His Book, Her Book
The conversational podcast where a horror obsessed husband and his genre hopping wife try to understand each other’s reading choices, clash tastes and stay happily married through it all. Together we’ll dive into stories from opposite ends of the bookshelf, laughing, debating, recommending and occasionally roasting each other’s picks.
His Book, Her Book
Four Unforgettable Reads That Bend Time And Break Homes
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A haunted house is scary because it breaks the one rule we all rely on: home should feel safe. Time travel is scary for the opposite reason because it tempts us with the one thing we can’t actually have, a redo. We put those two beloved tropes head-to-head and share the books that, for us, do them best, from slow-burn dread to twisty reverse-timeline suspense.<br><br>On the haunted house side, we talk Twelve Nights At Rotter House by J.W. Acker, where a travel writer’s skeptical mindset starts to crack as the house tightens its grip and an old friendship frays in the background. Then we jump to Grady Hendrix’s How To Sell A Haunted House, a wild mix of horror, humor, and grief featuring sibling baggage, a chaotic family home, and a possessed puppet that refuses to be ignored. If you like your horror with heart and a little camp, we get into why this one works and what to watch out for if you hate dolls.<br><br>For time travel, we go emotional first with Emma Straub’s This Time Tomorrow, a warm and deeply relatable story about waking up at sixteen and getting unexpected time with a parent. Then we shift into psychological thriller territory with Gillian McAllister’s Wrong Place, Wrong Time, where a mother witnesses a murder and wakes up moving backward through the days to find the cause before it’s too late. Along the way, we talk causality, family bonds, and why time travel doesn’t need to be “for sci-fi fans” to hit hard.<br><br>If you love reading recommendations, haunted house novels, time travel books, horror fiction, and smart thrillers with emotional depth, hit subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave us a review. Which trope wins for you: haunted houses or time travel?
Books discussed in this episode:
- Twelve Nights at Rotterhouse - JW Ocker (2019)
- This Time Tomorrow - Emma Straub (2022)
- How To Sell a Haunted House - Grady Hendrix (2023)
- Wrong Place Wrong Time - Gillian McAllister (2022)
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Welcome To The Literary Chaos
SPEAKER_01Welcome to his book, Her Book, the conversational podcast where a former obsessed husband and his genre hopping wife try to understand each other's reading choices, clash tastes, and stay happily married through it all. Together we'll dive into stories from opposite ends of the bookshelf, laughing, debating, recommending, and occasionally roasting each other's picks. Because in this relationship, there's one guarantee. The only thing scarier than his novels is My TBR Shelf. This is his book, Her Book, hosted by German and Jackie. Sit back, grab a snack, and enjoy the literary chaos.
SPEAKER_00Welcome to this episode of His Book, Her Book. We're your host German and Jackie.
SPEAKER_01Last week we talked about some of 2025's hits and misses. What are we talking about this week?
SPEAKER_00This week we're going to talk about some of our favorite favorite examples of a trope we really enjoy.
Why Haunted Houses Hook Us
SPEAKER_00For you? Time travel. And for me, haunted houses. Which is, I think, a favorite for favorite for a lot of people, right? Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I think I'm sure these are going to be very popular. I hope they're popular tropes. Or if not, if people are maybe curious about time travel. So, German, let's start with your trope. Tell us what you love so much about haunted houses.
SPEAKER_00Haunted houses, for me, longtime favorite. I mean, come on. Haunted houses as a thing, I think, starts at such a young age for most of us, right? Yeah. I mean, everybody had a haunted house in their neighborhood. When I grew up, where I grew up in Jersey, really, anywhere that somebody's grown up, there was always that one house in the neighborhood that maybe just a little more weathered, a little darker, a little more sort of like scary than the other houses in the neighborhood. The sun never seemed to hit it. You did? Yeah, yours possible. Yeah, but you know, you never shine on these houses. And then we had one house at night. You know, there's never any exterior lights on, even interior lights on. Or they just didn't work, or maybe the house was abandoned. I don't know. Anyway, there's also actually speaking of abandoned, we had an abandoned sort of warehouse down at the end of our block that was also super creepy.
SPEAKER_02Sounds creepy.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I know, but I had to walk by it sometimes when I was doing my paper route. Yeah, this is when people read papers. And it always I know, and I always pick up the pace just a little bit as I'm like striding by, trying to look cool, but no, I'm not. But then, of course, start watching horror movies, haunted house movies, the Emmanuel Horror, The Shining, Still Going Today, Paranormal Activity, The Conjuring, etc. etc. All this just to say I have a love for the haunted house trope. Still, still today. Ghosts, strange happenings. It's in what we all believe is our safest space, our house.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's a good way of putting it. Alright, German, so let's get into your first
Twelve Nights At Rotter House
SPEAKER_01novel. What are you recommending?
SPEAKER_00My first novel is Twelve Nights at Rotter House, written by J.W. Acher, published in 2019. And let's keep the synopsis thing going, Jackie.
SPEAKER_01All right. A horror novel following jaded travel writer Felix, who stays at the notorious haunted Roder House to write a book, accompanied by his estranged friend Thomas. As they experience escalating paranormal occurrences, they confront their broken friendship. But the house's true horror stems from their own psychological unraveling and a shocking twist.
SPEAKER_00Oh yeah. Well, yeah, as the uh the haunted house, it is a haunted house novel, as the synopsis says, but it is with a twist, and I won't spoil that. I'd rather let everyone discover it and judge it for themselves.
SPEAKER_01It's a good one.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it is a good one. Personally, what I think. What I will say is Felix is supposed to stay 13 nights, but the title reads Dun dun dun. Anyway, at the heart of the story is yes, the infamous Rotterhand Rotterdam mansion with its tainted history, including some bizarre enormous deaths. The house also features classic haunted house elements like disembodied voices, unsettling figures, and it and items apparently moving on their own. Whatever haunted house has, right? But what I like is actually I really like this. What I like is that the house is also sort of a vessel for the story of the friendship between Felix and Thomas. Well, let's call it a strain friendship. This is a slow burned tale, so know that ahead of time going into it. But I feel that this novel really needs that, like for you to really get to know the two main characters and to learn about their friendship and why it's strained and s and why Felix hopes this time alone with Thomas will help possibly mend it if it even can be mended. They seem to have a good rapport during the b in the story, they love haunted houses and they love horror movie trivia. Felix is a bit of a skeptic, Thomas is a believer. I found myself asking, what happened that screwed up their friendship? But this is a haunted house story, let's not forget that. The slow burn tension works here and from all his previous experiences on non-haunted haunted houses, Felix, like I said, is a skeptic, but it gets harder and harder for him to explain the occurrences away. Not only that, but he finds that the nonfiction book he came here to write is moving closer to like an all-out horror novel. The twist, again, I'm not gonna give it away, but I will say it is divisive, and I lean to the side that I love it.
SPEAKER_02I loved it. You know what to do. Thank you. See?
SPEAKER_00I knew something was catching. Yeah, because I knew something was coming, but I didn't catch it. Caught me by surprise. Caught me by surprise. I will say, no matter what the twist is, as I was reading the book, I felt like I was reading a haunted house book. I'll leave it at that. On an interesting side note, I will say the author, JW Acker, is mainly a nonfiction travel writer. He writes about odd places he's visited. That's cool, cursed objects. Yeah. So this novel is kind of him playing in a fictional space that mirrors his real life. Oh, that's cool. It's kind of neat, yeah.
SPEAKER_01So overall, who are you gonna recommend Twelve Nights at Roder House to?
SPEAKER_00If you love Haunted House books and or if you love books with a twist, or if you love both, I think it's for you.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think it's just it was a fun story. So, like, you know, not taking horror too seriously.
SPEAKER_00No, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01I would say that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Scary moments, but not taking it too seriously. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01All right. All right. That's a good one.
SPEAKER_00So, Jackie, what about your trope?
SPEAKER_01I
Why Time Travel Feels Personal
SPEAKER_01love the trope of time travel. Anytime I hear a book involves time travel, I immediately want to read it. And for me, it's not the focus of how the time travel happens, like the physics of it. I don't want to get lost in the minutia of the mechanics involved. What I really enjoy is how time travel can be used as an instrument for creating a really thought-provoking, multidimensional storyline. It's a concept that I think pushes us to question our own timeline and all the what-ifs and possible alterations we would make of our pasts if we could. I just find time travel to be genuinely like such a fun and inventive extra layer to storytelling. I also like that when I'm reading a book that has time travel, I'm not just a passive reader. Like you need to be more present and involved in the story. And I love that.
SPEAKER_00Well, funny enough, when you when I knew you were gonna do time travel, I looked through my lists and list and list and could not find a book that I read about time travel. Bizarrely enough.
SPEAKER_01Maybe you'll read one of my recommendations.
SPEAKER_00My last book had like a smidgen of it in it, but but nothing enough for me to say I've read time travel. All right.
SPEAKER_01I I've got to get a time travel book. Seriously.
SPEAKER_00And what is your first pick for this?
SPEAKER_01All right.
This Time Tomorrow And Second Chances
SPEAKER_01Well, my first book today is This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub, and this was published in 2022. German, you want to read the synopsis?
SPEAKER_00My turn. It's New York Times best-selling novel that follows 40-year-old Alice Stern, who unexpectedly travels back in time to her 16th birthday. Confronted with her ailing father Leonard, in her present life, Alice uses this temporal shift as an opportunity to reconnect with his younger, healthier self and explore the butterfly effect of her past decisions.
SPEAKER_01Every time I think about this book, I get like a serotonin boost. I just loved it so, so much. I'm not gonna lie, I actually have multiple copies of this book because I lend it out so frequently. I describe this book as a hug, a gut punch, and a time travel thought experiment, all wrapped into one perfect package. If you've ever wished you could go back to your past, not to fix or change things, but to just be there again, you're gonna feel very seen by this novel. Okay, so as German mentioned in the synopsis, the story centers around Alice, a woman on the brink of turning 40, who suddenly finds herself waking up in her high school bedroom on her 16th birthday. And what the author does so beautifully is make this premise feel less like sci-fi gimmicky and more like an emotional doorway. The question isn't how does time travel work, but what would it feel like to inhabit your younger self with everything you know now? Chills. First off, I have to say for me, Alice was such a likable and relatable character. She's thoughtful, funny, she's self-critical and devoted. I was roughly 40 when I read this book. So time traveling back to the mid-90s when I was also 16 just felt like the best fever dream ever. One of the novel's core themes is parent-child relationships, particularly the way we come to understand our parents as full, flawed, real people rather than like fixed figures. The book handles this with real tenderness. It's about grief for sure, but also it's about connection, memory, and the strange miracle of getting more time, even when we know we can't change the outcome. Another major theme is acceptance. The premise isn't about revising the past and trying to make it perfect. It emphasizes that growth doesn't come from rewriting our lives, but from seeing them more clearly and embracing the imperfections. Overall, this novel is about love across time, about learning how to live with what we can't change and the grace of understanding ourselves and the people who raised us just a little bit better. Again, every time I think about this book, I just feel all the things. All right. Who should read this time tomorrow? Yep. If you like character-driven stories, surprise, surprise, me and another character-driven book. It's like the theme of my show, my part of the show. Books about family, more specifically, relationships between parents and their children. Witty and really insightful writing. I love Emma Straub's writing so, so much. If you were a teenager in the 90s, you will love this. I would not recommend this if you're currently caring for a sick parent or if you've recently lost a parent. If you in the past have lost a parent, just you read the trigger warnings. I don't want to be really sensitive to that. And lastly, I also just want to mention on a side note regarding the author, I just got notification that the library has my copy of American Fantasy, which is her latest book. And so excited to read that one too.
SPEAKER_00Can't believe we didn't pick that up yet.
SPEAKER_01Oh, this week for sure.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_01So, German, what's your second book?
How To Sell A Haunted House
SPEAKER_00My second book is called How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendricks, published in 2023.
SPEAKER_01And here's the synopsis. Louise Joyner must return to Charleston to sell her deceased parents' home, battling her strange brother Mark and a malevolent puppet haunted house. The novel blends horror, humor, and family drama, focusing on overcoming grief, confronting the past, and literally destroying creepy possessed objects to make the house market ready. That sounds fun. I love possessed objects. Oh, good.
SPEAKER_00Actually, now that you've mentioned that, if there is any trigger warning for this, it is pretty gory and violent. But the main thing is if you are scared of puppets and dolls and creepy stuff like that, then there's my warning for you.
SPEAKER_01Well, I know for a fact, German, you hate creepy dolls.
SPEAKER_00Boy, do I ever. Anyway, so this is a Grady Hendricks haunted house tale. If you read him before, he's all about finding ways to infuse humor into horror. Does it really well, I think. The book is a roller coaster ride of terror, camp comedy, and genuine emotion. So I like to think of it as heartfelt horror.
SPEAKER_01I like that. That's cute.
SPEAKER_00Another hallmark, another thing that Grady loves, is the female protagonist. And this book's no different. We have Louise, she's mostly happy as a single mom to her daughter Poppy, but then she is heartbroken when she gets a call from her strange brother Mark telling her that her parents have died suddenly in a car accident. So she is headed to South Carolina, enter the house. She wants to make arrangements with her brother to deal with the funeral, the belongings, and the house itself. But she finds that her slacker brother, Mark, has already made funeral arrangements and he's done it poorly. Both of them do want to sell the house, but they find that the house also is kind of a hoarder's paradise. There's puppets and dolls amongst books and literature things their moments.
SPEAKER_01I could love this house. I want to live here.
SPEAKER_00No, you do not believe me. There's stuff falling off the shelves. So on top of everything else, now they have a lot of cleanup to do before they can even think of selling the house. Speaking of cleaning up and of puppets, enter Pupkin. That's right. Pupkin. He's the wicked puppet. He plays a very big role in the story. Way beyond the haunted house. He's so central to the story, not just in a physical sense, but metaphorically and psychologically too. Now there is some tension or some tense family drama between Louise and Mark sermon throughout. It involves a major childhood incident that has kind of been swept under the rug, which I don't know how, but it was. And Pupkin's involved in that too. He's got a bit of a hold on her, a bit of a hold on Mark, both like when they were young and now as adults. And they've realized if they're gonna cleanse themselves of the house, sell the house, but cleanse themselves of the house, not just physically, they're gonna have to come together and confront their Sherry Pass and confront Pupkin. On a final note here, I'm not gonna give away anything else. There's a film adaptation currently being developed for How to Sell a Haunted House, adapted by Kendricks himself, and it looks like being directed by James Ashcroft of Coming Home in the Dark Fame, which I haven't seen, but I've heard good things about. Yeah, I think so.
SPEAKER_01I want to know more about Pupkin.
SPEAKER_00Oh, Pupkin is Pupkin's everywhere. Everything is just evil. He's just one of the best antagonists ever.
SPEAKER_01Sounds like a really fun book. And it doesn't, it sounds like it's not like overly scary. I don't know.
SPEAKER_00No, there's definitely some scary parts, but it's like all the Hendricks' stuff that I've read, it's it's kind of like this fun horror, like fun house horror. So it it it is there is some violent stuff in there. I'm not gonna say what it is, but it's more of that I don't know, like cartoon violence in a sense. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Okay. I've never read anything by this author. So it's on the screen. Maybe this is my intro.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it could be.
SPEAKER_01All right.
SPEAKER_00You want to go to your second book?
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_00All right.
Wrong Place Wrong Time In Reverse
SPEAKER_00Should I take care of it? Well, you tell us first what it is.
SPEAKER_01So my second book, again, uh regarding my trope today of time travel is Wrong Place, Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister. And this was published in 2022.
SPEAKER_00Synopsis for me? Go for it. All right. Wrong Place, Wrong Time is a high concept psychological thriller about Jen, a mother who witnesses her teenage son murder a stranger on the doorstep. Waking up the next day, she discovers she is traveling backwards in time, repeating days in reverse, must uncover the cause to prevent the murder. That sounds good.
SPEAKER_01Oh, this is such a good one. So, yes, as German mentioned, the novel opens with a mother, Jen, witnessing her teenage son commit this shocking, devastating act of violence. But just when you think you know what kind of story you're in for, the book takes a sharp turn because Jen wakes up the next morning and it's yesterday.
SPEAKER_02Whoa.
SPEAKER_01So, so fun. This book is a great example of time travel being used in just a really fresh and unique way. I love how the plot is essentially solving a crime in reverse. And the author does an amazing job of pulling the reader in. So you almost feel like you're a detective with each previous date that Jen wakes up and you're trying to piece together the significance of it, like right along with her. One of the book's strongest themes is parenthood and responsibility. The time travel aspect forces Jen to reflect upon an already painful question. How much of who a child becomes can be influenced by their parents, and how much is shaped by forces unseen. As Jen travels backwards through time, the novel becomes less about preventing one event and more about understanding a lifetime of small choices and missed signs. Another key theme in Wrong Place, Wrong Time is causality, the idea that lives are shaped not just by major decisions, but by ordinary days and moments and seemingly offhand interactions. And this notion really brings me back to how time travel, when done well, inadvertently causes the reader to reflect on their own past and the moments that shape their current lives. I really just can't emphasize how obsessed I was with the concept of this book, specifically how this reverse timeline just flips our usual expectations of a story instead of moving towards a climax or digging towards an origin. And this really adds to the tension of the plot because every step jump takes into the past feels like it might finally reveal the why. And you do, I think you get an awesome payoff at the end, too, with this one. It's especially impressive how seamlessly McAllister blends the time travel structure with suspense. I would definitely categorize this book as a page turner. It is so smartly written. Each chapter kind of forces you to second guess what you thought you knew, which overall makes the reading experience like addictive, mentally stimulating, and just so, so, so much fun. All right. So who should read this book? If you enjoy smart thrillers, unconventional timelines, books that combine high concept ideas with like real emotional depth. Again, of course, the main character is just so well written, fully formed, another character-driven story. I also would say if you are a movie buff and you remember the 90s movie Memento. Oh, I remember. Remember Memento. This book gives serious memento vibes in all the best ways. So I would say that would be another reason to check this one out. Oh, and I'd mentioned that Emma Straub's newest book is available. That's American Fantasy. Julian McAllister also has a book that was just released. This is titled Caller Unknown. And I can't wait to check that one out too.
SPEAKER_00Right on.
SPEAKER_01All right, let's wrap
Big Takeaways Plus A Rebecca Hot Take
SPEAKER_01this up. All right. Any final thoughts on your picks today, German?
SPEAKER_00Actually, I do. So we had two Haunted House books, one a slow burn, the other a fun house. But beyond the house, we have two stories about broken human relationships, buried secrets, and especially the weight of the past. It's common for both horror novels, though Rotter House turns the horror inward, where How to Sell a Haunted House it's horror. Forcing the past outward. I kind of found it interesting that both books deal with damage two-person relationships. There's Felix and Tom's friendship in Rotter House, and Louise and Mark's sibling Bond in How to Sell a Haunted House. Both relationships are deeply a part of the haunting to the past trauma. In the end, both books ask who is actually haunting whom. Same question, very different takes. Jackie, any last thoughts on your picks?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I could say something similar. I had two very different uses of time travel, but both stories connected by the profoundly touching relationship between a parent and a child. We had Alice and her dad in this time tomorrow, and Jen and her son in wrong place, wrong time. I would also want the takeaway from my books to be don't let time travel intimidate you. It is not just a trope for sci-fi fans. These books showcase brilliant examples of time travel in contemporary literature and suspense. And I don't want to steal your thunder today, German, but I actually have a quick recommendation for my take on a haunted house trope. Uh-huh. I'd like listeners to chime in on this one too. But I would categorize the book Rebecca by Daphne Du Moury as a bit of a haunted house tale. I think I could make the argument that Rebecca haunts the halls of Mandrelay. Most likely I'll talk about that book and a bunch of her other novels in future episodes, but just something I wanted to throw that out, throw out there.
SPEAKER_00Also, don't forget to follow the show on your favorite podcasting service and connect with us on Instagram at podcast underscore isbook her book. Share the episode with friends too.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we want to know what you're reading, what you're recommending. And also a quick shout out to a couple of our followers, Lizzie and Paula and Lindsay. Thanks for interacting with us. We've been having fun chatting with you guys.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, thank you. Also, want
What We Are Reading Next
SPEAKER_00to talk about what we're reading right now?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. What are you reading?
SPEAKER_00Right now, I am reading Wolf at the Table by Adam Rapp. Now, this was a Daniel Krause recommendation that I heard on the podcast, The Perks of Being a Book Lover. What about you? Are you liking it? I'm loving it. Nice.
SPEAKER_01I am reading Yesteryear by Carl Claire Burke. I hope I'm pronouncing her name correctly. It is so good. Good. We're both loving our books. Yes. Yes.
SPEAKER_00All right. And uh next episode, what are we, what's uh what's coming up?
SPEAKER_01Next episode is going to be some of our favorite historical fiction.
SPEAKER_00Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01This is such a tough one. I have so many things.
SPEAKER_00I have a recent one and I have an older one, so it's gonna be fun. Uh so I hope you join us for that next episode. And until then, thank you for listening to his book, her book.
SPEAKER_01Hopefully, they become your books. Bye.