As an Old Memory

Kerry (Revel’s Ending) spins a dark, disturbing tale of historic wrongs and generational curses. Charlotte McAdams is the sole survivor of a massacre at a high school dance in Pinehurst, Ala., in the 1950s. Blame for the mass deaths is immediately placed on the school’s one black student, and Charlotte’s racist brother, Sim, organizes a lynch mob to hunt him down. In the 1990s, the McAdams family is haunted by ghosts from their past, both figuratively and literally, and the new generation of McAdams comes to realize that the atrocities of the ’50s were connected to a curse placed on the family shortly after the Civil War. Alternating between the two timelines, Kerry weaves in historical details, eerie imagery, and some true scares. Though there’s a supernatural element, the real horror lies in Kerry’s dynamic characters—the traumatized Charlotte, unrepentant Sim, and Sim’s beleaguered son, Alan—reckoning with the senseless violence in their family history. Fans of intricate historical fiction and horror will enjoy this taut, powerful story. (Aug.)