A review by turtles1738
The Fisherman by John Langan

2.0

This book started really strong for me. I was bought into Abe and Dans grief and their bond over that and fishing. Where it lost me was the unnecessarily long frame narrative wedge into the middle, that drags for over 70% of the total book. This narrative is all about the history of the creek Abe and Dan are about to go fish. Told to us by Abe who had just heard it from the cook at a diner, who had heard it from a reverend, who had heard it from a girl that second handily experienced it. Confused yet? It gets worse. Abe for some reason is an omniscient narrator. For events he never personally experienced and was only just told about them. Further adding onto that confusion.

After this ungodly long frame narrative within a frame narrative, we finally get back to Abe and Dan's story. Which at this point very little mystery remains, because we just spent 70% of the book going over the history of the creek. Sucking any horror that might remain right out of the book. Nothing ruins horror more than over explaining everything.... The books ending was alright, but nothing to write home about.