The Fisherman by John Langan
The Fisherman by John Langan — ⭐ 1.5 Stars (aka: What Did I Just Read???)
Before we even begin: uncanny coincidences alert 🚨
My father-in-law worked at IBM. My husband studied at University of Heidelberg. My mother-in-law died of breast cancer. ALL of that shows up in this book. So yes, I really wanted to like this. The universe practically dared me to.
Reader, I did not like it. 😵💫
Quick Take
Weird? Yes.
Scary? Sometimes.
Long-winded to the point of rage-skimming? ABSOLUTELY.
This book started strong, then disappeared up its own folklore spiral and never came back.
⚠️ Trigger Warnings
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Graphic violence
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Suicide & suicidal ideation
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Child death
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Cancer
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Sexual content
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Body horror
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Substance use
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Mental illness
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Racism
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Animal death
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Cosmic horror / existential dread
📚 What This Book Is About (Non-Spoiler Setup)
The Fisherman by John Langan is a literary cosmic horror novel set in upstate New York.
At its core, it’s about grief, loss, and what people are willing to sacrifice to undo death. Abe and Dan—two widowed coworkers—bond over fishing after losing their wives. One bad idea later, they stumble into something ancient, hungry, and very much not interested in healthy coping mechanisms.
🚨 SPOILER WARNING
Everything below contains FULL SPOILERS INCLUDING THE ENDING. Proceed accordingly or flee like a sensible person.
🧠 Full Plot Summary (With Commentary Because I Have Thoughts)
Abe Samuelson loses his wife Marie to cancer just two years into their marriage. It’s sad, quiet, and genuinely well-written. Fishing becomes his grief therapy 🎣. So far, so good.
Enter Dan Drescher, Abe’s IBM coworker, who loses his wife and children in a car accident. Abe invites him fishing as emotional triage. Again: solid setup.
They plan a trip to Dutchman’s Creek, which triggers panic in a diner owner named Howard. Howard responds like any normal person would—by telling a never-ending oral history nested inside another oral history 🙃.
And here’s where the book absolutely derails.
Howard’s story comes from a reverend, who heard it from Lottie Schmidt, who lived through events tied to the construction of the Ashokan Reservoir. This embedded tale takes up most of the book and feels like being trapped at a dinner party with someone who refuses to notice you’re dying inside.
Lottie’s father, Rainer Schmidt, is an occult-obsessed linguistics professor who fled Germany due to a scandal involving a cursed book (as one does). A mysterious immortal figure called “the Fisherman” feeds on grief and life force while trying to resurrect his murdered family using cosmic powers and a giant Leviathan-like creature swimming in a black ocean outside reality.
People come back wrong. Eyes turn gold and fish-like 🐟. Secrets spill. Bodies dissolve into water. Axes get magic runes. A possessed man dies. It’s interesting, but it never. ends.
Eventually, the Fisherman is temporarily thwarted, Dutchman’s Creek is marked as cursed, and the story FINALLY crawls back to the present.
Back to Abe & Dan:
Dan admits he came to resurrect his dead family. Abe follows him and—surprise!—is confronted by a young, naked version of Marie with gold fish eyes. They have sex (yes, really), and then she turns into a nightmare creature. 😬
Dan chooses delusion over reality, gets eaten by his “family,” and Abe barely survives.
The Ending:
Years later, flooding brings the horror back. A gold-eyed corpse version of Dan crawls into Abe’s house to accuse him. Abe lights him on fire (self-care). As Abe is rescued, he sees the floodwaters filled with rows of white bodies, including Marie… and children who may have been his.
End scene. Existential dread. Roll credits. 🫠
🧾 What Worked
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Genuinely creepy imagery 👀
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Strong opening focused on grief
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Some excellent horror moments
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Ambitious cosmic scope
🧾 What Did NOT Work
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Endless exposition
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Overstuffed folklore
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A story inside a story inside a story inside my personal hell
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Completely killed momentum
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I was skimming by the end and did not care who died next
⭐ Final Rating: 1.5/5
I respect the ambition. I do not respect how long it took to get there. This book desperately needed editing and mercy.
📖 If You Want Cosmic Horror That (In My Opinion) Works Better
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The Croning by Laird Barron
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Revival by Stephen King
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The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle
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The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher
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Pet Sematary by Stephen King
If you loved this book, I support you emotionally. If you hated it, welcome to my support group. 😌📚
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