Title: Do I Bother You at Night?
Author: Troy Aaron Ratliff
Genre: Horror
Publication Date: October 2013
Description (from Goodreads):
They say nothing ever happens in Kansas.
Sylvester Petersen used to think so too. That is, until a mysterious new neighbor moves in next door, seemingly out of nowhere. His handful of friends – people who tried to help him cope with the sudden death of his wife – think that it might be an opportunity for him to get reacquainted with the world outside his farmhouse and to build a new relationship with his neighbor. But that idea is soon snuffed out as strange events begin to happen around him. None of them wrong. Just strange: driving in the middle of the night, the sulfur-like odor coming off of him, the fact he doesn’t talk to anyone in the area.
And what about that dog?
Sylvester chooses the logical explanation and ignores the peculiar behavior. But when other oddities start to happen – the kind that affects Sylvester directly – he begins to worry. His reasoning dwindles and his growing fear points to his neighbor.
Where is that stray dog going?
After enough time, Sylvester starts to see and hear what the people of the area have been muttering about: Unexplainable blue light, corn crops moving on their own…the slaughtered cattle entirely too close to home.
And that stray dog that keeps getting fatter and fatter…
At the peak of summer, and with the walls closing in, Sylvester experiences something that will take him to the brink and haunt you forever.
Bathed in loss, terror and human spirit, Do I Bother You at Night? will be a story you won’t forget and one that will give you a few restless evenings of your own.
Love thy neighbor.
Review:
I received a free ecopy for an honest review.
This is an interesting book to review. It started out slowly and for a long time it seemed like there wasn’t much to it: a farmer, Sylvester, lost the love of his life to suicide and now he has a strange neighbor whom he hasn’t met. When more and more strange things started happening in Sylvester’s corn field and next door, I realized there was going to be more to the story. The last quarter of the book was intense!
Troy Aaron Ratliff’s writing is easy to understand and it flows well but (and this is a personal preference) at times there were more words than necessary to get his point across. There were times when I skipped paragraphs and didn’t miss a thing. In fact, there was one time that Sylvester opened a door and there were several excruiating paragraphs before I found out what was behind the door.
The characters were well developed. I felt so sorry for Sylvester and all he had to go through. The townsfolk were realistic for small town people as were his friends, sadly.
The end of Do I Bother You at Night? was described well even though there was a lot going on and it almost felt like I was there. My first thought when I was finished with the book that I was so glad I stuck with it!