Suee has an unusual gap in her memory after hearing a strange voice at school one day, people’s shadows keep disappearing-and Suee’s own shadow has become sentient. An ever-expanding group of students dubbed “zeroes” are walking the school’s halls “like a bunch of mindless zombies,” mumbling to themselves and being ignored by teachers. Sullen 12-year-old Suee Lee, new at Outskirtsville Elementary, investigates the strange goings-on at the school in this graphic novel, a revised and reworked collection of three stories that were originally self-published digitally. And as you know, she totally judges a book by the cover! You can get The Fisherman on Amazon here.Įrica, the Davis girl, found a new book for you guys. It’s the kind of story that reminds you why you love reading horror, and as a writer I wanted to take it apart and examine it to see what I could learn from it. Seriously, I cannot say enough about how much I loved this book.
There is a scale to a good Lovecraftian story that is very difficult to manage effectively, and Langan manages it perfectly. But even more impressive is his ability to build toward–and then pay off–truly terrifying moments. His character development is amazing and his descriptions spring to life in your mind. He’s the kind of writer that just operates on a different level.
The places Langan takes this story made me so, so happy as a horror reader and writer. Without getting too spilery, let’s just say Dutchman’s Creek is no ordinary fishing spot. One day, Dan tells Abe about a remote fishing spot he wants to try called Dutchman’s Creek, though he’s cagey about how he found out about it, and why he wants to go there so badly. They form a friendship around fishing, which is a therapeutic exercise for both of them. Abe lost his wife to cancer, and Dan lost his entire family to a tragic car accident. The Fisherman begins as a tale of two men who have both lost the people closest to them. Langan perfectly captures the mounting dread of a good Lovecraft story, and the imagery he conjures is as cosmically terrifying as anything I’ve ever read. So, I took a chance, and picked up what turned out to be the best Lovecraftian horror (and one of the best horror novels, period) that I have read in years. I did a little research, and one book in particular popped up in a few different places–The Fisherman by John Langan. A lot of my reading as of late had been nonfiction, and I was really looking for some good, Lovecraftian horror to immerse myself in. I had a work trip coming up recently and wanted to bring a good horror novel along with me.
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