Customer Reviews

Those Who Went Remain There Still

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Cherie does an excellent job of channelling Daniel Boone in the segments where he appears in the story. Very believable. The flashbacks to the earlier story build anticipation as a new group of Kentuckians prepares to face the horror.

The creepy atmosphere of the woods at night and the cave reminded me of what The Blair Witch crew were trying to make you feel. Very effective horror.

The personalities of the later Kentucky crew were well developed and written to make them interesting people that you want to know more about.

The old granny brought to mind the scene in The Stand where the "good" crowd is gathering at the granny's cabin. Not knowing what to expect. But knowing they must face a task together to save their part of the world.

Kept me on the edge of my seat wanting to know the outcome.

Those Who Went Remain There Still features Daniel Boone leading a team of lumberjacks through unexplored wilderness, a creature that comes at night to pick off the men one by one, a last will and testament by a vindictive patriarch and miles of black, stinking cave.

You won't find any vampires or werewolves here; this is all about the creepy, nameless stuff that lurks in the dark of night and imagination.

Priest based this story on an old family tale that, as she notes in the Acknowledgements, "features no actual monsters in its original incarnation." However, as she goes on to state, "this retelling rectifies reality's troubling oversight in this matter."

Hurrah!

Those Who Went Remain There Still was a fantastic read with a plot that started out at a good clip and kept picking up speed. The past and present wove the story in a coherent way, revealing the perfect amount of information at the right pace. Loved it!

"Those Who Went Remain There Still" is a terrific novel, based upon an old legend passed down through the author's family. Ms. Priest does an amazing job of taking a spooky, campfire story and spinning it into a thrilling yarn. There is an almost palpable sense of dread in the book, and I found my heart rate increasing in several places. She makes excellent use of Lovecraft's tactic of never letting you fully see the monster, the result being that your imagination will fabricate a creature that will scare you as much in your well-lit living room as it does the characters who are fighting it in the darkened wilds of Kentucky.

In addition to the thrills and chills, Ms. Priest does an remarkable job of creating believable characters with voices that are distinct from one another, even though they originate from the same town. This is no mean feat, and is the mark of a skilled storyteller.

For fans of good horror fiction, this book is a delightful romp through the darkness which lies beyond the edge of the campfire's light, as well as the darkness which lies within the human heart. And just like your favorite amusement park thrill ride, you'll immediately want to go for another spin.

The first half of Those Who Went... is clogged with far too much exposition and family back-story. At its heart, this is a monster fest. Once the reader gets to the meat, the story takes off. Cherie Priest's prose is fairly tight throughout. The historical journals from Daniel Boone kept me turning pages in the first part--but at times those journals felt a little anachronistic and untrue to the dialogue most likely to be found in writing from the late 1700s. I can't recall the exact wordage, but a few modern phrases took me out of the narrative.)

Overall, a solid book for monster lovers in search of something different. Recommended.

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 shows 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 includes fictional representatives of her own family it is clear to me that this was a subject she really cares 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

[...].

In 1775, Daniel Boone and a cast of hearty axe-men are busy chopping their way through the Cumberland Gap to clear the land for a road. These frontiersmen encounter a predator more powerful and cunning than any you might expect in the deep woods. Night after night, they encircle the campfire as members of their band are picked off one by one. Finally they overpower the monster, leaving the beast for dead in a nearby cave.

More than a hundred years have passed. In that same area a different fight for survival exists between the descendants of one such axe-man. The Manders and the Coys are the divided factions that struggle against each other to possess what little resources this valley has to offer. The patriarch of this land has died. He could have ended the feuding with his last will and testament.

What he leaves them with instead is a set of instructions. Members from each side of the family have returned from great distances. A representative group of men from each faction to include the travelers must now face the cave for the will lies within, but that isn't all.

I love the way Cherie Priest layered the story between the Daniel Boone scenes and the return of the descendants and their descent into the cave. She builds the atmosphere to the point you are at the blazing campfire, in the desolate valley, or sinking down into the dank cave.

The monster was just plain creepy. I wanted to cower with the men. I felt the despair grow and the resolve to survive was so convincing. Every part of the action had me on the edge. I was biting my nails in places. I think the dark and the creepy factor had quite a bit to do with it. I think the pacing was perfect. It isn't a long book. Yet, you feel the slow build to the climax in each case. I think that is where the layering is masterfully employed.

The tension between the Manders and the Coys as well as those that left and those that stayed in the valley further escalate that sense of peril. The reader is never really sure where the next bit of danger will come from.

The illustrations were a nice touch. I have to tell you my mind's eye was doing a number on the monster all by itself.

I was satisfied with the ending. That sounds like such a simple sentence. It isn't underselling it. Often I watch movies that for whatever reason, fail to satisfy me with their endings. I want more. I wanted this or that aspect of the story developed. I felt like a loose end was left here or there. I closed this book with a "Yes" exclaimed out loud. I know because I got THE LOOK from my husband which set me to explaining my joy immediately. This book was scary in all of the right ways. We had the dark environment, the chase scenes, the layered tension, the unknown. It would be a perfect October read. I love a good ghost story and while this wasn't really one of those, it had a story telling quality about it and a heavy atmosphere. I do recommend it. I absolutely do.

"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...