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Check It Out: The Remaking by Clay McLeod Chapman

This is Jenn Delperdang with the Sioux City Public Library and you’re listening to Check It Out.

   I recently read an article in Library Journal magazine that the horror genre is trending.  The reasons were simple enough—readers often crave stories about situations and monsters worse than the world outside their doors--that comfort can be found in fiction that explores and even validates our deepest fears. Today, I’m recommending The Remaking by Clay McLeod Chapman—an eerie and disturbing ghost story that’s not quite like anything I’ve read before.  

   “What is a ghost story?  What power does it hold over its listener? How does it evolve?”  In The Remaking, the story of the Little Witch Girl of Pilot’s Creek is told in four distinct sections.  First, we learn the real story of Ella Louise and Jessica Ford—a mother and daughter accused of witchcraft and burned at the stake in the 1930’s. Over the years, their story becomes a local urban legend, and is made into a low budget horror movie in the 1970’s.  Amber Pendleton, at only 10 years old is cast as Jessica Ford—a role that follows her and haunts her into her adult life. Amber is given the opportunity to star as Ella Louise Ford in a 1990’s remake of the film—but things go terribly wrong with the movie production, and Amber retreats to a life of seclusion until Nate Denison, who produces a true crime podcast called “Who Goes There?”, tracks Amber down in an attempt to de-bunk this ghost story.  

Check out The Remaking by Clay McLeod Chapman and other books in our new Horror collection at the Sioux City Public Library.  

Support for Check It Out on Siouxland Public Media comes from Avery Brothers.