More than a decade ago, Mira fled her small, segregated hometown in the south to forget. With every mile she traveled, she distanced herself from her past: from her best friend Celine, mocked by their town as the only white girl with black friends; from her old neighborhood; from the eerie Woodsman plantation rumored to be haunted by the spirits of slaves; from the terrifying memory of a ghost she saw that terrible day when a dare-gone-wrong almost got Jesse—the boy she secretly loved—arrested for murder.
But now Mira is back in Kipsen to attend Celine’s wedding at the plantation, which has been transformed into a lush vacation resort. Mira hopes to reconnect with her friends, and especially, Jesse, to finally tell him the truth about her feelings and the events of that devastating long-ago day.
But for all its fancy renovations, the Woodsman remains a monument to its oppressive racist history. The bar serves antebellum drinks, entertainments include horrifying reenactments, and the service staff is nearly all black. Yet the darkest elements of the plantation’s past have been carefully erased—rumors that slaves were tortured mercilessly and that ghosts roam the lands, seeking vengeance on the descendants of those who tormented them, which includes most of the wedding guests.
As the weekend unfolds, Mira, Jesse, and Celine are forced to acknowledge their history together, and to save themselves from what is to come.
Mira grew up in a small town where small minds allowed racism to flourish. She hasn't been back in years, and who could blame her. But she still thinks of Jesse, her school girl crush, and what might have been had things turned out differently. Out of the blue she gets a phone call from her childhood friend Celine, practically begging her to attend her wedding. When they were children, Celine often said they could be sisters, it didn't seem to matter to her that she was white and Mira was not, or maybe it was that the white kids didn't really accept her because she was poor. Maybe she was just using Mira all along. When Mira learns that Jesse will be attending the wedding, she reluctantly agrees to make the drive, even though Celine is getting married on the old plantation where countless slaves were tortured and killed. When they were kids they heard the rumors and ghost stories about the plantation, and may have even witnessed something otherworldly themselves. Now it's all been renovated and turned into a vacation resort where the wealthy and privileged can watch slave reenactments while they pretend there was nothing wrong with owning people. But fresh paint and new construction can't hide what lurks beneath.
This was a more subtle kind of horror, very atmospheric and dark. The pace was a little slow although there is a pervasive sense of "wrongness" before Mira even reaches her destination. More than just a ghost story it shines a light on the stark contrast in the way the haves and have nots perceive the world.
3.5 out of 5 stars
I received an advance copy for review.
About the author
LaTanya McQueen is the author of When the Reckoning Comes, a novel with Harper Perennial, and And It Begins Like This, an essay collection with Black Lawrence Press. Her work has been published in TriQuarterly, New Ohio Review, West Branch, Florida Review, Bennington Review, New Orleans Review, Fourteen Hills, The North American Review, Indiana Review, Passages North, Ninth Letter, Black Warrior Review, and several other journals. She received her MFA from Emerson College, her PhD from the University of Missouri, was the Robert P. Dana Emerging Writer Fellow at Cornell College, and is now an Assistant Professor at Coe College where she teaches English and Creative Writing.
She edits creative nonfiction for the literary journal Gigantic Sequins. Her website is www.latanyamcqueen.com.
She edits creative nonfiction for the literary journal Gigantic Sequins. Her website is www.latanyamcqueen.com.
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