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Those Who Went Remain There Still
Heaster Wharton is dead, and his passing might mean an end to hostilities between the Manders and the Coys. If the the elderly patriarch showed the kindness and foresight to split his land cleanly between his feuding descendants, then a truce could be arranged.
But his final request is a strange one, delivered across the country to the straggling remnants of his tribe. Representatives from both families must visit a cave at the edge of his property in the hills of Kentucky. There, he promised, they would find his last will and testament.
But there's more than paperwork waiting underground, as vindictive old Heaster was well aware.
In 1775, Daniel Boone and a band of axe-wielding frontiersmen struggled to clear a path through the Cumberland Gap into the heart of Bluegrass country, and they did not work unopposed. Hounded and harried by an astonishing monster, the axe-men overcame the beast by sheer numbers and steel. They threw its body into a nearby cave.
It was not dead.
And now, it is not alone.
Crippled and outraged, for 100 years something terrible has huddled underground, dreaming of meat and revenge. But its newest callers are heavily armed, skeptical of their instructions, and predisposed to violence.
With their guns and their savage instincts, Heaster's grandchildren will not make for easy pickings.
But his final request is a strange one, delivered across the country to the straggling remnants of his tribe. Representatives from both families must visit a cave at the edge of his property in the hills of Kentucky. There, he promised, they would find his last will and testament.
But there's more than paperwork waiting underground, as vindictive old Heaster was well aware.
In 1775, Daniel Boone and a band of axe-wielding frontiersmen struggled to clear a path through the Cumberland Gap into the heart of Bluegrass country, and they did not work unopposed. Hounded and harried by an astonishing monster, the axe-men overcame the beast by sheer numbers and steel. They threw its body into a nearby cave.
It was not dead.
And now, it is not alone.
Crippled and outraged, for 100 years something terrible has huddled underground, dreaming of meat and revenge. But its newest callers are heavily armed, skeptical of their instructions, and predisposed to violence.
With their guns and their savage instincts, Heaster's grandchildren will not make for easy pickings.
170 pages, Hardcover
First published December 31, 2008
8 people are currently reading
610 people want to read
About the author
Cherie Priest
73 books4,375 followersCherie Priest is the author of about thirty books and novellas, most recently the modern gothics It Was Her House First, The Drowning House, and Cinderwich. She's also the author of the Booking Agents mysteries, horror projects The Toll and The Family Plot – and the hit YA graphic novel mash-ups I Am Princess X and its follow up, The Agony House. But she is perhaps best known for the steampunk pulp adventures of the Clockwork Century, beginning with Boneshaker. She has been nominated for the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award, and the Locus award – which she won with Boneshaker.
Cherie has also written a number of urban fantasy titles, and composed pieces (large and small) for George R. R. Martin’s shared world universe, the Wild Cards. Her short stories and nonfiction articles have appeared in such fine publications as Weird Tales, Publishers Weekly, and numerous anthologies – and her books have been translated into nine languages in eleven countries.
Although she was born in Florida on the day Jimmy Hoffa disappeared, for the last twenty years Cherie has largely divided her time between Chattanooga, TN, and Seattle, WA – where she presently lives with her husband and a menagerie of exceedingly photogenic pets.
Cherie has also written a number of urban fantasy titles, and composed pieces (large and small) for George R. R. Martin’s shared world universe, the Wild Cards. Her short stories and nonfiction articles have appeared in such fine publications as Weird Tales, Publishers Weekly, and numerous anthologies – and her books have been translated into nine languages in eleven countries.
Although she was born in Florida on the day Jimmy Hoffa disappeared, for the last twenty years Cherie has largely divided her time between Chattanooga, TN, and Seattle, WA – where she presently lives with her husband and a menagerie of exceedingly photogenic pets.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 65 reviews
May 19, 2017
Explore a cave that is known as the Witch's Pit in Cherie Priest's book "Those Who Went Remain There Still" . This a short fireside ghost story about a monster with big nasty teeth dripping with gore, arrives early in the book and scares you through out with this story based in central Kentucky.
The story begins with Daniel Boone cutting a road through the woods and wilderness. Something is stealing food and and spoiling the rest of their supplies.
This is not a part of the Clockwork Century series, it's better than those books.
Illustrations by Mark Geyer.
The story begins with Daniel Boone cutting a road through the woods and wilderness. Something is stealing food and and spoiling the rest of their supplies.
This is not a part of the Clockwork Century series, it's better than those books.
Illustrations by Mark Geyer.
Want to read
August 14, 2011Having ordered this book three times and not received it, I decided to actually drive to the branch that owned it, since it was listed as on the shelf. It was not on the shelf. It has been missing since April, they just hadn't bothered to change the information in the catalog. Thanks a lot for the 30 minute drive, Valley Hi Library!
Moral of the story: if you can't get it from the Internet, don't bother.
Moral of the story: if you can't get it from the Internet, don't bother.
November 5, 2013
I didn't get on with the first Cherie Priest book I read (Boneshaker), but I enjoyed Bloodshot and Hellbent enough that I'm starting to try her other stuff. It seems like she can be a bit hit and miss, with me: I wasn't a big fan of Four and Twenty Blackbirds, either, but I enjoyed this short horror novella. It's mostly the atmosphere that works, the fact that she invokes her three narrators' voices well, brings to life the valley and the simmering resentment between the two halves of the family.
She doesn't over-explain or even over-describe her monster, letting it be more frightening because the characters have no idea, because we can't even really picture it. It's just a fear in the dark, huge and formless, and I think that stories that invoke that are really the horror stories that work. It ends abruptly, without any consolation or certainty, and I really like that -- I like that Cherie Priest knew when to stop the story and let the reader go on uncomfortably wondering, because it takes as much skill to know when to do that as to carry a story through right to the inevitable end, if not more.
Still, her narrators are still somewhat talkative, and I don't think this is one my partner will be enjoying anytime soon, since she didn't get into Bloodshot with its more engaging (to my mind, anyway) narrator and characters. It's not exactly creepy -- or maybe with my anxiety issues I just can't tell when I'm creeped out and when I'm just normally jumpy -- but it's intriguing and has that breathless, edge of the seat quality where it counts.
She doesn't over-explain or even over-describe her monster, letting it be more frightening because the characters have no idea, because we can't even really picture it. It's just a fear in the dark, huge and formless, and I think that stories that invoke that are really the horror stories that work. It ends abruptly, without any consolation or certainty, and I really like that -- I like that Cherie Priest knew when to stop the story and let the reader go on uncomfortably wondering, because it takes as much skill to know when to do that as to carry a story through right to the inevitable end, if not more.
Still, her narrators are still somewhat talkative, and I don't think this is one my partner will be enjoying anytime soon, since she didn't get into Bloodshot with its more engaging (to my mind, anyway) narrator and characters. It's not exactly creepy -- or maybe with my anxiety issues I just can't tell when I'm creeped out and when I'm just normally jumpy -- but it's intriguing and has that breathless, edge of the seat quality where it counts.
August 5, 2012
Did you watch History Channel's ratings breaking Hatfields and McCoys mini-series? Did you read a book about the famous feud? Then you might like this book. Two feuding families must send members to get a will that will relieve who gets the valley.
Of course, there is something in the cave. Something nasty.
The book's weakness is the second half which doesn't feel as scary as the sections told by Boone, who was one of the men who first discovered the monster.
Of course, there is something in the cave. Something nasty.
The book's weakness is the second half which doesn't feel as scary as the sections told by Boone, who was one of the men who first discovered the monster.
May 29, 2010
Cherie Priest seems to be able to do anything well. This novella is a creepy little monster story; it's sort of what the movie Jeepers Creepers would have been like if it was set in 1775 and 1899. The descriptions are vivid, the characters are interesting, and Priest does a good job creating a sense of foreboding and dread.
September 23, 2009
I’ve been waiting quite a while to read Those Who Went Remain There Still which I ordered for the library earlier in 2008. It was on backorder with B&T for a while and we only received our copy a week or so ago. I’m glad we finally did as the story (novella?) was a brisk entertaining read that cast a straightforward monster story in a fascinating light. In a sparse 175 pages Priest manages to craft not only a cast of believable characters, including the historical Daniel Boone, but a surprisingly detailed setting drenched in a kind of wilderness gothic. Despite the paucity of words Priest manages to tell a tale that few writers could match with twice the word count.
Full review here/
Full review here/
March 1, 2015
1775. Daniel Boone and a team of lumberjacks cut the Wilderness Trail through the wilds of Central Kentucky, finding themselves harried every night by a nefarious winged beast... 1899. The feud between the Coys and the Manders may well be over, as the progenitor of their lines (and their town) has passed. He's left in his wake instructions for six men -- three from each family -- to head into the local cave, the Witch's Pit, to collect his last will and testimony. But inside they find nothing but death and horror, the burial and breeding ground of something Boone thought he put to rest a century before...
Priest weaves a tapestry of early-American folklore and Southern Gothic horror that’s bound to impress—if you want to start with Cherie Priest, get started with this one. The characterization is superb, the atmosphere is palpable, and the plotting top-notch. I’m also very much a fan of the setting—the kind of “rustic Americana” horror that Manly Wade Wellman did so well with his Silver John stories, to name one example. I can’t even complain that the story is too short, since it’s exactly the right length—I just wish there was more like it. Priest wrote several other short horror novels, and I have a couple of them, so I may investigate further and see if they are as well-crafted as this one.
Full review found here.
Priest weaves a tapestry of early-American folklore and Southern Gothic horror that’s bound to impress—if you want to start with Cherie Priest, get started with this one. The characterization is superb, the atmosphere is palpable, and the plotting top-notch. I’m also very much a fan of the setting—the kind of “rustic Americana” horror that Manly Wade Wellman did so well with his Silver John stories, to name one example. I can’t even complain that the story is too short, since it’s exactly the right length—I just wish there was more like it. Priest wrote several other short horror novels, and I have a couple of them, so I may investigate further and see if they are as well-crafted as this one.
Full review found here.
February 19, 2013
first person narrator changing between chapters was very confusing, but it started off with an interesting premise (totally made me think of "The Upstream Tanbarks" from a recent session of my gaming group ;).
but one character "seeing dead people" felt a little played out, and the situation revealed at the end was pretty obvious halfway through. then it ended, without any resolution. just a mess of implausible action that felt like the spelunking horror film "Descent".
but one character "seeing dead people" felt a little played out, and the situation revealed at the end was pretty obvious halfway through. then it ended, without any resolution. just a mess of implausible action that felt like the spelunking horror film "Descent".
December 23, 2011
I finished reading Those Who Went Remain There Still last night. It’s a short horror novel (170 pages) set in Kentucky in 1899 with flashbacks to 1775. Beyond that it’s a monster-in-the-dark romp.
The 1899 story concerns a feuding, somewhat inbred, Kentucky family, the Manders and the Coys, both descended from the recently deceased Heaster Wharton, Junior. Heaster is not only the local patriarch, but also the richest man in town (although that’s not saying much given the local squalor). In an apparent effort to get his descendants to quit their fighting, Heaster has hidden his will in a local cave and selected 3 representatives from each side to bring it out.
Back in 1775, Daniel Boone is leading a team of men blazing the trail for the Wilderness Road. They’ve crossed the Cumberland Gap and are in central Kentucky near the trail's end. Unfortunately they are also being harried by some sort of near indestructible monster. One of the team members is “Little” Heaster…
For the first half of the novel, the 1899 sections move along nicely; but there’s nothing of a horror novel there, just getting all the characters together and setting the stage as it were. The 1775 sections are quite different. Daniel and his men are fighting their half-seen monster nightly and losing. The contrast of the family tensions in 1899 and the monster fighting tensions in 1775 give a nice creepy feel to the family gathering.
Few of the characters in this short novel are fully formed. Aside from Daniel, and to a lesser extent Little Heaster, the characters in 1775 are just nameless monster fodder. On the 1899 side the six cave explorers at least have names; but except for Meshack Coy (the book’s main character) and John Coy (Meshack’s uncle) they are essentially interchangeable. Even with names I had a hard time telling two of the Manders and third Coy apart.
About 100 pages in, Meshack and his relations finally enter the cave and all hell breaks loose shortly thereafter. From there to the end, the novel moves at a frantic pace, barely giving readers time to catch a breath.
Priest is a fairly prolific writer; with something like twelve novels published since 2003; but this is only the fourth book of hers that I’ve read. The other three are Dreadful Skin (2007), Fathom (2008) and Boneshaker (2009). Of the four I think I enjoyed Boneshaker the most, followed by Fathom and Those Who Went Remain There Still in a near tie.
I’m definitely going to read more of her work.
The 1899 story concerns a feuding, somewhat inbred, Kentucky family, the Manders and the Coys, both descended from the recently deceased Heaster Wharton, Junior. Heaster is not only the local patriarch, but also the richest man in town (although that’s not saying much given the local squalor). In an apparent effort to get his descendants to quit their fighting, Heaster has hidden his will in a local cave and selected 3 representatives from each side to bring it out.
Back in 1775, Daniel Boone is leading a team of men blazing the trail for the Wilderness Road. They’ve crossed the Cumberland Gap and are in central Kentucky near the trail's end. Unfortunately they are also being harried by some sort of near indestructible monster. One of the team members is “Little” Heaster…
For the first half of the novel, the 1899 sections move along nicely; but there’s nothing of a horror novel there, just getting all the characters together and setting the stage as it were. The 1775 sections are quite different. Daniel and his men are fighting their half-seen monster nightly and losing. The contrast of the family tensions in 1899 and the monster fighting tensions in 1775 give a nice creepy feel to the family gathering.
Few of the characters in this short novel are fully formed. Aside from Daniel, and to a lesser extent Little Heaster, the characters in 1775 are just nameless monster fodder. On the 1899 side the six cave explorers at least have names; but except for Meshack Coy (the book’s main character) and John Coy (Meshack’s uncle) they are essentially interchangeable. Even with names I had a hard time telling two of the Manders and third Coy apart.
About 100 pages in, Meshack and his relations finally enter the cave and all hell breaks loose shortly thereafter. From there to the end, the novel moves at a frantic pace, barely giving readers time to catch a breath.
Priest is a fairly prolific writer; with something like twelve novels published since 2003; but this is only the fourth book of hers that I’ve read. The other three are Dreadful Skin (2007), Fathom (2008) and Boneshaker (2009). Of the four I think I enjoyed Boneshaker the most, followed by Fathom and Those Who Went Remain There Still in a near tie.
I’m definitely going to read more of her work.
March 9, 2009
"A creepy little monster story" -- that's how author Cherie Priest describes this delightful 170-page tidbit of a novel.
Set in 1775 and 1899, the story alternates between Daniel Boone's adventure in building the Wilderness Road and two feuding families brought together over a patriarch's last will.
Although I felt the story started slowly, ponderously heavy with the baggage of exposition, once the assembled party got underway, the action developed with the crackle of an oil-fed wildfire. With the monsters' relentlessness and the desperate panic of the survivors trying to escape, I found myself galloping towards the ending in the middle of the night.
And I loved the ending...
Set in 1775 and 1899, the story alternates between Daniel Boone's adventure in building the Wilderness Road and two feuding families brought together over a patriarch's last will.
Although I felt the story started slowly, ponderously heavy with the baggage of exposition, once the assembled party got underway, the action developed with the crackle of an oil-fed wildfire. With the monsters' relentlessness and the desperate panic of the survivors trying to escape, I found myself galloping towards the ending in the middle of the night.
And I loved the ending...
August 7, 2009
A very strange tale of an inbred family and how the their leader (Hester Jr) decided to choose his inheritor, combined with a tale of Daniel Boone and his men trying to clear a trail, 100 years before, through Kentucky, and the monster that brings them all together.
October 28, 2021
Does some things well and shows a lot of promise, but tails off and feels very incomplete. The skeleton for a great story is here, but there’s insufficient meat on the bones.
November 13, 2018
Not a bad little story! I thought the pace was fine, and the mystery held well. The whole "seeing ghosts" for one character did feel forced, though, as not enough time was spent on developing that. In addition, one thing that truly irritated me was the breaks in between so many paragraphs. That little thing authors do to separate a scene in a chapter, where they put a break with a little image or a like or just multiple spaces? This book has them EVERYWHERE. Mid scene all the time. She uses them to break apart the same scene and thought process instead of just when a scene changes, and it really pulled me out of the story often.
So did how it switches POV in first person per chapter, which is fine, but she only labels one of the three characters, so a chapter can start and you have no idea who it is because it is in first person. Takes a few sentences or even half a page before she drops a clue as to who you're reading, which really messed with my concentration and focus on the story. It could be have been in third person and still gotten the same effect while not throwing readers into confusion.
So did how it switches POV in first person per chapter, which is fine, but she only labels one of the three characters, so a chapter can start and you have no idea who it is because it is in first person. Takes a few sentences or even half a page before she drops a clue as to who you're reading, which really messed with my concentration and focus on the story. It could be have been in third person and still gotten the same effect while not throwing readers into confusion.
August 5, 2019
I love most of Cherie Priest's works, but I'm starting to see that some of her older work isn't for me. Which is kinda sad, because I want to read everything she writes, but apparently that's not the smartest idea.
Compared to the other horror story I've read by her, this one wasn't scary at all. it may have been the fact that I listened to it during the day as I unpacked boxes and cleaned, or it may just have been the story, but I never found myself scared. Honestly, I was a little bored.
The writing was ok, I guess, even if the jumping back and forth in time/POV was a little confusing. The characters all seemed rather alike. The only difference was how they chose to live their lives, but other than that, they didn't stricke me as all that different.
That may be the fault of the narrators as well. Unfortunatly, male narrators don't always work for me. They always try to be so serious and heavy handed, which makes the actual scary parts not that scary.
Also, there were three different narrators here, but I could hardly tell them apart. It took me multiple chapters to even realize that there were different narrators.
Compared to the other horror story I've read by her, this one wasn't scary at all. it may have been the fact that I listened to it during the day as I unpacked boxes and cleaned, or it may just have been the story, but I never found myself scared. Honestly, I was a little bored.
The writing was ok, I guess, even if the jumping back and forth in time/POV was a little confusing. The characters all seemed rather alike. The only difference was how they chose to live their lives, but other than that, they didn't stricke me as all that different.
That may be the fault of the narrators as well. Unfortunatly, male narrators don't always work for me. They always try to be so serious and heavy handed, which makes the actual scary parts not that scary.
Also, there were three different narrators here, but I could hardly tell them apart. It took me multiple chapters to even realize that there were different narrators.
June 26, 2020
Wow, I have read Cherie Priest before but this one knocked it out of the park for me. It is the first of her books that I have listened to thru Audible rather than physically reading it. I loved how she cleverly twisted the past into the present in order to resolve the immediate issue at hand. Definitely worth your time, especially if happens to be a dark rainy day.
October 21, 2023
Fun little monster story. For such a short story it did a good job of incorporating multiple POVs and even a story on two different timelines. With that said due to its shortness it was really just a scary story, without a lot of room for anything much deeper. I thought it was a fun scary read for Halloween month.
February 10, 2019
Stunning and terse. Nicely done ending.
Read
January 11, 2021gripping, atmospheric, delightfully dreadful. I only wish this was a full fledged novel, and the ending better fleshed out.
February 21, 2021
So many typos
I would probably have given this book another star if not for the massive amount of typos. The plot was good but the lack of editing was too distracting.
I would probably have given this book another star if not for the massive amount of typos. The plot was good but the lack of editing was too distracting.
May 22, 2024
high recommend
I found this recommended in the back of the “Old Gods of Appalachia” PHB. I can definitely tell why. It’s really good.
I found this recommended in the back of the “Old Gods of Appalachia” PHB. I can definitely tell why. It’s really good.
June 15, 2024
3.5 stars
October 6, 2024
Very exciting monster story with a brutally abrupt ending
June 20, 2025
2.5 stars
January 3, 2013
Originally posted at FanLit http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...
Those Who Went Remain There Still is a short Southern Gothic horror novel by Cherie Priest which I listened to in audio format. The story follows two plotlines told in alternating chapters. One is excerpts from Daniel Boone’s Reflections Upon the Wilderness Road which he wrote while leading a group of trailblazers across Kentucky. Every night, Boone and his men are being stalked, picked off, and eaten by a huge bird-like monster.
The second plotline follows the history of Daniel Boone’s descendants in the rural Kentucky area where Boone met the monster. They’re an inbred, ignorant and nasty lot that’s been split into two feuding families. A couple of the family members from each side manage to “escape” by running away, eventually acquiring some education, and progressing to a new standard of living. Each is called home years later when the family patriarch dies and leaves a will which must be searched for in a nearby cave. Here the two plotlines converge.
Priest’s story is unsettling from the start when we read the first entry in Daniel Boone’s Reflections Upon the Wilderness Road as he describes his men’s encounters with the bird monster. At first he reports only cursory images of the thing but as the story continues, we get more sensory details and it gets more frightening. At the end we meet the monster face to face and by this point Priest has complete control over our mental imagery so that everything it does, even the smallest bird-like movement of its head, is disturbing. When Boone’s narrative is over, we assume we’re done with monsters, but no, it only gets more horrifying.
It’s not just the monster that’s unsettling. The two families who descended from Daniel Boone could populate the cast of Deliverance. They are vividly portrayed and utterly odious. Besides Daniel Boone, who we only know through his journal entries and later as a ghost, the only characters who are remotely likable are the two who left Kentucky and even they’re hard to fully endorse since they abandoned their families and wouldn’t have come back if it hadn’t been for the will.
Those Who Went Remain There Still was my first exposure to Cherie Priest’s work and I was impressed. Her writing is vivid, well-paced, and she has a great ear. She has spent most of her life in the Southeast and attended college and graduate school in Tennessee, which probably explains her authentic voice.
Those Who Went Remain There Still is an excellent example of Southern Gothic. I highly recommend the audio version produced by Audible Frontiers and read by Marc Vietor and Eric Michael Summerer. The narrators are both spot-on with their Southern Gothic voices and this is one of those cases where I felt that the audio version might be even better than print. It’s a brilliant performance. You can listen to a sample at Amazon or Audible.
Those Who Went Remain There Still is a short Southern Gothic horror novel by Cherie Priest which I listened to in audio format. The story follows two plotlines told in alternating chapters. One is excerpts from Daniel Boone’s Reflections Upon the Wilderness Road which he wrote while leading a group of trailblazers across Kentucky. Every night, Boone and his men are being stalked, picked off, and eaten by a huge bird-like monster.
The second plotline follows the history of Daniel Boone’s descendants in the rural Kentucky area where Boone met the monster. They’re an inbred, ignorant and nasty lot that’s been split into two feuding families. A couple of the family members from each side manage to “escape” by running away, eventually acquiring some education, and progressing to a new standard of living. Each is called home years later when the family patriarch dies and leaves a will which must be searched for in a nearby cave. Here the two plotlines converge.
Priest’s story is unsettling from the start when we read the first entry in Daniel Boone’s Reflections Upon the Wilderness Road as he describes his men’s encounters with the bird monster. At first he reports only cursory images of the thing but as the story continues, we get more sensory details and it gets more frightening. At the end we meet the monster face to face and by this point Priest has complete control over our mental imagery so that everything it does, even the smallest bird-like movement of its head, is disturbing. When Boone’s narrative is over, we assume we’re done with monsters, but no, it only gets more horrifying.
It’s not just the monster that’s unsettling. The two families who descended from Daniel Boone could populate the cast of Deliverance. They are vividly portrayed and utterly odious. Besides Daniel Boone, who we only know through his journal entries and later as a ghost, the only characters who are remotely likable are the two who left Kentucky and even they’re hard to fully endorse since they abandoned their families and wouldn’t have come back if it hadn’t been for the will.
Those Who Went Remain There Still was my first exposure to Cherie Priest’s work and I was impressed. Her writing is vivid, well-paced, and she has a great ear. She has spent most of her life in the Southeast and attended college and graduate school in Tennessee, which probably explains her authentic voice.
Those Who Went Remain There Still is an excellent example of Southern Gothic. I highly recommend the audio version produced by Audible Frontiers and read by Marc Vietor and Eric Michael Summerer. The narrators are both spot-on with their Southern Gothic voices and this is one of those cases where I felt that the audio version might be even better than print. It’s a brilliant performance. You can listen to a sample at Amazon or Audible.
October 21, 2016
Imagine a story like the Hatfields and McCoys, where two families feud over the course of generations. Imagine further that the patriarch of the two families has died, calling all of his family back to read his will. Six men -- three from each family -- are to descend into a nearby cave where he hid his will. That in itself would make for an interesting story, but Priest does it one better by setting Those Who Went Remain There Still against the backdrop of a monster story, as what the men find in the cave is worse than they imagined.
Like Dreadful Skin, this novella uses multiple first-person narrators, but it's better handled here than it was in that other novel. For one, she limits herself to just three different narrators, one of whom is Daniel Boone, narrating his part of the story one hundred years before the other characters. For another, she does a better job making them sound distinct.
One of the characters is a member of a spiritual cult, and his ties to the dead allow him to see ghosts, which feature into the plot. It seemed too convenient, especially when, late in the story, another character also sees one, though it's unclear why he does, or who the ghost is supposed to be. It felt a little tacked on, especially in a story where the monster serves the purpose of the supernatural. I get that if monsters can exist in this world, then ghosts can too, but it didn't seem necessary, except to steer the characters in the right direction.
Somehow, despite the fact that the two families live close to the caves, none of the men who go into the caves knows a thing about the creatures there. Two of the characters have moved away, so it would make sense that they don't know, but the rest of the family has stayed there all their lives. As the story progresses, it becomes clear that the monsters have been there a long time, and that people have gone missing, so why not address any legends or rumors? The cave is called the Witch's Pit, after all, so wouldn't the locals at least not be as surprised when they find the creatures?
The thing is, despite those concerns (which, admittedly, aren't slight), this novella is still a fun read. It feels more like what Priest did in the Boneshaker series than Dreadful Skin, so readers familiar with her adventuresome style in that series will find something familiar here. The story ends rather abruptly, after a lengthy battle against the nameless creature that lives in the caves, but the journey to that point is satisfying.
Like Dreadful Skin, this novella uses multiple first-person narrators, but it's better handled here than it was in that other novel. For one, she limits herself to just three different narrators, one of whom is Daniel Boone, narrating his part of the story one hundred years before the other characters. For another, she does a better job making them sound distinct.
One of the characters is a member of a spiritual cult, and his ties to the dead allow him to see ghosts, which feature into the plot. It seemed too convenient, especially when, late in the story, another character also sees one, though it's unclear why he does, or who the ghost is supposed to be. It felt a little tacked on, especially in a story where the monster serves the purpose of the supernatural. I get that if monsters can exist in this world, then ghosts can too, but it didn't seem necessary, except to steer the characters in the right direction.
Somehow, despite the fact that the two families live close to the caves, none of the men who go into the caves knows a thing about the creatures there. Two of the characters have moved away, so it would make sense that they don't know, but the rest of the family has stayed there all their lives. As the story progresses, it becomes clear that the monsters have been there a long time, and that people have gone missing, so why not address any legends or rumors? The cave is called the Witch's Pit, after all, so wouldn't the locals at least not be as surprised when they find the creatures?
The thing is, despite those concerns (which, admittedly, aren't slight), this novella is still a fun read. It feels more like what Priest did in the Boneshaker series than Dreadful Skin, so readers familiar with her adventuresome style in that series will find something familiar here. The story ends rather abruptly, after a lengthy battle against the nameless creature that lives in the caves, but the journey to that point is satisfying.
February 6, 2012
One of the big reasons I've picked up everything Cherie Priest has written is her propensity for taking established SF/F tropes and finding not only new ways to look at them, but actively odd ones as well--and in a run of intriguingly odd books, Those Who Went Remain There Still stands out as particularly strange.
And that's a good thing. I haven't read very much non-steampunk fantasy out there set in the early history of the United States and to find this one was a pleasure in no small part because it's set in my home state of Kentucky. Moreover, Daniel Boone features prominently in the earlier prong of a two-prong plot, and any kid who grew up in Kentucky knows all about Daniel Boone. Any kid in Kentucky will, however, be a trifle surprised at this tale of how Boone and his men are cutting a road through the Kentucky wilderness, only to be harried by a monster who takes vicious pleasure in hunting them down one at a time.
Fast forward a hundred years or so, to when the cantankerous old son of one of the survivors of Boone's party has passed away. His grandchildren are called home for the reading of his will, only to discover that it's been hidden in a cavern near their valley. And by the terms of said will, six men must venture into the cave--and risk coming afoul of the creature Boone's men had abandoned there to die.
Except it's not dead. And its descendants are pissed.
I very much liked the dual plotlines as long as they ran through the bulk of the story, simultaneously showing us the stalking of Boone's men as well as the reactions of two of Heaster Wharton's kin who are called in to find the will. There's great tension in both plotlines, especially as you slowly learn more and more about what the monster actually is.
But the final third or so felt rushed to me, perhaps because of this being a novella. Once the group of six contenders for the will is thrown together, we have barely enough time for them to fight through their own differences before they're hurled into mortal danger--and before the end of the story. As is often the case with Priest's shorter works, I found myself wishing at the end of this one that it hadn't finished so soon. Three stars.
And that's a good thing. I haven't read very much non-steampunk fantasy out there set in the early history of the United States and to find this one was a pleasure in no small part because it's set in my home state of Kentucky. Moreover, Daniel Boone features prominently in the earlier prong of a two-prong plot, and any kid who grew up in Kentucky knows all about Daniel Boone. Any kid in Kentucky will, however, be a trifle surprised at this tale of how Boone and his men are cutting a road through the Kentucky wilderness, only to be harried by a monster who takes vicious pleasure in hunting them down one at a time.
Fast forward a hundred years or so, to when the cantankerous old son of one of the survivors of Boone's party has passed away. His grandchildren are called home for the reading of his will, only to discover that it's been hidden in a cavern near their valley. And by the terms of said will, six men must venture into the cave--and risk coming afoul of the creature Boone's men had abandoned there to die.
Except it's not dead. And its descendants are pissed.
I very much liked the dual plotlines as long as they ran through the bulk of the story, simultaneously showing us the stalking of Boone's men as well as the reactions of two of Heaster Wharton's kin who are called in to find the will. There's great tension in both plotlines, especially as you slowly learn more and more about what the monster actually is.
But the final third or so felt rushed to me, perhaps because of this being a novella. Once the group of six contenders for the will is thrown together, we have barely enough time for them to fight through their own differences before they're hurled into mortal danger--and before the end of the story. As is often the case with Priest's shorter works, I found myself wishing at the end of this one that it hadn't finished so soon. Three stars.
September 4, 2014
Those Who Went Remain There Still is a short Southern Gothic horror novel by Cherie Priest which I listened to in audio format. The story follows two plotlines told in alternating chapters. One is excerpts from Daniel Boone’s Reflections Upon the Wilderness Road which he wrote while leading a group of trailblazers across Kentucky. Every night, Boone and his men are being stalked, picked off, and eaten by a huge bird-like monster.
The second plotline follows the history of Daniel Boone’s descendants in the rural Kentucky area where Boone met the monster. They’re an inbred, ignorant and nasty lot that’s been split into two feuding families. A couple of the family members from each side manage to “escape” by running away, eventually acquiring some education, and progressing to a new standard of living. Each is called home years later when the family patriarch die... Read More: http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...
The second plotline follows the history of Daniel Boone’s descendants in the rural Kentucky area where Boone met the monster. They’re an inbred, ignorant and nasty lot that’s been split into two feuding families. A couple of the family members from each side manage to “escape” by running away, eventually acquiring some education, and progressing to a new standard of living. Each is called home years later when the family patriarch die... Read More: http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...
September 13, 2011
Well this one is definitely weird. Cherie Priest calls it a monster story, and it is, but it is two stories tangled together from two times long ago. To my mind it is a variation of King's novel It. Two men, related but not close, come back to a cursed territory in Kentucky to settle a will after the mean, ancient family patriarch dies.
I am unsettled about the book. It ends abruptly, which I did not like, and some story threads (to my mind, anyway) hang unresolved, but the abrupt end may be exactly what a monster story requires. It is the way all such tales, when told around campfires in the dark, end.
And I will still and always read anything Cherie Priest chooses to publish.
I am unsettled about the book. It ends abruptly, which I did not like, and some story threads (to my mind, anyway) hang unresolved, but the abrupt end may be exactly what a monster story requires. It is the way all such tales, when told around campfires in the dark, end.
And I will still and always read anything Cherie Priest chooses to publish.
June 25, 2015
У Чери Прист истории "про мистику" всегда получались лучше, чем стимпанк, и Those Who Went - не исключение. Это коротенький исторический хоррор от лица трёх рассказчиков из трёх поколений американского фронтира (один из которых, кстати, Даниэль Бун). Рассказчики всё время чередуются: то Бун со своими лесорубами натыкается в лесных дебрях Кентукки на гигантскую сову-людоеда, то опустившиеся потомки первопроходцев делят наследство умершего дядюшки, то священник разговаривает с духами умерших... По ходу повествования все эти сюжетные линии сходятся вместе, образуя довольно необычный и увлекательный исторический ужастик, правда, со скомканной и бестолковой, как обычно у Прист, концовкой.
July 17, 2009
In her acknowledgments, Cherie Priest calls Those Who Went Remain There Still a "cheesy little monster story," and the best part is that she's not kidding. There's a seemingly unkillable bird-monster, there's Daniel Boone, there's spiritualism, and tons of weird adventure to be had. Plus the book is short, attractive, and illustrated. What more could you ask for?
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