Ghosts visit Dave’s bar, and most of all, a spirit? Entity? Creature? … whatever “it” is, for as long as most people can remember, it comes every 13 years to claim somebody. There’s no history laid out, rather, the characters drudge through their days knowing they have little control over the downward spiral in which Staywater has swept them. The past haunts all the characters, and like many of the best horror novels, the past is referenced only in passing. It exudes an atmosphere of stagnant dread a town very much clinging on for life as its once prosperous logging industry is dormant. The town of Staywater is very much a character, too. Titus, likewise, is wary of leaving the town without his wife. Like Titus, he has fuzzy memories of his what happened when he crossed a mysterious bridge and woke in nearly the same spot Titus woke at the outset of the novel, Dave’s been unable to leave the town and is romantically involved with Jess, the girl who woke him on the bridge thirteen years earlier. The bartender, Dave, is one of the only people in Staywater not originally from the town. Cameron lives a rather humdrum lifestyle, the only thing he really clamors for is the attention of the barmaid Jess despite his “cousins” Daisy and Claire cautioning him against this for his “protection.” Staywater’s main gathering place is, unsurprisingly, a bar. There’s a timeless feel to these characters, they evoke character types many readers have encountered, younger characters stuck in their small town who wish to escape contrasted by their elders who have been fixtures in the town.

Priest takes readers through the town, introducing them to Cameron who lives with his “cousins” Daisy and Claire. There’s a feel of motionless, stagnant water to everything – from the town itself to the rut the characters perceive themselves to be in. Much of the novel takes place in the aptly named town on hard times Staywater.

When he calls the police, they tell him there is no such bridge on Route 177. Much later, Titus wakes up lying in the middle of the road, no bridge in sight. But shortly before they reach their destination, the road narrows into a rickety bridge with old stone pilings, with room for only one car. Titus and Melanie Bell are on their honeymoon and have reservations in the Okefenokee Swamp cabins for a canoeing trip. Take a road trip into a Southern gothic horror novel. That was the plan, at least, until they crossed a strange bridge leaving Titus in a daze and his wife missing. Her latest novel, The Toll, is powerfully haunted from the very start as we are introduced to a newlywed couple – Titus and Melanie – troubled by their past, hoping a camping trip in the swamp (of all things) will help to set their relationship back on course.

Cherie Priest is a modern master of the southern gothic horror novel, her stories evoke fear with a pervading haunted atmosphere.

Cherie priest the toll