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 13 nights, 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?
Book Reviews Blog: Twelve Nights at Rotter House
Not many people have a desire to spend a few nights in a purported haunted mansion. I am not one of these individuals. I’ve had the pleasure of spending the night in such a location as part of a production crew member who documented ghost teams searching for things that go bump in the night. No, there was no sleeping, and plenty of people kept the night from being anything but scary. It was a bummer, to say the least, and it was anything but, luxurious.
Felix Allsey, a travel writer, is determined to convince the current owner of the Rotterdam Mansion, also known as the Rotter House, to allow him access to spend thirteen nights on the property as research for his new book. Felix’s career is on its last leg and needs this, his latest book, to be a success. The Rotter House is filled with ghost stories and macabre occurrences that, despite its reputation, have never been confirmed, save for one particularly gruesome tale. Felix hopes that Rotter House will dispel his disbelief in ghosts and make him a believer in the supernatural. As the old adage goes, be careful what you wish for.
Felix is joined in the Rotter House by his best friend Thomas, who, unlike Felix, is a believer in all things paranormal, and wants to see to it that he is there for his friend and everything goes without a hitch. We learn that something is lingering just beneath the surface between the two friends. They grapple with an unsavory past while meandering throughout the dark mansion as inexplicable events and lurking shadows keep the two men on their toes. Is there something sinister in the Rotter House, or is it something else altogether?
“Because you trust your house, right? It’s your house. It protects you from the world and, even more important, all the people out there. It sees you naked every day. It knows your sins. It’s the only place where you are your true self. So when that gets corrupted, when that becomes haunted, that’s terrifying.”
― J.W. Ocker, Twelve Nights at Rotter House
Felix and Thomas are a match made in heaven in that they are both avid movie fans, particularly the horror genre. Horror movies, literature, quips, and references were talked about Ad Infinitum, and as an all-things-horror lover myself, I appreciated these moments.
The two sit in the dark rooms and hallways of the mansion and regularly quiz themselves on horror movie trivia. They play a game where they challenge one another to fire horror movie titles with specific criteria as per the rules set; for example, movies with the word “House” in the title until one of them loses. These games and the banter the two friends have was extremely entertaining and just begged for me to want to be sitting in the room with them. Other times they would engage in discussions from the perspective of a skeptic, Felix, and a believer, Thomas. They would get into friendly debates that progress from friendly into something more personal. These conversations were, for the most part, self-referential and self-aware as they called out the many haunted house story tropes such as the creaking noises, the things you see in the corner of your eye, the voices, etc. It was a great time between friends doused with laughs and terror alike. This is what made Twelve Nights at Rotter House truly shine. One moment I was sitting alongside the two friends, talking shop like we nerds tend to do about horror and the like, and the next moment my heart was trying to beat its way out of my chest because of that loud cracking noise or that figure that crossed the threshold of an opened door frame.
But, a stay in a haunted mansion is not all there is to this novel as there is, again, something lingering and not just in the shadows of the mansion but something within. It is a story of friendship and a strained relationship that comes to a head by the book’s conclusion. The revelation was a true punch to the gut. The emotions spilled right out of the pages, and I was immersed in the narrative from beginning to end with rarely a dull moment. I am often looking for that haunted house novel that will scare the crap out of me, making it hard to fall asleep. It is one of the reasons I am a big fan of and love Richard Matheson’s Hell House. But, I find myself either dosing off or rolling my eyes with many of the narratives out there with this subject matter. I could not say the same about Twelve Nights at Rotter House. This was the first book that I read by author J.W. Ocker even though I have another of his works on my shelf, A Season with the Witch, a work of non-fiction that I picked up on a trip to Cape Cod with my wife and kids. For some reason, I neglected to read it, but if this novel is any indication of what I am in for with Season, then I am 100% all in.
Twelve Nights at Rotter House was an amazing gem that brought a roller coaster of emotions that left me satisfied from start to finish. The scares were plentiful as was the mystery and humor, and I recommend Twelve Nights at Rotter House twelve times over. Give this one a read, make sure to turn off all the lights (except for your reading light), lock your doors, and pull down the shades. Go ahead. I dare you!
