books take place in the same town of Bitterbrook and at a nightclub called The Elemental with mentions of other stories.
This is another book where we deal with male protagonists. Tony Sims is more or less the main character with his best friend, Harold "Funny Bone" Fenimore sort of an anti-hero which is hard to explain.
The blurb on the back sets up that "Bone" is the class clown, good at making people laugh but not very good at talking to girls. He has a crush on a girl but is always endlessly ribbing on her friend to the point that he is seen as a nuisance. It is never stated that he is unattractive, so Bone just happens to fall in the loser category.
Wondering around one night at The Elemental, Bone happens upon a room hidden behind the back staircase. Inside is a party in full swing with teenagers galore and they treat Bone like he is the Big Man on Campus, the king, the cat's meow...you get it. A girl named Ashley hits on Bone and makes him feel a little light-headed but giddy that he is getting all the attention for both his jokes and having another girl named Lori flirting with him too.
Bone ends up staying at the club way past his curfew and gets in trouble with his dad when Bone tells him the truth but since he is a permanent jokester, his dad does not buy it. Bone starts skipping classes, sneaking out at night and going to the club as well as becoming sort of nasty to even Tony.
Tony and Bone have a sort of Arnie and Dennis friendship from Stephen King's Christine, but we get to see a little more insight into Tony. His parents died in a car crash when he was eight and has lived with his Aunt Ann ever since. Being a heavy smoker, Aunt Ann is now dying from lung cancer and always spouting out weirdness when overdosing on her morphine for the pain of a fall.
This makes Tony unable to say "I love you" to anyone so he can't even say it to his supportive girlfriend Pam. Once Tony notices the changes in Bone mostly for the fact that he wraps Tony into his lies to covering his whereabouts for his parents. Also, the fact that his best friend couldn't seem to care less that his aunt is dying when Tony pours his heart out to him over the phone.
From the beginning thanks to the back of the book, we all know that The Room is there for a horrifying purpose when we hear the other teens talk with a few bits of outdated slang and wearing clothes from different decades like it was a Halloween costume party. Why wouldn't a loner like Bone not feel welcomed and fall prey to such a seductive scene?
Once it is actually revealed just what the exact reason is behind The Room, it turns into a book of cosmic horrors and visceral gore. Even then, it is also a bromance story between Tony and Bone with an ending that is haunting because even the prologue tells us so.
Whether you get your hands on a reprint from Amazon or can find a decent priced original on-line of The Room, it is worth reading if you are a fan of King or even Lovecraft and enjoying revisiting YA horror.
January 21, 2024
This book was just okay. I did like that there was continuation from a previous book by mentioning characters and events from book 4 even though it was by a different author. My main problem with these books is it’s very repetitive. The main character is drawn to the room and will do anything to get to the room. Over and over. The whole ending of why he was drawn to the room was convoluted and seemed like a weird resolution for a final act. So far my least favorite book in the series.
May 23, 2010
I must say I wasn't expecting demon worshippers and demons in this book! I will be adding it to my collection!
April 11, 2016
missing
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews