The Spare Room by Andrea Bartz

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'The Spare Room' by Andrea Bartz

Insecurity has become a consistent theme in the bestselling fiction of Andrea Bartz. In her fourth novel, The Spare Room, anxiety resides within intimate relationships as well as gated communities. Nothing is ever as pretty and perfect, or as safe, as first appears.

The Milwaukee expat (and onetime Shepherd Express writer) has been called, in the Los Angeles Times, the “master of the feminist thriller.” Not sure what that means except that her novels are page turners with female protagonists in danger. The women in her lead roles are pinpoint characterizations of middle-class Gen Xers or Millennials, adulting in an era of dreams suspended indefinitely.

In The Spare Room, life’s plans derail when Kelly finds the need for some “space,” a temporary (?) separation from fiancé Mike. Her heart aches when he doesn’t fight to keep her from leaving on an indefinite vacation to the home of her long-lost high school friend Sabrina, with whom she’s just reconnected on social. “The pandemic locked us inside and brought out the worst in us,” she reflects.

The Spare Room is a snapshot of a moment in time, late 2020 or early 2021, when everyone with any sense was masked in public, when the strict lockdown was loosened but the vaccine remained in development. Pandemic insecurity lurks in the background as Kelly meets Sabrina—and her to-die-for husband Nathan—at their stately home inside a gated community, “an immersive space carefully engineered to read ‘Perfect Life.’” The gates may keep the riffraff at bay, but inside, something sinister stirs, foreshadowed by small, disconcerting moments. Sabrina and Nathan tell Kelly that they moved here from the city “to be somewhere safe,” but where is safety? Who is safe? We can barely know the people in our physical life, Kelly Learns. How much less can we know our digital “friends”?

Andrea Bartz will discuss The Spare Room with her sister, fellow author Julia Bartz, 7 p.m. July 13 at Elm Grove Library in an event sponsored by Boswell Books. As of now, all seats have been reserved, but for updates, visit elmgrovewi.org/FormCenter/Library-3/Andrea-Bartz-in-conversation-with-Julia--131.