Twelve Nights at Rotter House

By J.W. Ocker

Could have been a really great ghost story

Spoiler Alert! I will be talking about the book and why I was so disappointed in it. 

Felix is locking himself into Rotter House, a mansion that is known to be haunted. He wants to write his best book ever, the book that will save his marriage and his writing career. For thirteen nights, Felix will remain in the mansion, without electricity or any connection to the outside world, to prove something he truly doubts, that ghosts exist. What would be even better is if he could write a book about how a non-believer like him lived out a real ghost story and now believes in ghosts. He did invite his best friend to join him, not necessarily to hunt ghosts, but rather to hunt for an explanation of a disturbing truth about his wife and best friend. 

This book is set up in so many ways to be a true ghost story. The entire time you are reading or listening to it there is that sense of something popping out at you. But, it never happens. And here is the spoiler…The end is a mixed-up reality that leaves the reader/listener wondering why this man is in this house, what was his true intent, and what part of the events were true or imagined. I just found that the ending was so far from a ghost story that it ruined it for me. The build-up to the climactic ending is slow until it’s not and then everything changes. This of course is my opinion and I just wish the author had continued on the “ghost story” path because it was going so well. 

I gave this story two out of five stars because most of the writing is still good regardless of my feelings about the plot.