Twelve Nights at Rotter House

Written by J.W. Ocker

Narrated by Matt Godfrey

Felix Allsey is a travel writer with a keen eye for the paranormal, and he's carved out a unique, if only slightly lucrative, niche for himself in nonfiction; he writes travelogues of the country's most haunted places, after haunting them himself.

When he convinces the owner of the infamous Rotterdam Mansion to let him stay on the premises for two weeks, he believes he's finally found the location that will bring him a bestseller. As with his other gigs, he sets rules for himself: no leaving the house for any reason, refrain from outside contact, and sleep during the day.

When Thomas Ruth, Felix's oldest friend and fellow horror film obsessive, joins him on the project, the two dance around a recent and unspeakably painful rough-patch in their friendship, but eventually fall into their old rhythms of dark humor and movie trivia. That's when things start going wrong: screams from upstairs, figures in the thresholds, and more than what should be in any basement. Felix realizes the book he's writing, and his very state of mind, is tilting from nonfiction into all out horror, and the shocking climax answers a question that's been staring these men in the face all along: In Rotter House, who's haunting who?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Highbridge Company
• Release date: Oct 29, 2019
• ISBN: 9781684574148

J.W. Ocker

J.W. Ocker is the USA Today bestselling and Lowell Thomas– and Edgar Award–winning author of macabre travelogues, spooky kids’ books, and horror novels. His books include Poe-Land, A Season with the Witch, Death and Douglas, and The Smashed Man of Dread End. J.W. Ocker lives in New Hampshire.

Reviews for Twelve Nights at Rotter House

[RichardKevinWilson · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

What makes a house Haunted? What makes us all do or say things that we regret later in our lives? Is there real EVIL in this world.....and do you believe in Ghosts? I went into this book not knowing anything about it, or its author. I found out that the author; J.W. Ocher is a travel writer/author as is the main character in this book; Alex is. It is the story about an author whose horror novels have not sold very well, so he gets the idea to spend 13 Nights In Rotter House. This is a huge victorian house that was built by a very wealthy and childless man who was a sex addict, and loved to entertain in the early 20th century.

Alex has a best friend ( Thomas) that has been in his life forever, like that friend we have all had in our lives, or even some of us are lucky enough and still do. When Thomas decides to join Alex in Rotter House all hell breaks loose. Human evils, secrets from the past and ghosts of all shapes, sizes and colors come out from these walls of Rotter House.

Ocker, is a writer who has taken every SINGLE horror movie, tag line, horror trope, and urban legend and has woven it into a story that made me scared at times, laugh my ass off at others, and even made me cry making me think of things that have happened in my own life. If you are a ghost story fan, a Haunted House fan, or just a person who loves an incredibly well written book, this is for you. But let me warn you......Rotter House is NOT what you think it is. Are you ready? My video review of this book will be appearing tomorrow on my YouTube Channel; AreYouIntoHorror , make sure you check it out....and make sure you get your own copy of this book......you'll be glad you did.

Richard Wilson
Sacramento CA
5-10-2020

[Reely Bored · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Absolutely loved this book! Highly recommended reading, especially at night!

[Donald Beckworth · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Did not see that coming. Great story! On to the next

[Lendy Walton Eichorn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Loved the story. Has a very spooky feel but the end left me confused.

[Gina Kirk · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

It was ok. You could kind of see the ending coming though.

[Wanita Stewart · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Twelve Nights at Rotter House was so good. There weren't any jump scares or anything like that, so it's not the typical haunted house story.

The story was very engaging but at times it was a little slow. However, even the slow pages left enough breadcrumbs that kept you following along and intrigued.

I normally figure most books out early on, but the last half of the book totally blew my mind. I wasn't expecting it which made Twelve Nights at Rotter House that much better.

I highly recommend this book to anyone over 16.

[Emma Richardson · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Well-paced. I liked the narrator. Compelling . I’m picky in general, but happy to give this story praise. I hope this review helps another listener!

[Khaylie · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Not bad, a lot of build up for a let down ending.

[Reagan · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Well.. this one got me!! Damn good twist!! Great book!!

[CV · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Narrator does an amazing job on this story, which keeps your interest though does have a slightly predictable ending.

[Rizki Novianti Utami · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Well done. It's quite creepy, confusing (in a good term), and intriguing. A haunted house story with a satisfying twist.

[Laurin Blanks · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Good fun! If you’ve read a bunch of horror though, the bff business wasn’t a surprise. Still I would recommend it. Who doesn’t love a good haunted house story?

[Cat · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Fascinating story! Highly recommended. Wonderful performance by the narrator as well.

[Virago Reads · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Wherein an annoying narrator, Felix, begs his way into a "haunted house" alone for 13 nights. Felix is a travel writer of the spooky variety. This book idea is his last chance for a hit before he has to give up his writing career and find a more stable profession to pay the bills. His idea is to live at a haunted house without high-tech equipment (like ghost hunters) and see if the experience will turn him from skeptic to believer.

Rotterdam House is a more locally known haunted house, so the hope is that his experiment and resulting book will make it a famous attraction, or at least that was how he sold it to the owner to convice her to allow him to stay at the house.

After night two, his best friend, whom he had begged to join him, finally does. Thomas is a believer, and Felix has the idea that their conflicting beliefs will make the narrative more interesting. And it does because they experience things that Felix just doesn't want to believe, even with his own eyes, while Thomas is trying to talk sense into him. The happenings are creepy as hell, and Felix remains skeptical.

There are things in this book that don't make sense and are unbelievable. Like Felix not believed his own eyes and insisting that they stick it out. Or Thimas being a black man that willing stayed the night at a haunted house-- Not even for my BFF!! But the twist at the end... Wowzers I never saw it coming. In the end, it all made sense.

[Kellie Cronogue · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

3 stars purely because I enjoyed the writing style and the pop culture references. The book was predictable if you've seen any horror movies ever, I had hoped for better. I liked the journey, did not like the destination.

[jeremy wick · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Good story. I did figure out the ending about half way through the story, but it was still a good story. I enjoyed it.

[Elizabeth PF · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Never saw that ending coming! The narrator is AMAZING and the main character has such a sarcastic and dark way about him. I laughed out loud several times. I am enjoying another book by this author now.

[Charles Haines · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A little slow in places, but the ending pays off.

A struggling, skeptical writer goes for broke, shutting himself in a known haunted house in a desperate bid to write his bestseller. A friend shows up to talk him out of it, but then decides to stay.

This is a slow-burn horror story, and it works overall, even if I think the book could've shortened the discussions about haunted house tropes, and a few scenes seem to wait while one or both characters get drunk. If something seems off about the characters, that's not the author screwing up. That's his set up for the final twist, which is very much worth the stay.

[April Vanderweide · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I love this book! I’ll be relistening to this a few more times at least

[cheryl rynjah · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I'm conflicted, the last few pages took me on a ride.

[Shayla Hansen · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I was really enjoying it until the twist- which, unfortunately, was rather predictable. It gets too heavy handed near the end, as if the author wanted to wrap it up quickly and it sucked a lot of what made this book awesome out. I don’t regret reading it, though. It was pretty good.

[Nina Quartuccio · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

So I had to listen to the ending twice, it confused me at first. The narrator was great, I've listened to him before. The writing was very good but he kept the horror very bland for my taste. I feel there was so much internal dialog as well as dialog between characters that it left no room for real blood and guts horror. If you are a vanilla kind of horror fan, this is the audiobook for you. It was good, it was but not scary.

[Jayne · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

It was fun in the beginning but got a little draggy at the end. A love letter to the horror genre.

[Tasha · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The plot of this book didn’t go anywhere near where I thought it would which was a delight! Excellent ghostie stories.

[kezzhall · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Really enjoyable with a unique twist. Narrator has a great voice.

[Mandy Stees · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed this book. The best part is I didn’t see the end coming.

[Tennille Covington · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The ending made no sense. The story is good enough to keep you listening to find out what happens, but when you do, it makes no sense.

[flashcraft · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Confusing story with unlikable characters. A really dumb ending. Bad.

[Bella · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I had my suspicions, as we all do with books we read, but I wasn’t quite there. I love when I kinda have an idea in a mystery or horror and the author takes that idea and crashes it into my senses. This book did that. Right when I was getting SO tired of one of the characters, everything fell into place. I now dislike every character in this book and I’m not upset about it. This is one I’ll have to listen to again now knowing how it all played out.

[Alexandra Jane Welcome · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

The characters never shut up long enough for anything good to happen. They just talked and talked and talked. I found myself more than once out loud saying, "my hell, shut uuup!"
Zero atmosphere.
Way too much pop culture references.
Cheesy and cringy dialogue and conversations.
I felt like I was being forced to eavesdrop on two drunk old guys at a bar.
And the twist... I literally rolled my eyes and laughed out loud and I continued to laugh out loud (not exaggerating) until the last line. I predicted the ending pretty early on but kept praying I was wrong. I thought, "no way will the author pull that. He can't be that stupid."....well... he was.
A dumb, DUMB book.