The Haunting of Rookward House

By: Darcy Coates

Narrated by: Joe Hempel

Length: 6 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's Summary

She's always watching....

When Guy finds the deeds to a house in his mother's attic, it seems like an incredible stroke of luck. Sure, the building hasn't been inhabited in 40 years and vines strangle the age-stained walls, but Guy is convinced he can clean it up and sell it. He'd be crazy to turn down free money. Right?

The house is hours from any other habitation, and Guy can't get phone reception in the old building. He decides to camp there while he does repairs. Surely nothing too bad can happen in the space of a week.

But there's a reason no one lives in Rookward House, and the dilapidated rooms aren't as empty as they seem....

A deranged woman tormented a family in Rookward 40 years before. Now her ghost clings to the building like rot. She's bitter, obsessive, and jealous...and once Guy has moved into her house, she has no intention of ever letting him leave.

©2017 Darcy Coates (P)2017 Darcy Coates

Not so scary, but still kept me up

I was expecting a scary story, I got the chills only once or twice. But that didn't stop me from really enjoying the whole experience.
The narrator was spot on and Darcy Coats' s story kept me listening until I realised I had to get up to go to work. Thanks for that sleepless night...

6 of 6 people found this review helpful

A different style of story from Darcy Coates

I am a fan of Darcy Coates and have read all of her books. This book is a bit different than all the ones I've listened to. For starters it's a male protagonist and a female antagonist. Most of Coates' books feature a female lead. Also this one is narrated by a male, the others I've listened to have all been female narrators.
The story is about a ghost who is obsessed with a former lover who believes the man who is now renovating the Rookward House is her lover come back and she will stop at nothing to keep him from leaving. The story flashes between the previous man and his family and the current man at the house without giving the reader much of a segway and the narrator sounds exactly the same in both instances. The only way I could tell if it was a flashback or modern day was when I heard the man's name. Thomas - 1960 something, Guy -modern day.
As much as I enjoy Darcy Coates I would suggest to someone who is not familiar with her work to listen to some of her other stories, The Haunting of Gillespie House, The Haunting of Blackwood House or The Folcroft Ghosts.

I hope she goes back to writing about strong female protagonists that her fans have come to enjoy from her. Although this book wasn't bad, it definitely wasn't as enjoyable as her other books in my opinion. The narration on this book also wasn't the greatest, there were places in the story where I thought listening to one of my college textbooks sounded more exciting than this guy did.

12 of 17 people found this review helpful

A Good Read

I enjoyed the book.

Guy is dealing with a situation involving the love his life and discovers his mother owns a home that could potential help him start a new life elsewhere. Somewhere where he won't run into Savannah, and somewhere where he can escape what he did to her and the Rookward House help him. If he can survive Amy.

There were a few chilling moments, a few moments that startled me, but for the most part I felt it was tamed. A lot more tamed when you compare this to other Darcy Coates novellas like - The Haunting of Ashburn House, The Hauntiinf of Blackwood House, Dead Lake, and Ghost Camera- all stories that had me sleeping with lights on.

This story is still entertaining and I found myself thinking of ways Guy could escape the strangling and supermarket hold of Amy. I wish certain things were answered, things such as: how did Guy's grandpa come to own Rookward House? why couldn't he burn it down like Sophie did in House of Shadows? why didn't Thomas or the police thoroughly search the house to ensure his family was really safe from Amy?

2 of 3 people found this review helpful

The Haunting of Rookward House

I really enjoy Darcy Coates' books as a rule. They can be a bit slow-moving in places, but there are enough creepy moments to make them enjoyable. Ditto with this story. I will say, however, that my personal preference in her books is a female main protagonist and narrator. This narrator was good, though, and that makes a huge difference.

Not the author's best or scariest book

The narrator was okay. A bit bland with no real voice inflection. I liked how the author set up us learning about Thomas' life. I felt sorry for Thomas at the beginning. Then, later in the book, I felt that he deserved what he got. He certainly reaped what he sowed. Unfortunate that his actions affected his family. Guy seemed to be a "woe is me" type. He certainly had anger management issues even after the "incident". The ending, for me, was ridiculous and makes women look weak and pathetic. Finally, there was way to much detail about the renovations Guy was going to make. This book is certainly not the author's best.

engaging read, well read, kind of want this house

Darcy Coates, as always, is an engaging read with honestly written characters that you start to love m in spite of their flaws. Joe Hempel is an excellent actor and I fall into a trance listening to him, becoming a watcher in the room with the main characters. Also, if Anna Hendrix doesn't play the woman in red when the movie comes out I'm going to riot.

Didn’t like the ending

The book was entertaining however I didn’t feel that it was one of Darcy Coates best. I really did not like the ending and felt I was left hanging.

Violent and Deranged Ghost

This book had some elements that I really enjoyed and others that I really didn’t, I’ll get on to those in a bit.

The story covers a couple of timelines: the 1965 events leading up to the haunting of Rookward house and the present day. In 1965, a man called Thomas and his family move to Rookward house in the countryside to get away from the threatening presence of Amy, Thomas’ stalker.
In the present day, the ghost of Amy is still haunting the house and becomes obsessed with Guy, a man whose mother has inherited the home from a relative.

I did like how terrifying Amy was in her ghost form – doors creaking in the night and the creepy eyes and talon-like fingers scratching about the house. She’s the perfect ghost in terms of creepiness, but how she became that way bugged me. The men in this book are portrayed of victims of this woman but in actual fact… they’re just terrible people and bring all of the events on themselves.

The first half of this story was particularly difficult to get through for a couple of reasons: Guy has travelled out into the forest to renovate the abandoned haunted house which has been left derelict for 50 years, obviously it’s going to need some DIY and tidying up but there was a lot of detail about the clearing up of vines and refitting of window panes. A lot of detail.

The second reason was that I found it very hard to keep my attention on the Hempel’s words. The sound quality was excellent and it was well read, but I found my attention straying by his lack of intonation – particularly in the first half of the book when there wasn’t much in the way of character dialogue to break things up a bit. This is one of those unfortunate circumstances when you just can’t mesh with a voice, which is always frustrating.

At only 6 hours long, it’s not that long in the world of audiobooks and is a classic haunted house scenario that’s sure to appeal to many fans of the genre. The ghost is violent, deranged and brings a very claustrophobic feel to the atmosphere of the story.

This Audiobook was provided for review by the author/narrator/publisher.
Please find this complete review and many others on my review blog.
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Love the writer, not impressed

I love previous books by Darcy Coates. This book was underwhelming. The story was interesting but I felt didn’t have any huge climatic part.

Creep factor is a 10 in this book

I listened to the sample on Audible and had to hear the rest of the story. The Audiobook is about 6 1/2 hours long. It is written by Darcy Coates and Narrated by Joe Hempel. Both have done and awesome job with this book. it is a very creepy tale of an abandoned house. Ghosts are my favorite and this one is filled with them.

Guy is helping his mom go through the attic when he stumbles across a deed to a house. When he asks about it she doesn't remember the house which was part of her inheritance. Guy decides to go look at the house thinking that maybe they could sell it and be able to move from the town they live in, and be able to get away from some bad memories and start over.

When Guy gets to the house he looks it over and thinks it is worth fixing up, and that they will get more money out of it if it is livable. The house even has a name Rookward House. It is about 3 hours from home so Guy decides it would be better to camp out in the house while working on it.

Strange things start to happen almost immediately but Guy chocks the noises up to settling, and the shadows up to the darkness. One night a couple of teenagers come around. Guy invites them in and they tell him about the horrible murders that happened in the house and the legend of it being haunted.

The strange things really amp up after this. Guy has to figure out how to get away from Rookward house with his life since the ghost has decided to make him her own.

I personally really enjoyed this book and cannot wait to listen to more books by Darcy Coates.

Good solid listen

Well written scary story, kept me interested all the way, although there was a loss of pace two thirds of way in, for couple of chapters .

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Fantastic

If you could sum up The Haunting of Rookward House in three words, what would they be?

Unexpected, gripping, enjoyable

What other book might you compare The Haunting of Rookward House to, and why?

Any of Darcy Coats works

Any additional comments?

A gripping tale that has an unusual turn. I thought it was going to be a straight forward haunting but I was surprised. By the middle of the story I was hooked and couldn't wait to listen on.