Synopsis:
When someone you love dies tragically, what remains?
Grief is a black house.
How far would you go? What horrors would you endure if it meant you might see the son you thought you’d lost forever?
Driven to a breakdown by the brutal murder of her young son, Lucy Campbell had locked herself away, fallen deep inside herself, become a ghost haunting room 23b of the William Tuke Psychiatric Hospital.
There she’d remained, until the whispering pulled her back, until she found herself once more sitting in her car, calling to the son she had lost, staring into the black panes of the now abandoned house where Alex had died.
Tonight, someone is watching her back.
Edition:
Paperback
Disclaimer:
I won this book in an online giveaway the author was doing. This doesn’t impact my review in any way.
Triggers:
- violent child death
- grief
- hover over the spoiler tag below at your own discretion as it is a major plot point, but a definite potential trigger
Awards/Nominations:
- Aurealis Award Nominee for Best Horror Novel (2019)
My Thoughts:
This is a really heavy book. It’s bleak. It made me want to crawl under the covers and cry it out for an hour or so after I read the last page. If you’re looking for fun horror, look elsewhere. But if you’re looking for that place where grief and terror intersect (think Crossroads), Remains is a great choice.
According to the foreword, Remains is loosely based on a real story that was relayed to him by a family friend, who just so happened to be the paranormal investigator who was consulted on the 1974 case when exorcisms and seances failed to deal with the haunting.
“Don’t go back to that house, Lucy. Whatever you do, don’t go back to that house.”
While much of the goings on in this story (and apparently the real life case upon which it was based) can be attributed to the depths of the mother’s grief, it can’t all. There is a definite sense of something evil lurking within the walls of 1428 Montgomery. But what is it? Where did it come from? Perhaps most importantly, what does it want?
One particularly element of Remains is the haunting way that Cull manages to portray the crippling effect of Alex’s murder – not just on his parents, but on absolutely everyone who was closely connected to him, his family, or his killer. His family, the murderer’s family, the police investigating the case, etc. Because violent crime has a way of creating ripples that, if left unchecked can keep going and going.
“Grief had stripped the life from her. She’d wasted away until she was a bag of bones, a dead thing unable to find peace.”
Lucy is a character that you can’t help but empathize with. The murder of her son left a hole in her that she can’t even begin to imagine ever being filled. She is completely devoid of hope. She can’t see any way forward that doesn’t involve having her son returned to her. So how does she reconcile that with the reality that remains?
About the Author:
Andrew Cull is an award-winning writer and horror director. He wrote and directed The Possession of David O’Reilly (2010). His collection of short stories, Bones, was released in 2018 to acclaim (and a 4.36 star-average on Goodreads). Andrew lives in Melbourne, Australia.
Rating:
Remains By Andrew Cull IFWG Publishing Australia Published: August 1, 2019 ISBN: 9781925759952 Paperback, E-book 214 Pages Author's Website
