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Those Who Went Remain There Still

Cherie Priest (Goodreads Author)

3.79 · Rating details · 321 ratings · 60 reviews

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. Repr ...more

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Hardcover, 170 pages

Published December 1st 2008 by Subterranean Press

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· 321 ratings · 60 reviews

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May 19, 2017 Karl rated it really liked it

Shelves: subterranean-own

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 serie ...more

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Jul 27, 2010 Mir marked it as to-read

Shelves: library-lack

Having 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. ...more

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Oct 24, 2013 Nicky rated it liked it

Shelves: short-stories-novellas, horror

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 ...more

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Aug 04, 2012 Christine rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: minority-and-women-writers, kindle, fantasy-historical

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.

...more

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Mar 25, 2010 Brooke rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2010, horror

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. ...more

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Sep 23, 2009 Mike rated it really liked it

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 surprisingl ...more

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Jan 02, 2015 Chris rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: horror, fantasy

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 bu ...more

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Dec 06, 2011 MB Taylor rated it really liked it

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 app 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.
...more

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Mar 01, 2009 Lyn rated it really liked it

"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 ...more

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Feb 04, 2013 Neil rated it it was ok

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".
...more

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Aug 03, 2009 Elizabeth rated it really liked it

Shelves: alternate-history

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.

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Nov 13, 2018 Jennifer rated it liked it

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 ...more

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Aug 05, 2019 Anniken Haga rated it it was ok

Shelves: audiobook, thriller-horror, 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 w ...more

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Jun 26, 2020 Lesley Henry rated it it was amazing

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.

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Feb 10, 2019 Claudette rated it really liked it

Stunning and terse. Nicely done ending.

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Jan 11, 2021 Qi added it

gripping, atmospheric, delightfully dreadful. I only wish this was a full fledged novel, and the ending better fleshed out.

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Feb 21, 2021 Lolapaige rated it liked it · review of another edition

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.

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Oct 28, 2021 Buddy Rushing rated it it was ok

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.

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Oct 25, 2011 Kat Hooper rated it really liked it

Shelves: audiobook

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 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. ...more

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Oct 21, 2016 Thomas rated it liked it

Shelves: horror, e-book, 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 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. ...more

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Jan 15, 2012 Angela rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sf, ebooks

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 beca 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. ...more

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Jun 01, 2013 Fantasy Literature rated it really liked it

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 descendan ...more

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Sep 12, 2011 Mary MacKintosh rated it really liked it

Shelves: suspense-occult, historical-fiction, ghost-and-spirits-fiction

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 exa ...more

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May 29, 2009 Orrin Grey rated it really liked it

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? ...more

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May 20, 2009 Laura rated it it was amazing

Shelves: in-library, dark-fantasy-horror

Priest's strength lies in historical fiction set in her native Tennessee and it shows in this great story of a final, vindictive treasure hunt set by a man just as evil as the cave dwelling monsters he sends his family - without warning - to meet. Whether this is just one final malicious swipe from the grave, or an attempt to save future generations is not answered until the very end of the book, making this an entertaining read. ...more

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Dec 04, 2011 Slmstanley rated it it was amazing

I love Priest's Southern Gothic novels so damn much.

This one is told in two lines of narrative: one by Daniel Boone, and one by descendants of a Kentucky hill family who are imperiously summoned home after the passing of their family's hateful, violent patriarch. There, they are told that each branch of the family must send a representative into a dark cave in search of the will. Dark and evocative, this brought memories of my extended family back to my mind. Just brilliant. ...more

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Nov 03, 2012 QuesterMark rated it really liked it

Shelves: kindle

Gripping. So may parts written in a way that perfectly expresses frantic activity. Other parts written in a way that really sets the tone of the year in which the story is set. I saw an interview of Ms Priest on Sword and Laser, and she said something about this story being inspired by a cave in her family's folklore. Hey, did this come out before or after that monster movie ... darn, can't finish the question without including a spoiler. ...more

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May 21, 2010 Catherine Siemann rated it really liked it

Shelves: neovictorians-and-steampunk

Spare, vivid, and effective monster story set during Daniel Boone's road-building expedition through Kentucky and then again at the turn of the twentieth century, among a feuding Southern extended family. Every detail counts for something (for example, why a character is first encountered in Lily Dale, N.Y.) and the story has a cinematic quality that makes it vivid reading. ...more

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Jan 24, 2011 Les rated it really liked it

A quick read. Althought he start seemed somewhat hesitant at first the book quickly came together for me and I really developed a feeling for the environment the characters had escaped and were being drawn back to. The action is well paced and the ending left me in an oddly sober mood of contemplation. A monster story well done.

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May 03, 2011 Wendy rated it liked it

I read this on the plane to Paris. It was short and somewhat violent but kind of interesting. It is about feuding members of an extended family having to go down into a cave to find a will that was hidden there. There is a silly-sounding, but viscious, monster down there. The author has a way of making the situation scarier than other authors could.

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About Cherie Priest

Cherie Priest

3,774 followers

Cherie Priest is the author of two dozen books and novellas, most recently The Toll, The Family Plot, The Agony House, and the Philip K. Dick Award nominee Maplecroft; but she is perhaps best known for the steampunk pulp adventures of the Clockwork Century, beginning with Boneshaker. Her works have been nominated for the Hugo and Nebula awards for science fiction, and have won the Locus Award (amo ...more