Wednesday, March 22, 2017

The Fisherman by John Langan- Book Review

It is kind of fun when you read a book that takes place near the place that your are currently living, especially when not in a city. There are tons of books that take place in NYC, for example, but not many that take place is say Esopus, NY. I will be truthful still in stating that until I moved back to the Hudson Valley, I didn't even know there was an Esopus, NY. Now that I am here and near there, it becomes fun when it pops up in a book.

It is even more fun when other similarities pop up. One of the main characters, for example, has the exact same name as a friend of mine. The book also mentions a Lutheran church in Woodstock. I am Lutheran and I happen to know the pastor of the church in Woodstock. So, there was lots of fun with these small coincidences for me in this book.

The Fisherman by John Langan is about two men, who both lose significant members of their family- Abe, who's wife dies from illness and Dan, who's whole family dies in a tragic car accident. These two men come together on weekends to fish in different areas of the Hudson Valley. One time, after a particularly rough patch, Dan suggest the men fish in Dutchman's Creek which suddenly appears on Abe's map.

As the men go to the Creek, they stop at a local diner and meet a man, who after hearing they are headed to Dutchman's Creek starts telling them the tale of the creek and the horrors of what has happened there. Will the men continue their journey? (Hint: yes) What will they find there? (Hint: not good things)

I read this book on a train ride and I will state that it was perfect for a train ride or a plane ride or some other such ride that a good chunk can be read, can be put down for a bit, only to finish it later. I am not sure I would have finished the book if it wasn't my train book. I write that because the book felt like two short stories on the same topic, shoved together to make one story.

There is the story of the two men, which happens in Part 1. You hear their story, you get to know them, and the book builds their relationship for 46 pages. The story of Abe and Dan is then interrupted for 144 pages with the backstory story of Dutchman's Creek as told by the man in the restaurant. Dan and Abe are gone for the entire story as is the man telling it. It is just the story of the past. In Part 3, we come back to the restaurant and to Abe and Dan's story for the last 66 pages to wrap up the book. Without the train stop and taking a long break in between reads, I am not sure I would have gone back to finish Dan and Abe's story. It was too much back story.

With that written, I gotta state, in spite of what I just wrote, it was still a fun book. I gave it a sort of pass too because it is a local author on an indy publishing house (Word Horde). I also only paid $10 for the book retail on Amazon (it is only $2.99 on Kindle), so there was lots of forgiveness for the semi disjointed story. If it were a major publishing house with a big time author, I might have balked a little more at how it was put together, but local author, small publishing house, and cheap book- it was tons of fun and a good story.

It was very imaginative and drew a good mix of religion and lore. There were bits and pieces of story that didn't make much sense. For example after hearing the long story (which would have gone late into the day at that point), Dan and Abe still act the way they do in Part 3, whereas I would think one would take off running or simply not go, but you kind of let that go. It is good monster horror that I would recommend for fun.

I gave this one 3 stars bordering on 3.5 stars mostly due to how the story felt like two different stories.

Here is your Amazon link- The Fisherman by John Langan

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