Arrival at the Canary House

Frank Nichols and his wife Eudora arrive in rural Whitbrow, Georgia, in 1935, hoping to rebuild their lives after professional and personal disgrace. They inherit the "Canary House" from Frank's estranged aunt, a home shadowed by warnings to stay away. The couple's banter and affection mask deeper wounds—Frank's trauma from World War I and Eudora's infertility and past scandal. As they settle in, the oppressive Southern heat and the town's insular ways hint at a place both promising and foreboding. The house, and the land it sits on, are tied to Frank's notorious ancestor, Lucien Savoyard, a Confederate general infamous for his cruelty. The couple's optimism is tinged with unease, as the past seems to linger in every corner.

Town Rituals and Tensions

Frank and Eudora are introduced to Whitbrow's peculiar traditions, most notably the monthly "Chase of Pigs," a ritual where townsfolk drive flower-adorned pigs into the woods across the river as a sacrifice. The event, led by the local pastor and mayor, is both religious and superstitious, meant to appease something lurking in the forest. The ritual's cost weighs on the struggling town, and debate grows over whether to continue it. Frank, an outsider, is both fascinated and unsettled by the ceremony's blend of Christianity and paganism. Eudora, now a schoolteacher, senses the town's unease and the way old stories and fears shape daily life.

Across the River's Edge

Frank's curiosity about his family's plantation and the woods across the river grows. Despite warnings from townsfolk and his own wife, he ventures into the dense, ancient forest, seeking traces of the Savoyard legacy. The woods are darker, thicker, and more oppressive than the land on the town's side of the river. Local boys refuse to accompany him, citing "haint stories" and a sense that the woods are "mean." Frank's explorations are marked by a growing sense of being watched, and he encounters strange, unsettling signs—gouged trees, animal remains, and a sense of trespass.

The Boy with No Pants

During one of his forays, Frank encounters a strange, feral boy—mulatto, naked except for a shirt, with filed teeth and a predatory gaze. The boy stalks Frank, throws stones at him, and mimics human gestures with eerie intelligence. The encounter is both threatening and surreal, leaving Frank shaken and wounded. The boy's presence, and his animalistic behavior, suggest something inhuman and ancient. Frank's dreams become haunted by war memories and the boy's image, blurring the line between trauma and supernatural threat.

Secrets in the Woods

Frank's research into his ancestor's plantation uncovers a legacy of brutality: Lucien Savoyard was not only a slave owner but a monster who hunted and killed his own slaves for sport. The woods are revealed to be the site of a slave uprising, where Savoyard was killed by those he tormented. Locals share stories of "lepers" or "haints" in the woods—people who are not quite human, who demand the town's sacrifices. Frank's conversations with the eccentric taxidermist, Martin Cranmer, hint at a truce between the town and the creatures across the river, maintained by the ritual of the pigs.

The Pig Chase Ends

Economic hardship and outside influence—especially Eudora's persuasive speech—lead the town to vote to end the Chase of Pigs. The decision is celebrated by some but leaves others uneasy. The ritual's end is seen as a break in the town's covenant with the unknown forces in the woods. Almost immediately, ominous signs appear: animals are slaughtered, and a sense of dread settles over Whitbrow. The town's fragile peace is shattered, and the cost of abandoning tradition becomes horrifyingly clear.

Nightmares and Warnings

Frank's nightmares intensify, blending his war trauma with visions of the boy and the woods. Eudora, too, is plagued by unease. The couple's relationship is strained by fear and guilt—over the town's fate, their own secrets, and the sense that something is coming for them. The townsfolk grow suspicious and divided, and the sense of being watched, both by neighbors and by something in the woods, becomes inescapable.

The First Killings

The truce is broken in blood: Tyson Falmouth, a local boy, is found savagely killed and partially eaten near the woods. The town is thrown into panic and grief. Suspicion falls on outsiders and drifters, but the evidence—animal tracks, the violence of the attack—suggests something else. The sheriff and a posse hunt for a scapegoat, eventually lynching a mute black man found in the woods. The lynching is a desperate, ugly act, and the true threat remains unaddressed.

The Lynching and Its Aftermath

The lynching does nothing to stop the killings. The town is haunted by guilt and fear, and the violence escalates. Graves are desecrated, the dead exhumed and displayed in the schoolhouse with a chilling message: "SEND THE PIGS." The town's dogs are slaughtered, and the sense of siege grows. Frank and Eudora, now pariahs, realize the town blames them for the curse. The sheriff abandons his post, and the town's social fabric unravels.

Desecration at the Schoolhouse

The desecration of the schoolhouse is a turning point. The message left by the creatures is clear: the sacrifices must resume, or the town will suffer. The men of Whitbrow organize a doomed expedition into the woods, seeking to confront or destroy the threat. The party is picked off, one by one, by supernatural ambushes—stones, disappearances, and direct attacks. The creatures are revealed to be werewolf-like, shape-shifting, and nearly invulnerable except to silver.

The Town Turns

As the horror intensifies, the townspeople turn on Frank and Eudora, blaming them for the calamity. Eudora is bitten during an attack, and her wound heals with unnatural speed. The couple tries to flee, but the town's fear and suspicion make escape nearly impossible. Friends and neighbors become enemies, and the couple is forced into exile, pursued by both the townsfolk and the monsters across the river.

The Full Moon's Terror

Eudora's infection becomes undeniable: she is changing, becoming one of the creatures. The couple flees north, seeking safety and a cure, but the transformation is inevitable. Eudora begs Frank to lock her away during the full moon, fearing what she will become. Her first transformation is agonizing and violent, and Frank is forced to confront the horror of loving someone who is now a monster.

The Siege and Survival

Frank is captured by the creatures and imprisoned at the ruins of his ancestor's plantation, La Boudeuse. There, he is tortured and humiliated, forced to confront the full legacy of Savoyard's evil and the monstrous descendants it spawned. The leader of the creatures, Hector, reveals himself as a former slave turned werewolf, now the master of the woods. Eudora, now changed, is claimed by the pack. Frank's only hope comes from Martin Cranmer, who, himself a werewolf, helps Frank and Eudora escape by setting the plantation ablaze.

The Monster Within

Frank and Eudora escape, but she is mortally wounded by a silver bullet. The couple is rejected by both the town and the world beyond, seen as lepers and monsters. Eudora's transformation is complete, and Frank is forced to choose between killing her or letting her go. He cannot bring himself to do it, and she disappears into the night, leaving Frank alone with his guilt and the knowledge that the curse endures.

Exile and Escape

Frank, near death, is nursed back to health by black sharecroppers, who recognize the curse and demand he leave. He and Eudora flee north, but their relationship is irrevocably changed. Eudora's monstrous nature is now a part of her, and Frank is haunted by what she has become—and what he may become himself.

The Return to Whitbrow

Unable to let go, Frank returns to Whitbrow with two old war friends, seeking to destroy the monsters once and for all. The town is abandoned, the land cursed. Armed with silver and mustard gas, they assault the creatures' lair, killing many but at great cost. The violence is both cathartic and futile; the curse cannot be fully eradicated.

The Final Hunt

The final confrontation leaves Frank's friends dead or traumatized, and the monsters decimated but not destroyed. The plantation and the town are left in ruins, and Frank is left with nothing but memories and scars. The cycle of violence and vengeance is unbroken, and the land itself seems to hunger for more.

The Curse Endures

Years later, Frank is a broken man, haunted by visions of Eudora—forever young, forever monstrous—appearing to him in the city. The curse of Whitbrow, of Savoyard, and of the woods across the river, endures. The story closes with the sense that the past cannot be escaped, and that some hungers are never sated.

Characters

Frank Nichols

Frank is a World War I veteran and disgraced academic, marked by trauma, guilt, and a longing for redemption. His inheritance of the Canary House and his obsession with his ancestor's dark legacy draw him into the supernatural horrors of Whitbrow. Frank's psychological complexity is central: he is both a rationalist and a man haunted by nightmares, torn between love for Eudora and the pull of the past. His development is a descent from hope to horror, from agency to helplessness, as he is forced to confront the monstrous both within and without.

Eudora (Dora) Nichols

Eudora is Frank's wife and partner, a woman of intelligence, wit, and deep emotional scars. Her infertility and past affair with Frank have left her vulnerable, but she is also fiercely independent and compassionate. As the story progresses, Eudora becomes both victim and inheritor of the curse, her transformation into a werewolf symbolizing the destructive power of trauma and the inescapability of the past. Her relationship with Frank is both loving and tragic, culminating in her monstrous rebirth and ambiguous fate.

Martin Cranmer

Martin is the town's eccentric, a self-educated, sardonic taxidermist who lives on the edge of the woods. He is both a source of wisdom and a figure of suspicion, straddling the line between human and monster. Martin's ambiguous morality and ultimate sacrifice—helping Frank and Eudora escape at the cost of his own life—make him a tragic, liminal figure. His own lycanthropy is a metaphor for the outsider perspective and the burden of knowledge.

Hector

Hector is the alpha of the werewolves, a former slave of Lucien Savoyard who has become the master of the woods. He is both victim and villain, embodying the cycle of violence and the legacy of slavery. Hector's intelligence, cruelty, and sense of justice are intertwined, and his relationship with Frank is one of both kinship and enmity. He is a symbol of the past's refusal to die.

The Boy with No Pants

This supernatural child is both a literal and symbolic descendant of Savoyard, a creature of the woods who is neither fully human nor fully animal. His presence is a constant reminder of the inhumanity lurking beneath the surface of the land and its people. He is both predator and victim, a figure of horror and pathos.

Old Man Gordeau

Gordeau is the mayor and moral center of Whitbrow, a man who clings to the old ways and the rituals that keep the town safe. His authority is undermined by the events that unfold, and his eventual death marks the end of the town's ability to protect itself. He represents the limits of tradition and the dangers of change.

Sheriff Estel Blake

Blake is the town's sheriff, a man out of his depth as the supernatural horror escalates. His attempts to maintain order and justice are futile, and his eventual abandonment of his post is both a personal and communal failure. He is a figure of impotence in the face of overwhelming evil.

Saul and Lester Gordeau

The Gordeau brothers are emblematic of the town's youth—brave, loyal, and ultimately doomed. Saul's abduction and abuse by the creatures, and Lester's tragic fate, underscore the generational cost of the curse and the futility of resistance.

Anna Muncie

Anna is the teacher of the younger grades, a rationalist and advocate for progress. Her death at the hands of the monsters is a symbol of the destruction of hope and the triumph of the past's darkness over the future's promise.

Lucien Savoyard

Though long dead, Lucien's presence haunts every page. His cruelty, violence, and refusal to die are the root of the supernatural evil in the woods. He is both a historical figure and a mythic monster, the embodiment of the South's original sin.

Plot Devices

The Divided River

The river separating Whitbrow from the woods is both a physical barrier and a metaphor for the divide between civilization and savagery, past and present, human and monster. Crossing it is an act of transgression, and the story's central horrors are unleashed when the boundary is violated—by Frank's curiosity, the town's abandonment of ritual, and the monsters' incursions.

Ritual Sacrifice

The Chase of Pigs is a plot device that encapsulates the town's uneasy peace with the supernatural. Its cessation is the catalyst for the horror that follows, illustrating the dangers of breaking with tradition without understanding its purpose. The ritual is both a means of control and a form of complicity.

The Haunted Past

The story's structure is built on the interplay between past and present, with the sins of the ancestors—slavery, violence, betrayal—manifesting as literal monsters. Frank's research, dreams, and the plantation's ruins all serve as plot devices to reveal the inescapability of history and the way trauma is inherited.

Transformation and Infection

The werewolf curse is both a supernatural threat and a metaphor for trauma, guilt, and the loss of self. Eudora's infection and transformation are foreshadowed by her wound and her changing appetites, and the process is depicted as both horrifying and tragic. The monsters' near-invulnerability except to silver, and their ability to heal, heighten the sense of inevitability and doom.

Outsider Perspective

Frank's outsider status, his war trauma, and his academic skepticism make him both a participant and a witness. His perspective is colored by guilt, love, and a longing for meaning, and his gradual unraveling mirrors the town's descent into chaos. The use of letters, dreams, and confessions adds layers of ambiguity and psychological depth.

Analysis

Those Across the River is a Southern Gothic horror novel that uses the trappings of the supernatural—werewolves, curses, haunted woods—to explore the enduring legacy of violence, racism, and trauma in the American South. The story is as much about the psychological scars of war, the weight of history, and the dangers of forgetting or denying the past as it is about monsters. The town's rituals, meant to keep evil at bay, are revealed as both necessary and complicit, and the breaking of tradition unleashes horrors that cannot be contained. The characters' attempts to confront or escape the curse are ultimately futile; the past cannot be exorcised, only endured. The novel's lesson is a bleak one: that some wounds never heal, that the sins of the fathers are visited upon the children, and that love, however fierce, is not always enough to save us from ourselves or the darkness we inherit. In the end, the monsters are both literal and metaphorical, and the true horror is the knowledge that the past is never truly past—it waits, hungry, just across the river.

Last updated: May 6, 2025