Structurally, the story sets up what follows later but it consumes half of the novel, leaving it's main characters far behind and by the time the tale finally returns to them, it's too easy to see what's coming, making the remainder of the book somewhat anticlimactic. It's important to the plot but the characters in this section of the book aren't as interesting or well-developed as Dan and Abe. Unfortunately, just as that relationship is becoming interesting, the novel takes a left turn into a very long story within a story. Langan takes the time to develop these characters (particularly Abe) into people we care about. It gets off to a very strong start as we meet Abe and Dan, two men dealing with terrible loss who find solace together in fishing. It's been described as a literate "cosmic" (ie: Lovecraftian) horror novel and that sounded right up my alley.
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