'Twelve Nights at Rotter House' review

Twelve Nights at Rotter House by J.W. Ocker (published in October 2019) is his first adult fiction book. Mostly, he's written travelogues about horror locations and history, so not a huge surprise that the main character of this, Felix, is also a horror travelogue author. I got this for my horror book club, but didn't finish it in time for the meet, which is disappointing as I had some things to say.

The premise of this one is that Felix, not a believer of ghosts, convinces the owner of Rotter House to let him stay alone for 13 days for a book. Immediately, you know things are going to go wrong seeing as the book is twelve days, but alas. The first couple of chapters detail him exploring the abandoned, ramshackled house and have some eerie moments. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, he's joined by his friend Thomas. There's some tension between the two of them as they haven't spoken in over a year due to some falling out that isn't mentioned for some time. Both are horror junkies, though Thomas believes in ghosts/supernatural stuff, and it goes from there.

pictured is 'Twelve Nights at Rotter House' by J.W. Ocker

So, my biggest issue with this had to do (besides the ending) with pacing. It dragged so much, separated by days where much of the time nothing happens except the two men having long conversations about their history and horror stuff. It seemed to delve more into a drama than a horror/haunted house. Sometime after the halfway point it starts to pickup and dive headfirst into crazy town.

At this point, I could not put the book down as the tension between the two is revealed and some of the hauntings feel very personal. And then the ending, which threw me for a complete loop and made me angrily shut the book. I do not like endings like that.

For what it's worth, it did had some creepy parts and the horror trivia was fun, but I ultimately dropped the star rating from a four to a three after mulling on it for a couple of days. I'd suggest it for haunted house fans, but I guess be warned there's a twist ending.