“Absolutely chilling.”—Mallory O’Meara, author of The Lady from the Black LagoonInspired by a true story, this supernatural thriller for fans of horror and true crime follows a tale as it evolves every twenty years—with terrifying results. In the 1930s, Ella Louise and her daughter Jessica are dragged from their home at the outskirts of Pilot’s Creek, Virginia, in the middle of the night. Ella … the middle of the night. Ella Louise is accused of using her apothecary for witchcraft, and both are burned at the stake. Ella Louise’s burial site is never found, but the little girl has the most famous grave in the South: a steel-reinforced coffin surrounded by a fence of interconnected white crosses. Some wonder: If the mother was the witch, why is Jessica’s grave so tightly sealed?
This question fuels a legend as their story is told around a campfire in the 1950s by a man forever marked by his boyhood encounters with Jessica. Decades later, a boy at that campfire will cast Amber Pendleton as Jessica in a ’70s horror movie inspired by the Witch Girl of Pilot’s Creek. Amber’s experiences on the set and its meta-remake in the ’90s will ripple through pop culture, ruining her life and career after she becomes the target of a witch hunt herself.
Amber’s best chance to break the cycle of horror comes when a true-crime investigator tracks her down to interview her for his popular podcast. But will this final act of storytelling redeem her—or will it bring the story full circle, ready to be told once again. And again. And again . . .
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What’s scarier than a ghost? The ghost of a witch . . . in a cemetery! This is a fast-paced, spooky, plot-driven novel.
Chapman skillfully brings to life his protagonist, Amber, who is a horror-movie scream queen. The hounding fans, her anxiety, her drinking, and her Hollywood mom . . . Chapman captures it all so well.
Chapman’s descriptions of the dead witches and the cemetery are detailed and eerie. The description of Amber’s movie makeup is downright creepy, and I even got a little claustrophobic reading about the plaster casting for Amber’s face.
The plot is perfect with a balance of heart-racing scenes and slower, goose bump scenes. The ending is satisfying (in that horror-novel way, not a happily-ever-after way!).
My only complaint about the book is that Chapman’s prose is short and choppy and remains so throughout the book. His prose makes for a quick and easy read, but to me it’s not as interesting as more varied prose.
Kudos to the book cover artist, awesome infinity-like snake image.
Overall, a fast, fun, scary read!
The Remaking by Clay McLeod Chapman is an odd duck to try to describe. I thought it got off to an amazing and creepy start, and there are some really great parts, but there was still just something off for me that left me not loving it. I thought it could be a bit repetitive at times, and the style in which it is written definitely took some getting used to, but it seemed to fit the overall vibe of the book. I loved the storyline and the idea of the plot, but the execution was not quite there for me. However, I did like the themes Chapman was trying to get across, and it definitely kept me interested. I listened to the audiobook which was very well done. There is a whole cast of narrators who are Corey Allen, Morgan Hallett, Suzy Jackson & Clay McLeod Chapman (yes, he’s in there too), and the way it was recorded reminded me a bit of The Blair Witch Project.
I also really liked the paranormal aspect of The Remaking, and even though it is marketed as horror, it was a milder dose of horror in my opinion. That being said, there are definitely parts that got me more than others, and I REALLY don’t recommend trying to eat while you are reading or listening to this one, I tried and ended up losing my appetite. I was also a big fan of the way it is divided up into different parts, and I kept going because I had no idea where it was going to go. You don’t really get a chance to connect to any of the characters, but that wasn’t much of an issue for me overall. I think The Remaking is something you need to experience and it’s not something I can describe, so if it sounds good to you, I would definitely give it a shot.
I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
Pilot’s Creek, Virginia is known for one thing, the legend of Ella Louise and Jessica, the mother and daughter who were accused of being witches in 1931. After the townsmen burned them at the stake, Ella Louise’s remains were abandoned in the woods. But little Jessica’s were buried in the cemetery under layers of cement. Her grave is surrounded by interlocking crosses, just to make sure.
In the 1970’s a man named Lee Ketchum decided to make a movie about the legend of the mother and daughter witches. Having grown up with the legend, he had been obsessed since he was a boy to make a movie of their story. Amber Pendelton is cast in his movie as little Jessica. Her life is forever changed by what she experienced in the woods during the filming of the movie.
This is a classic ghost story. It is also about cult horror films and how they don’t seem to die. I felt the book dragged out a bit too much, though, and parts were slow-moving.
Chapman has expertly crafted an ouroboros of a horror story. The Remaking is a fast-paced and haunting examination of how misogyny poisons our culture, generation after generation. It’s absolutely chilling. You won’t be able to put it down or stop thinking about it after the lights go out.
3.5
I’m so conflicted about The Remaking, really wanted to love this, a story inspired by true events about cursed horror films based on on witches who were burned at the stake couldn’t be more up my alley in genre if it tried. Sadly for me personally, the way it was told made it ok but not great.
“Here lies Jessica Ford. May she always burn.”
The Remaining is told in four parts, the campfire urban legend recounting the events in Pilot’s Creek on October 16, 1931 at four minutes past midnight when a woman Ella Louise Ford and her nine year old daughter Jessica were burned at the stake for witchcraft.
“Wayne and his co-conspirators buried poor little Jessica in a steel reinforced coffin. They laid her body to rest right there, in our very own Pilot’s Creek Cemetery, along with the rest of the dead from our town. After they lowered her coffin into the ground, they filled it with concrete. Three whole bags worth.
But those boys didn’t stop there though, did they? No they went ahead and erected a metal fence out of interconnected crosses. Over a hundred crucifixes, arm-in-arm with one another, surrounding her resting place.”
Awesome right?! We learn of the seemingly cursed 1971 horror movie, with nine year old Amber Pendleton cast to play Jessica, The Little Witch Girl and the effect the movie has on the rest of her life. Here is where I didn’t care for some of the writing, it seemed several paragraphs were repeated with the same information several times or just strange sentences. “And yet…” was in so many places but it really threw off my enjoyment. In 1995 a remake of the original, this time with Amber cast to play the mother Ella Louise, is also seemingly cursed. This ultimately leads to the final part in 2016, a podcaster looking to debunk all the crazy theories that have been born over the many years and to hear from Amber Pendleton the truth about everything.
The story, for me, was less a supernatural horror than a character study on a person who played such a central role in the horror films. If that was ultimately the author’s intent, bravo, if not I’m sure plenty of other people probably will enjoy it as a horror story perhaps. Don’t let my opinions keep anyone from reading this, it is very clever and a pretty read.
*My many thanks to Quirk Books and Penguin Random House for an ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.*
The Remaking is a very original ghost story. Told primarily in first person present tense – my lease favorite writing format – it was nevertheless very hard for me to put down. It’s a page-turner.
The book opens in 1951 with a storyteller recounting a local urban legend about a witch and her daughter who were burned at the stake in the early 1900s. The tale is known as The Little Witch Girl of Pilot’s Creek. We then move to 1971 and meet Amber, a nine-year-old girl who has been cast in the role of the witch girl in a low budget horror flick. We remain in her head as the very creepy story of the production unfolds. Then, we jump to 1995. The movie is being remade and Amber is now in her early thirties and playing the role of the mama witch. Finally, we move to the current day and enter the head of a podcaster who tracks middle-aged Amber down to find out what really happened during those cursed movie productions.
The book is very well written and quite original. The horror is psychological and – very possibly – supernatural. We’re primarily in Amber’s head. She put me in mind of Eleanor Vance in The Haunting of Hill House, but here the thoughts are unrelieved and unrelenting. It’s a disturbing read for fans of psychological horror.