The Toll

By Cherie Priest

2 Stars. Best enjoyed on a hot, humid day with a cool glass of iced tea and a sense of mystery and a lot of patience.

Titus and Melanie Bell are on their way to their honeymoon in the Okefenokee swamp when they reach a strange bridge that is entirely out of place. In trying to cross the bride, something strange occurs and Titus wakes up in the middle of the road and there is no sign of his new bride.  With no recollection of what happened beyond the strange trip over the bridge, Titus must stay in the nearby and strange town of Staywater while the local police try to piece together what might have happened to his wife. However, Titus wants to figure out the strange occurrences that have taken his wife from him as well, and the residents of Staywater know more than what they are telling him.

Although the story was alright, there were some spots that were so slow that I really considered DNFing it, but I was determined to know the answer to all the mysteries. The town of Staywater itself was a neatly situated intersection of the supernatural, paranormal, and forgotten, dying backwater town. The characters were interesting and had depth, especially the witchy cousins. There were so many main characters and stories going on at once, though, that at times it was enticing and others it was way too much and it felt like the wrong stories were being focused on. Although I was glad I stuck around to the end and the ‘final showdown,’ it still felt sort of lackluster and unsatisfying to me. 

Not everything about it was unreadable, though. The best part of the book were the parts with the cousins. I really wanted more of them. Their banter was great, their history was pretty cool, and they reminded me of the mythological Fates from Greece. The town was also very cool, especially the abandoned places and the part of the story regarding the ‘dollhouse’. I felt more could have been done with it. The majority of the other main characters  weren’t very likeable and with the exception of Dave, whom I grew to like a lot more as the story progressed. Cameron was mostly a whiney teenager, though I did enjoy his evolution near the end. Titus kind of sucked and I definitely didn’t get the feeling he liked his new wife, let alone cared if she showed back up. It seemed like it was more of an obligation than anything else. I was really hoping he would show more depth and feeling, but by the end I just kind of hoped he would get taken by whatever was controlling the bridge. 

Ultimately, the real stars of this book are Staywater, Daisy, and Claire. The rest is just background noise. 

I received an advanced copy from Netgalley and Macmillan TOR/Forge in exchange for a fair and honest review.