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A review by teamredmon
Remains by Andrew Cull
5.0
My tentative 2019 Book of the Year.
Remains by Andrew Cull is a heartwrenching, terrifying, and bloody good. The story of Lucy Campbell, who is in the deepest throughs of grief after her son Alex was brutally murdered. Part 1 examines how Lucy is dealing or not dealing with her grief. We meet Lucy as she is signing herself out of inpatient psychiatric care against her doctor's wishes. It has been nine months since Alex's murder, Lucy's and her husband have separated, and she has nothing left. She feels pulled to the house where Alex was murdered, 1828 Montgomery Road. The house is abandoned, the family that lived there having fled after the murder. The police closed all the curtains, trying to hide the bloodstains and destruction from the public but now the curtains are open in one upstairs room. Lucy believes she sees a figure in the window. Could it be Alex?
In part 2 when we begin to find out the specifics of what happened to Alex, and Lucy starts to fall further to madness, is when the real terror begins. I'll say no more about it but Cull's writing is legitimately terrifying. This story is not really a haunted house story. This is a story about horrible loss and unthinkable grief told through the lens of a haunted house. The emotional terror of this book hit me so much harder than the paranormal scares, even though those were quite scary. I cannot believe that Remains is Cull's debut novel because he writes like an elder statesman of horror, someday I imagine he will be.
Remains by Andrew Cull is a heartwrenching, terrifying, and bloody good. The story of Lucy Campbell, who is in the deepest throughs of grief after her son Alex was brutally murdered. Part 1 examines how Lucy is dealing or not dealing with her grief. We meet Lucy as she is signing herself out of inpatient psychiatric care against her doctor's wishes. It has been nine months since Alex's murder, Lucy's and her husband have separated, and she has nothing left. She feels pulled to the house where Alex was murdered, 1828 Montgomery Road. The house is abandoned, the family that lived there having fled after the murder. The police closed all the curtains, trying to hide the bloodstains and destruction from the public but now the curtains are open in one upstairs room. Lucy believes she sees a figure in the window. Could it be Alex?
In part 2 when we begin to find out the specifics of what happened to Alex, and Lucy starts to fall further to madness, is when the real terror begins. I'll say no more about it but Cull's writing is legitimately terrifying. This story is not really a haunted house story. This is a story about horrible loss and unthinkable grief told through the lens of a haunted house. The emotional terror of this book hit me so much harder than the paranormal scares, even though those were quite scary. I cannot believe that Remains is Cull's debut novel because he writes like an elder statesman of horror, someday I imagine he will be.