The ageless water witch Arahab has been scheming for eons,
gathering the means to awaken the great Leviathan. She aims
to bring him and the old gods back to their former glory,
caring little that their ascendance will also mean an end
to the human race. However, awakening the Leviathan is no
small feat. In fact, Arahab can’t complete the ritual
without human aid.
Arahab’s first choice is José Gaspar, a notorious sea
pirate from eighteenth-century Spain. But when the task
proves too difficult for Gaspar, she must look elsewhere,
biding her time until the 1930’s, when the ideal candidate
shows up: a slightly deranged teenager named Bernice.
Bernice is sophisticated, torn from New York and forced to
spend a miserable summer on Anna Maria Island, a tiny rock
off the coast of Florida. She’s also been saddled with the
companionship of her farm-raised cousin Nia. Eventually,
Bernice’s disenchantment gives way to rage, which in turn
leads her to commit a deadly crime. When Nia won’t cover
for Bernice’s actions, she turns on Nia, chasing her into
the deadly coastal waves.
But the timing is right and the elementals have better
ideas: the moment the girls go under, Bernice is
commandeered for Arahab’s task force, and Nia is turned
into a strange and powerful new creature by a servant of
the earth who doesn’t want to surrender his green fields
and muddy plains—not yet, at least. Add in a hapless fire
inspector who’s just trying to get his paperwork in order,
a fire god whose neutrality has been called into question,
and a bizarre religious cult, and rural Florida doesn’t
seem quite so sleepy anymore.
Cherie Priest, who stormed onto the scene with the stunning
Southern Gothic trio that began with Four and Twenty
Blackbirds, now brings the same masterful writing and
unforgettable characterization to the realm of near-
contemporary rural fantasy. The result, Fathom, is fast-
paced, stunning, and quite unlike anything you’ve ever read.
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