Genre: Horror
Published: Word Horde, June 2016
My Rating: 3.5/5 stars
“But there are some things, no matter if they’re true, you can’t live with them. You have to refuse them. You turn your eyes away from whatever’s squatting right there in front of you and not only pretend it isn’t there now, but that you never saw it in the first place. You do so because your soul is a frail thing that can’t stand the blast-furnace heat of revelation, and truth be damned. What else can a body do?”
The Fisherman is a piece of contemporary Lovecraftian horror that combines the classic terrors of the deep waters with the drowning depths of grief. From that description, you might be able to guess that I had high hopes this would be a new genre-favourite. Although it fully started out as a 5-star read, like plenty a fisherman’s tale, it grew bigger and more grotesque the further it got, and eventually lost much of its nuance for me…
The story of The Fisherman is told in three parts, and takes on a nested structure; a fisherman recounting another fisherman’s tale so to speak. In part 1, we are introduced to our two protagonists Abe and Dan. The two former coworkers have developed a friendship around their shared experience of grief over the loss of their families. They take up fishing together as a substitute for their individual, much more unhealthy coping mechanisms. One day, Dan suggests a new fishing spot by the name of Dutchman’s creek; a river mysteriously absent from traditional maps. On their way there, they stop at a diner, where they learn more about the strange folklore and superstition surrounding the creek from the stories of a local man. The tale he recounts is a Fisherman’s-tale if there ever was one, and takes up the entire middle-third of the novel. We eventually circle back to Dan and Abe in part 3, as they have their own encounter at Dutchman's creek: one completely personal to them, yet eerily mirroring the tale they've just listened to.
In short; I adored a part 1. It was melancholic, contemplative, ominous and filled with subtle but resonant statements on grief, loss and memory. Had the entire book continued in this vein, I would have found a new favourite for sure. In part 2 however, we veer into full-on fantasy territory, and this was where the book lost me. I didn’t care for the full secondary cast of characters that were introduced and the action lost its subtlety and became too blatantly-Lovecraftian for me. Think more grotesque Leviathans and fish-monsters and less existential dread. Part three regained some of the psychological suspense I felt in part 1, but never got back to the level I wished it had.
Granted, Langan sure understands Lovecraftian horror to a tee. I loved a lot of the elements and references present, as well as the brilliant oceanic imagery. The scale was just tipped a little too far towards “physical monster”, rather than psychological ambiguity for my personal taste. Also, I could’ve absolutely done without the image of a man fucking a fish-corpse, thank you very much…
You can find this book here on Goodreads.
