The Fisherman

5 May 2026

I've been trying to read more. One of the reasons I didn't read much in my 20s was because, after outgrowing YA novels, I didn't know what I wanted to read. I didn't really know what to expect from novels geared toward adults, but I knew I didn't want to read more novels about teenagers coming of age/finding love/getting magic powers/etc. Very occasionally I would devour a novel like I did with I'm Glad My Mom Died, then quietly resume the rest of my life as if nothing happened. Podcasts are maybe the closest I got on a more regular basis.

One of my favorite novels I've read in the last 5 years was 11/22/63, which I read from cover to cover (well, in my kindle) during a 9 day trip to Egypt. I mostly read in a hot van and in a hotel in Aswan when I wasn't up to visiting Abu Simbel. (A core memory of mine was when I was reading 11/22/63 in bed, and I heard faintly the sound of voices being broadcasted across the city. I got up and when I went outside, I realized it was prayer. So cool!) Reading that first Stephen King novel, I realized I wanted to read more horror lit as well as stories with time travel. Cue me diving into Outlander a few years later.. which is a whole other post.

I recently (like, a few days ago) finished The Fisherman by John Langan. It was unlike anything I had ever read before, with some nods to HP Lovecraft. I've never read Lovecraft, but his work is so important to the horror genre it's hard to be unaware of what his work is generally about. Anyways, this book has probably the coolest "fish story" I've ever heard. It makes up about a third of the book, sandwiched between our introduction to the narrator and his buddy, and what happens to them after they hear the story. If you're reading this and you're into horror lit, this book is solid. Very creepy and left me thinking about where we go after death.