To tell the truth, even though I thought The Toll was a decent read, it’s hard not to feel slightly let down by some of its incongruencies and flaws, especially in light of how much I adored Priest’s last novel The Family Plot. All they want is for Cameron to grow up and one day escape Staywater, but until the problem in the swamp is taken care of once in for all, they know that things can never be safe. No one knows where he came from, but Claire and Daisy knows that the thing in the swamp likes to take outsiders. The two of them have been raising a teenage boy named Cameron, who was left on their doorstep as a baby. And now, the cousins have even more to lose. They thought they had put a stop to whatever was terrorizing the town, but apparently its connection to their world was too strong. No one knows this better than Claire and Daisy, two elderly cousins who have lived in Staywater their entire lives, watching it crumble and slowly die over the years. The bridge has helped it claim another victim, and Titus will probably never see his wife again. The swamp keeps what it takes, or rather, the thing that lives there does. They all sensed the shift in reality when it happened, the first time in thirteen years. It happens often enough to the tourists and campers who come out this way, after all, and the police will certainly make sure Melanie comes home safe.īut in their hearts, the residents of Staywater know better.
There, the locals tell him not to worry, that most likely his wife simply lost her way in the swamp while trying to look for help. Filled with worries and unable to sleep, he heads to the dive bar down the street in order to drown his sorrows. After calling for help and being told by the police that they’re doing all they can to find his wife, Titus accepts a ride to the nearby town of Staywater to find room and board. The next thing Titus knows, he is waking up on the side of the road, his SUV behind him is empty with its doors flung open, and Melanie is nowhere to be found. On an unusually cool spring day, Titus and his wife Melanie are driving along 177 towards the state park where they will be spending their honeymoon, when they come across a one-lane rickety bridge leading into the swampy darkness. Their disappearance is usually preceded by reported sightings of a mysterious seventh bridge along the west-to-east route on State Road 177, though of course, only six bridges exist according to any map. The story takes us to a tiny backwater town on the edge of the Okenfenokee Swamp in Georgia called Staywater, where every thirteen years or so, someone always goes missing. The Toll by Cherie Priest is a disturbingly dark tale of the supernatural, tinged with gothic horror and eldritch elements. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.
I received a review copy from the publisher.
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