Excellent! Very creepy and tense, and the two narratives and 3 viewpoint characters wove together beautifully. ( )

Those Who Went Remain There Still
Cherie Priest
Subterranean Press 2008
ISBN 978-1-59606-179-8
Fantasy/Horror/Historical Fiction
Signed, numbered edition (113/200)
Cover art by Mark Geyer
Hardcover
170 pages

“Those Who Went Remain There Still” is an Americana folk tale with a macabre and horrifying spin. It is, in essence, a tale of monsters, both real and imagined, human and… other, with elements of folklore, family history, and a feud that spans over ten decades. But it is much more. Bringing together components of family, local and national history, Priest has a knack for getting close to the characters and places that she creates. What’s more, she has the remarkable ability to make you feel close to them as well. In doing so she weaves a tightly knit tale with wonderful characters that live off the page.

The story shifts between the perspectives of one of the U.S.’s most enigmatic real-life trailblazers, Daniel Boone to a group of strong frontiersmen that are loosely drawn on the author’s own ancestors.

The year is 1775 and Daniel Boone and his crew of axmen are cutting a trail through the Cumberland Gap of Kentucky. But they’ve disturbed the nest or hunting grounds of something that is hateful, spiteful, smart, and mad as hell at them for trespassing. One night they are attacked by this strange flying creature (larger than a bear it reeks of death and ruin) and a single man goes missing. Every few nights the creature returns and every few nights another man disappears. In a subsequent attack the beast is injured and Boone and a volunteer head off into the dark forest to finish the job. After battling and killing the beast they dump the body into a nearby cave.

One hundred years later the Coys and Manders are summoned back to their home town after the death of the eldest family member. Six men, three Coys and three Manders, are chosen to enter the “Witches’ Pit” a cave where the last will and testament of the deceased patriarch has supposedly been hidden. Choosing three men from each clan the deceased tries to quell the feud posthumously by forcing the two clans to cooperate together to locate the will. What the six chosen men don’t know is that Boone and his axmen did not completely finish the job they started and something wicked, evil, angry and hungry is waiting for them in the depths of the cave.

While horror is not one of my favorite genres and only a very few good stories have held my attention in the past this folk tale was written so beautifully and with such an ear for the historical folklore and myths of the Kentucky mountains that I could not put it down. In a way it reminded me of Orson Scott Card’s “Alvin Maker” stories which I enjoyed immensely but there was something different about “Those Who Went…” Priest show a great deal of pride in her heritage and her characters are believable, earthy, rugged and confident individuals. And, there is magic… or the unknown woven throughout. Perhaps because Priest included fictional representatives of her own family it was made clear to me that this was something she really cared about. Perhaps, more authors should do the same. All in all, this is a fantastic work of speculative fiction. No finer words of praise might be said than, “I’ve become a fan!”

A word about the included Chapbook – The small Chapbook, “Those Who Went Remain There Still (How it Really Went Down.)” which was included with the purchase of the signed version of the hardcover of the same name, is a short essay concerning the author’s use of verbal family history woven into American history and the creative imagination used to write this wonderful piece of (too) short fiction. Using verbal family tales as a baseline the author mixes components of the fictitious life of Daniel Boone with the fear of darkness and deep caverns, a century’s old family feud, the possible cooperation of six very different men, and creatures not quite of this earth. An interesting and informative addition to the text.

4 1/2 out of 5 stars

The Alternative
Southeast Wisconsin ( )

An interesting story of two feuding related families in the South and the deceased patriarch's way of uniting them. By leaving his will in a cave on the property. Three people from each side of the family are chosen and the only way they can survive the cave is to work together (which leaves a bad taste in the mouth of most). Oh, did I mention something nasty lurks in the cave?

As an added bonus, if you get the limited hardcover edition, you also get a chapbook that tells the story behind the story. Which I did, because I love knowing the origins of writers' ideas. ( )

The premise: When the patriarch of a small town in Kentucky passes away, two feuding families (the Coys and the Manders) must unite to find the old man's will, which he had hidden in a cave that's got SOMETHING seriously wrong in it. And that something will do everything it can to kill these men, if the men don't kill each other first.

My Rating

Worth the Cash: though that's a tricky rating: I bought the limited edition and therefore paid more for it than you would if you just ordered the regular hardcover through Amazon, but it's worth whatever you pay for it, especially if you're a fan of Priest's work. I love how she takes American folk tales and mythology and works them into horror stories that are both intelligently written and beautifully told. And, of course, keep you turning the pages. Priest remains one of my must-read authors, and she's one of the few I'll happily recommend to anyone I know who's interested in horror or urban fantasy or any mix thereof. Not that her latest work could be categorized as UF, but I'm saying, there's a range in the genres she writes, and this one is definitely on the horror side. But no matter what she does, it's top-notch, and I'm glad I've got this book in my collection. Also, I love the eerie title, and it fits really, really, frighteningly well with the people in the story. It's so appropriately Southern.

The full review, which DOES NOT contain spoilers and also includes cover art commentary, may be found in my LJ. As always, comments and discussion are most welcome.

REVIEW: Cherie Priest's THOSE WHO WENT REMAIN THERE STILL

Happy Reading! ( )

Grab your coonskin cap, you Kentucky trailblazer. And get ready to channel your inner Daniel Boone. At least the version of Daniel Boone popularized by actor Fess Parker. The real Boone didn’t like coonskin caps, and wore beaver felt hats instead. Reality often isn’t as sexy as the myth. Like how Sasquatch is really a homeless guy from California.

Cherie Priest delves into the mythology surrounding Daniel Boone in Those Who Went Remain There Still, carving out a little piece for herself in order to tell a self-proclaimed cheesy little monster story. If this is cheesy, it’s a beautifully baked six cheese extravaganza. A three Michelin star dish of mac and cheese. Yummy and absolutely satisfying. A rare monster story in which—brace yourself—the monster is actually scary.

Most monsters remain scary as long as they’re unseen. Only bumping in the night, and not cavorting in the daylight. Like the shark in Jaws. Once revealed the fright factor plummets. Like Daniel Boone, the reality isn’t as sexy as the myth. But the monster in Those Who Went Remain There Still is revealed early, and remains scary throughout. Getting even more fearsome near the end. Becoming a creature you really wouldn’t want to run into in a dark cave. Especially if you want to keep the contents of your colon out of your pants.

But that’s just what the novel’s protagonists do—run into the creature in a dark cave. Bad spot of luck there, but it makes for fun reading. Whether trouser jelly is made, Priest remains mum.

In 1775, Daniel Boone and his crew of rugged ax-swingers are storming through Kentucky, blazing the Wilderness Road. One night, men begin disappearing. Mysterious noises haunt the night, an ominous croaking and the sound of flapping wings. Something evil is out there, wild and vicious, on the edge of camp, harrying Boone and his men. Terrorizing them. Eating them.

In 1899, Heaster Wharton—the patriarch of the feuding Mander and Coy clans—dies. His will and last testament lies hidden in a cave on the outskirts of his property. Three representatives each from both the Mander and Coy families are enlisted to enter the cave to search for Heaster’s will. Deep down in the bowels of the cave the group discovers a terrifying secret. A vengeful secret. A secret that nearly killed Daniel Boone.

There’s an old saying that once you’ve left a place, you can’t go back home again. Like you can’t step into the same river twice. Things change, places change. You change. And going back is never the same. Priest takes this idea even further—maybe going back may mean never coming back. Or those who went remain there still.

Going home and rediscovering your roots after years away is a significant theme in the novel. Those Who Went Remain There Still is told from three separate points of view: Daniel Boone in 1775, and Meshack Coy and John Coy both in 1899. Both Meshack and John are living elsewhere—Iowa and New York respectively—when they are summoned back to their hometown of Leitchfield, Kentucky upon the death of Heaster. Both are outsiders, changed men who view the feuding of their relatives as infantile. Living away from Leitchfield has changed their perspective, made it more cosmopolitan. It’s like the small town boy that moves to the big city for a year, then returns. Suddenly he realizes how tiny his town truly is, how constricting and narrow-minded it’s become. And he yearns once again to leave.

The characters are fascinating, and the interplay between the two storylines drives the narrative. Intense and addictive, the novel is like an out of control eighteen-wheeler barreling down a steep grade, filled with heart-stopping jolts and scary bumps. Priest never lets up on the gas, and never veers away. Always pushing forward, always at breakneck speeds. And we sit enthralled, a Cheshire-cat smile on our face, clapping with joy, overwhelmed and thrilled to our core.

Last Word:
Those Who Went Remain There Still was my introduction to Cherie Priest. I guarantee I’ll be reading more of her cheesy little monster stories in the future, because this is a monster story with teeth. Big, nasty teeth dripping with gore. A set of glistening chompers that’d make Nosferatu jealous. This is a horror story masterfully written, unique in its setting and brilliant in its execution. And one of the top books of the year. ( )