Books like “The Fisherman”

What to read after “The Fisherman” by John Langan: a list matched by tropes, mood and atmosphere. Under each book you will see what it has in common.

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1
Annihilation
Jeff VanderMeer · 2014
Similar atmosphere: “Creeping Dread”
Four women cross into Area X, a coastal region sealed off for decades, to survey it as the twelfth expedition. The biologist records the abandoned bunker, the writing on its walls and the animals that seem almost aware. She also knows her husband went in before her and came back changed.
2
The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories
H. P. Lovecraft · 1999
Similar atmosphere: “Creeping Dread”
A Penguin Classics selection of Lovecraft's stories, from 'Dagon' and 'The Picture in the House' to 'The Call of Cthulhu', 'The Colour Out of Space' and 'The Shadow Over Innsmouth'. Scholars, sailors and dreamers glimpse buried civilisations and vast indifferent forces, and the knowledge slowly takes their minds apart.
3
The King in Yellow
Robert W. Chambers · 1895
Similar atmosphere: “Creeping Dread”
A collection of linked horror stories built around a forbidden play, The King in Yellow, that disturbs everyone who reads it. Around it are tales of artists, masks and a lake city where ordinary life slides, without warning, into dread.
4
The Ballad of Black Tom
Victor LaValle · 2016
Similar atmosphere: “Creeping Dread”
New York, 1924. Tommy Tester runs small errands and plays guitar for money, one of the few Black men willing to do business with a sorcerer. Hired by a strange wealthy man in Flatbush, he is drawn toward the Sleeping King and the Great Old Ones, and chooses what kind of power he is willing to serve.
5
House of Leaves
Mark Z. Danielewski · 2000
Similar atmosphere: “Creeping Dread”
- Creeping Dread
- Forbidden Knowledge
A tattoo artist assembles the scattered notes of a blind old man who wrote a study of a film. The film records a family discovering that their house is larger inside than out, with a hallway that opens onto darkness where the rules of space break down.
6
The City We Became
N. K. Jemisin · 2020
Similar atmosphere: “Creeping Dread”
- Cosmic
- Creeping Dread
In a New York where great cities are born as living avatars, a homeless artist becomes the spirit of the city. As a hostile force called the Woman in White spreads through the streets, five avatars of the boroughs must unite to defend a city still struggling to be born.
7
The Exorcist
William Peter Blatty · 1971
Similar atmosphere: “Creeping Dread”
- Creeping Dread
An actress's young daughter falls ill with symptoms no doctor can explain, and the doctors eventually suggest a religious explanation. A priest trained in exorcism is asked to help, and he must confront both the thing in the room and his own wavering faith.
8
Heart-Shaped Box
Joe Hill · 2007
Similar atmosphere: “Creeping Dread”
- Creeping Dread
Aging rock star Judas Coyne collects macabre curiosities. When he buys a haunted suit online, the dead man tied to it begins to stalk him and the women in his life. To survive, Jude must confront the violence in his own past. A supernatural horror about guilt and revenge.
9
The Spite House
Johnny Compton · 2023
Similar atmosphere: “Creeping Dread”
- Creeping Dread
Eric Ross is on the run with his two daughters, taking whatever work he can find. He answers an ad offering a large sum to anyone who will stay in the Masson House, a spite house in Texas said to be the state's most haunted, and record what happens there. The house may also hold answers about his family.
10
What Moves the Dead
T. Kingfisher · 2022
Similar atmosphere: “Creeping Dread”
- Creeping Dread
Alex Easton travels to the Ushers' decaying manor to see a childhood friend who is dying. Madeline's body is changing in ways the doctors cannot explain, down to the hairs on her arms, the local hares behave strangely, and the tarn beside the house seems to be watching.
11
Ghost Eaters
Clay McLeod Chapman · 2022
Similar atmosphere: “Creeping Dread”
- Creeping Dread
Erin is still grieving her ex-boyfriend Silas when a friend offers her Ghost, a drug that lets users see the dead. She takes it hoping for one more conversation with him, and finds the boundary between the living and the dead starting to give way around her.
12
The Haunting of Hill House
Shirley Jackson · 1959
Similar atmosphere: “Creeping Dread”
- Creeping Dread
An investigator of psychic phenomena invites several people to stay at Hill House, a building with a long history of death and madness. Among them is the fragile Eleanor, and as the house begins to single her out, the group's stay becomes a struggle to keep hold of sanity.