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Lost in the Dark and Other Excursions
A garishly painted figurine contains a terrible curse; the ten-year anniversary of a sensational horror film shot in an abandoned mine reveals stunning secrets; endnotes for a book review uncover a strange high-tech pathogen; a man witnesses something uncanny and unexplained as his friend succumbs to a watery death; a seasick woman aboard a ferry is pursued by a barnacle-covered specter; a professor reveals the mysterious connection between Joseph Conrad and Peter Pan; a man encounters the ghost of his lost sister in a liminal space between the land and sea; an academic meets a mythical creature on a mysterious island.
John Langan, author of the Bram Stoker Award-winning novel The Fisherman, returns with thirteen new tales of cosmic horror in Lost in the Dark and Other Excursions. In these stories, he continues to chart the course of 21st century weird fiction, from the unfamiliar to the familial, the unfathomably distant to the intimate.
Includes extensive story notes and an introduction by Victor LaValle.
"This is an author at the height of his powers." —Publishers Weekly, starred review
John Langan, author of the Bram Stoker Award-winning novel The Fisherman, returns with thirteen new tales of cosmic horror in Lost in the Dark and Other Excursions. In these stories, he continues to chart the course of 21st century weird fiction, from the unfamiliar to the familial, the unfathomably distant to the intimate.
Includes extensive story notes and an introduction by Victor LaValle.
"This is an author at the height of his powers." —Publishers Weekly, starred review
362 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 5, 2025
About the author
John Langan
82 books1,856 followersJohn Langan is the author of two novels, The Fisherman (Word Horde 2016) and House of Windows (Night Shade 2009), and two collections of stories, The Wide, Carnivorous Sky and Other Monstrous Geographies (Hippocampus 2013) and Mr. Gaunt and Other Uneasy Encounters (Prime 2008). With Paul Tremblay, he co-edited Creatures: Thirty Years of Monsters (Prime 2011). He's one of the founders of the Shirley Jackson Awards, for which he served as a juror during its first three years. Currently, he reviews horror and dark fantasy for Locus magazine.
John Langan lives in New York's Hudson Valley with his wife, younger son, and many, many animals. He teaches at SUNY New Paltz. He's working toward his black belt in the Korean martial art of Tang Soo Do.
John Langan lives in New York's Hudson Valley with his wife, younger son, and many, many animals. He teaches at SUNY New Paltz. He's working toward his black belt in the Korean martial art of Tang Soo Do.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 56 reviews
October 24, 2025
Lyrical, thought-provoking, and unsettling horror, again and again! I enjoyed every story in this collection and really enjoyed a handful of them. Langan has an ability to modulate his writing and tone from lush, dense and all-encompassing to stripped-back, bare, and unrelenting as needed for each story, which is wonderful. His prose doesn’t tend toward muscular or sleek, though, instead always feeling a little indulgent but in the best of ways. He can create so much character and atmosphere in a single paragraph that his writing always feels like it is under your skin, showing you a new reality from the inside out. His characters are genuine and heartfelt, and each feels perfectly realized in whatever world he places them, (one that probably has an overcast sky and shadows that you can only see moving from the corners of your eyes). Yet his stories have a playfulness to them, even when they are dark, smothering your hopes for a simple world organized by natural laws. His love for and belief in literature is clear in the thematic heft and density of thought (and occasionally prose) that he imbues every story with. He also has mastered the art of a satisfying ending to short form horror. Whether his endings end in his protagonists’ success or their eternal damnation he always manages to give you something unexpected. I find myself gasping out loud, both in glee and horror, at the sheer beauty and audacity at many of these stories, whether that be at the endings’ twist or at some other revelation along the way. He is very light with blood and gore; they exist in some of these stories, but at a distance. Instead, he wants to shock your mind, to fill you with a sense of dread only occasionally relieved by delight but always infiltrating your thoughts. As such his stories feel like a psychological itch, beings that worm their way into your subconscious.
There is a great diversity in this collection in terms of style: one story is told entirely in endnotes, another is almost entirely a (fictional?) dialogue between father and son on a car ride, while yet another takes the form of a magazine article about the 10-year anniversary of the re-release of a cult horror film and interview with that film’s director. Not all the stories are experimental or have meta elements, but Langan elevates even the simplest structure with prose that is inviting and all-embracing.
The penultimate piece in this collection started as an essay for Becky Siegel Spratford’s recent collection Why I Love Horror, but as it blossomed into being 4x the request word count it found a home in this collection, and in it he explains his continued and perpetual love for the genre by writing a horror story within the essay, talking about the artistic choices that get to be made, the way it affects the reader, the way it affects the writer, the relationships and ideas the genre always to take center stage, and more. How he manages to combine a non-fiction, personal essay with a compelling horror story stripped to its barest of bones is a testament to his command of the craft. In her introduction to the essay he eventually turned in Becky Siegel Spratford refers to him as “the author of your favorite horror author’s favorite horror novel of this century,” and each of the stories in this collection, as weird, disquieting, and surreal as many of them may be, are similar celebrations of his talent and skill.
(Also, he includes Story Notes at the end which explain the genesis of each story and so on, and while the stories easily stand on their own without this it is a really wonderful addition to the book, helping the reader feel invited into his world).
There is a great diversity in this collection in terms of style: one story is told entirely in endnotes, another is almost entirely a (fictional?) dialogue between father and son on a car ride, while yet another takes the form of a magazine article about the 10-year anniversary of the re-release of a cult horror film and interview with that film’s director. Not all the stories are experimental or have meta elements, but Langan elevates even the simplest structure with prose that is inviting and all-embracing.
The penultimate piece in this collection started as an essay for Becky Siegel Spratford’s recent collection Why I Love Horror, but as it blossomed into being 4x the request word count it found a home in this collection, and in it he explains his continued and perpetual love for the genre by writing a horror story within the essay, talking about the artistic choices that get to be made, the way it affects the reader, the way it affects the writer, the relationships and ideas the genre always to take center stage, and more. How he manages to combine a non-fiction, personal essay with a compelling horror story stripped to its barest of bones is a testament to his command of the craft. In her introduction to the essay he eventually turned in Becky Siegel Spratford refers to him as “the author of your favorite horror author’s favorite horror novel of this century,” and each of the stories in this collection, as weird, disquieting, and surreal as many of them may be, are similar celebrations of his talent and skill.
(Also, he includes Story Notes at the end which explain the genesis of each story and so on, and while the stories easily stand on their own without this it is a really wonderful addition to the book, helping the reader feel invited into his world).
May 31, 2025
John Langan’s latest anthology, Lost in the Dark and Other Excursions is another winner from the most consistently creative horror author working today.
To me the most stand out story of the bunch was Natalya, Queen of Hungry Dogs. A friend goes to help another friend at the end of his life resolve issues from a near death experience as a child. This story captures reminiscing with a friend on the good times so perfectly and then drives right in to balls-to-the-walls horror / adventure as the two plunge in to the beyond to fight the forces of darkness from his past.
Breakwater was also an outstanding revenge story that was wonderfully crafted from start to finish.
As John Langan has done in the past, he includes “story notes” which provide bits of insights to the stories. I find myself flipping to the back of the book after each story to read the associated story note right away.
I highly recommend all of John Langan’s work, and Lost in the Dark and Other Excursions is a worthy continuation of his style and work.
Thank you to publisher Word Horde for a digital advanced reader copy!
To me the most stand out story of the bunch was Natalya, Queen of Hungry Dogs. A friend goes to help another friend at the end of his life resolve issues from a near death experience as a child. This story captures reminiscing with a friend on the good times so perfectly and then drives right in to balls-to-the-walls horror / adventure as the two plunge in to the beyond to fight the forces of darkness from his past.
Breakwater was also an outstanding revenge story that was wonderfully crafted from start to finish.
As John Langan has done in the past, he includes “story notes” which provide bits of insights to the stories. I find myself flipping to the back of the book after each story to read the associated story note right away.
I highly recommend all of John Langan’s work, and Lost in the Dark and Other Excursions is a worthy continuation of his style and work.
Thank you to publisher Word Horde for a digital advanced reader copy!
June 1, 2025
I've said it before and I'll undoubtedly say it again: John Langan is one of the top, if not the top, modern horror writer churning out short fiction. His ability to turn on a dime from literary to pulp is worthy of study, and as a writer, I often find myself trying to do just that before being whisked away into the narrative. Lost in the Dark seems to embrace meta/experimental structures in greater number than previous collections, sometimes acting as a nod to Tremblay's work. Think footnotes in a text, a reader email pointing out errors, a documentary, an essay on the genre, all spun into story, with Langan, on more than one occasion, inserting himself into the mix. If meta is not your thing, there is plenty to love in the rest of the collection. My favorite entry was "Oscar Returns From the Dead, Prophesying", a story about a possessed gecko that should be ridiculous, and winds up being the most terrifying entry in the collection. Other stand-outs include "Haak", "Natalya, Queen of the Hungry Dogs", and "Snakebit, Or Why I (Continue to) Love Horror".
August 27, 2025
I know I have said this before, but Langan is my favorite living author. When I read him I feel like I am entering a Hellenic Temple, not restored or abandoned, but one which never stopped being used. Its only update in the past two millennium being a kind of gothic ornateness acquired in the middle ages and seamlessly grafted on top.
As usual, the eponymous story is the best in the collection, though my personal favorite was Breakwater- a rare example of me not choosing the novella length tales as I usually do.
My only nitpick is "The Shetlands?" Come on John, its Shetland. Just like its Orkney and not "The Orkneys". But I jest in good humor. Ive been to both back in the day when I used to live in Scotland. They really are the best places to take a trip to.
I also must reiterate a point on Langan's work that I have made before: his inclusion of detailed author notes at the end that provide context for each story should be standard practice for every story collection. Its best to leave these until done with everything else and then consume them all at once at the end, seeing the process of idea to authorship and the context that brings it about.
As usual, the eponymous story is the best in the collection, though my personal favorite was Breakwater- a rare example of me not choosing the novella length tales as I usually do.
My only nitpick is "The Shetlands?" Come on John, its Shetland. Just like its Orkney and not "The Orkneys". But I jest in good humor. Ive been to both back in the day when I used to live in Scotland. They really are the best places to take a trip to.
I also must reiterate a point on Langan's work that I have made before: his inclusion of detailed author notes at the end that provide context for each story should be standard practice for every story collection. Its best to leave these until done with everything else and then consume them all at once at the end, seeing the process of idea to authorship and the context that brings it about.
August 17, 2025
People always hype up how insightful the Story Notes are in the back of the book, then you flip to them and it always boils down to "So I got invited to write for an anthology and the theme was werewolves so I thought, hey, maybe I should write a werewolf story."
Read
September 30, 2025Had to DNF this one. The stories are so boring and go nowhere interesting. Can't continue this for another 200 or so pages. Oh well.
October 30, 2025
"Around us, the air is laden with the conversation and laughter of our fellow diners, but I am talking to you, directly to you, telling you a story that is only for you."
That quote, more than anything sums up the genius of John Langan's writing. He can go deep into a character, or spin the most fantastically weird situation, or relate a scene that could be straight out of your own life, but all the time he's doing it, he's talking to you, directly to you.
Langan writes with a comfortable intimacy that draws the reader in. He shows us the mundane in a new way that makes it interesting, before shattering that mundane with an incredible dread.
And this is why I'm so enamoured with Langan...he scratches that horror itch that many horror authors blithely pass right on by as they detail gory scene after gory scene... Langan slows down and allows you to feel the dread of possibility, the fear of what might happen, of what occurred in that dark area you couldn't quite see clearly.
The front half of this book is stacked with brilliant story after brilliant story. The centrepiece story, "Natalya, Queen of the Hungry Dogs" didn't quite hit as I'd hoped it would, and while I wasn't crazy about "Alice's Rebellion"—mainly because it takes a LOT to get me to enjoy anything ALICE IN WONDERLAND-related these days, I did appreciate the underlying message. And, while "Snakebit" was interesting, and had some great bits, it felt like it had overstayed its welcome a bit (though the quote at the beginning of this review does come from it).
Even with all that, the weakest of the stories here still had a lot to love, and the first eight are each knocked-out-of-the-park homerun exercises in horror storytelling.
That quote, more than anything sums up the genius of John Langan's writing. He can go deep into a character, or spin the most fantastically weird situation, or relate a scene that could be straight out of your own life, but all the time he's doing it, he's talking to you, directly to you.
Langan writes with a comfortable intimacy that draws the reader in. He shows us the mundane in a new way that makes it interesting, before shattering that mundane with an incredible dread.
And this is why I'm so enamoured with Langan...he scratches that horror itch that many horror authors blithely pass right on by as they detail gory scene after gory scene... Langan slows down and allows you to feel the dread of possibility, the fear of what might happen, of what occurred in that dark area you couldn't quite see clearly.
The front half of this book is stacked with brilliant story after brilliant story. The centrepiece story, "Natalya, Queen of the Hungry Dogs" didn't quite hit as I'd hoped it would, and while I wasn't crazy about "Alice's Rebellion"—mainly because it takes a LOT to get me to enjoy anything ALICE IN WONDERLAND-related these days, I did appreciate the underlying message. And, while "Snakebit" was interesting, and had some great bits, it felt like it had overstayed its welcome a bit (though the quote at the beginning of this review does come from it).
Even with all that, the weakest of the stories here still had a lot to love, and the first eight are each knocked-out-of-the-park homerun exercises in horror storytelling.
August 24, 2025
i don't understand why it's so hard for horror writers to break the three stars barrier with me. i'm literally so generous and this is my third in a row. but anyway:
madame painte: a nice little appetiser. not substantial enough to rate
lost in the dark: decent 6/10. starts very strong and i like the ending well enough. the movie the story is about is fucking terrible and i can't believe the narration called it 'a smarter Blair Witch' at one point, but that could all have been intentional. got a couple of chuckles out of me even if it was mostly a slog to read
a song only partially heard: 2/10. blegh
the deep sea swell: a high 6, maybe a 7. enjoyed the concept and the execution was pretty good, though the ending veers into scooby doo territory
natalya, queen of the hungry dogs: a high 7. loved the concept, made my heart beat fast at times. could have been a 9 with some light touches (the drinking scene does nothing and goes on forever only to unceremoniously drop all the meat of the story on our heads on the next scene. CUT DOWN THE REDDIT TIER BANTER, SPECIALLY AFTER THE SITUATION GETS SERIOUS) and a 10 if on top of that it also got a satisfying ending.
oscar returns from the dead, prophesising: a high 7. more consistent than natalya but also infinitely less ambitious and creative. pretty fun, though
there are a few more stories in the collection, which i either didn't finish or left to read at a later date. overall, a pretty solid collection. very nice ideas even if the stories don't always land on their feet. cute sense of humour too. will definitely read The Fisherman in the future
madame painte: a nice little appetiser. not substantial enough to rate
lost in the dark: decent 6/10. starts very strong and i like the ending well enough. the movie the story is about is fucking terrible and i can't believe the narration called it 'a smarter Blair Witch' at one point, but that could all have been intentional. got a couple of chuckles out of me even if it was mostly a slog to read
a song only partially heard: 2/10. blegh
the deep sea swell: a high 6, maybe a 7. enjoyed the concept and the execution was pretty good, though the ending veers into scooby doo territory
natalya, queen of the hungry dogs: a high 7. loved the concept, made my heart beat fast at times. could have been a 9 with some light touches (the drinking scene does nothing and goes on forever only to unceremoniously drop all the meat of the story on our heads on the next scene. CUT DOWN THE REDDIT TIER BANTER, SPECIALLY AFTER THE SITUATION GETS SERIOUS) and a 10 if on top of that it also got a satisfying ending.
oscar returns from the dead, prophesising: a high 7. more consistent than natalya but also infinitely less ambitious and creative. pretty fun, though
there are a few more stories in the collection, which i either didn't finish or left to read at a later date. overall, a pretty solid collection. very nice ideas even if the stories don't always land on their feet. cute sense of humour too. will definitely read The Fisherman in the future
October 20, 2025
John Langan is one of my absolute top, favorite authors, and I've mostly loved everything I've read by him. Until now. It's not a bad collection of stories, it's just not nearly his best work. There were three stories included that I'd read in their previous publications, but as two were among the longest in the book I didn't bother rereading them, and the third, "Breakwater," I did reread only to realize it was a decent, but no great tale. While "Lost in the Dark" stood out as the most captivating story in the book, others just couldn't keep my interest - mainly "My Father, Dr. Frankenstein" and "Snakebit," which started as an essay for the Why I Love Horror essay anthology but ended up being a much longer piece of writing Langan instead included here, which failed to interest me in fully reading (part of the issue was likely due to it heavily relying on John Keats' poem "Lamia" which I've never read and knew little about). I'm disappointed I just couldn't relate to this latest collection more, but I'll call it 3.5* rounded to 4.
September 22, 2025
Praise the gods for John Langan. This collection is fantastic, all the stories are top-notch. In John's work, you don't just experience the stories, he pulls you into them until you are a co-conspirator. On top of being just damned fine works of Weird Fiction, John brings so much heart to it that you can't help but, as the kids say, feel all the feels.
Amazing work, highly recommended.
Amazing work, highly recommended.
October 24, 2025
Haak and Lost in the Dark are worth it alone. Best read with space between stories.
April 1, 2025
What an interesting collection of short stories! I have never read any of John Langan's work, but I was wholly surprised at the uniqueness of his writing style. I can't say I've read anything quite like it, and I was not disappointed! I also appreciated that some of the stories were on the longer side, as short stories can feel a little TOO short sometimes. I had a hard time putting this down.
Some favorites amongst the collection:
Madame Painte: Short little story about a creepy and possessed garden gnome wreaking havoc when warnings aren't heeded.
Lost in the Dark: This was hands down my favorite. Totally unique storytelling and creepy as hell.
Haak: Interesting take on the god Pan, as well as the Peter Pan story. I loved it.
Breakwater: Witchy revenge. Check! But what did she decide?!
Natalya, Queen of the Dogs: While this was definitely horror filled, it also felt like a sweet tribute to a friend.
Alice's Rebellion: I mean, I'm a sucker for an Alice retelling. This one was WEIRD, but in a good way.
Champing Teeth and Driving Beats: Short and to the point. And it made me chuckle.
My ONLY critique is that one or two of the stories felt a little long-winded, but that is probably just a stylistic preference on my part. I would definitely recommend this one to anyone looking for unique and interesting writing full of horror elements.
Thank you to Word Horde Publishing for the ARC!
Some favorites amongst the collection:
Madame Painte: Short little story about a creepy and possessed garden gnome wreaking havoc when warnings aren't heeded.
Lost in the Dark: This was hands down my favorite. Totally unique storytelling and creepy as hell.
Haak: Interesting take on the god Pan, as well as the Peter Pan story. I loved it.
Breakwater: Witchy revenge. Check! But what did she decide?!
Natalya, Queen of the Dogs: While this was definitely horror filled, it also felt like a sweet tribute to a friend.
Alice's Rebellion: I mean, I'm a sucker for an Alice retelling. This one was WEIRD, but in a good way.
Champing Teeth and Driving Beats: Short and to the point. And it made me chuckle.
My ONLY critique is that one or two of the stories felt a little long-winded, but that is probably just a stylistic preference on my part. I would definitely recommend this one to anyone looking for unique and interesting writing full of horror elements.
Thank you to Word Horde Publishing for the ARC!
August 12, 2025
I usually love Langan's short stories and i go in knowing they'll be a bit wordy and cerebral but these stories just seemed a bit dry and did not hold my interest much. I think it would be a stretch to really call this a horror collection. The writing is still great, I just wasn't engaged with most of the stories. The titular story was probably my favorite and had the most eerie atmosphere. It was a fun idea of his to make several of the stories seem like they were things that actually occurred by inserting himself and other authors or people he deals with.
While this one was a bit of a dud for me i will still be eagerly anticipating his next release.
While this one was a bit of a dud for me i will still be eagerly anticipating his next release.
August 11, 2025
John Langan is the first horror writer since David Morrell to excel at "dialogue as action."
His new collection, Lost In the Dark and Other Excursions, includes stories published between 2017 and 2020, as well as two works not previously published.
"Madame Painte: For Sale"
A sparkling concatenation of points of view: first, third, and finally second person, present and future tense. To say it explores a dangerous and inaniment garden gnome from Denmark only scratches the bravura surface.
"Lost in the Dark"
A wonderful found reportage/found footage framing contains a report by John Langan, similar to an online post about "Blair Witch" or Jeff Strand's "Twentieth Anniversary Screening"(2021). It's all there in the fan-loving IMDB entry.
"My Father, Dr. Frankenstein
Cold War bioengineering sleight-of-hand plus the sons -doomed-by-fathers motif of U. S. fiction.
"A Song Only Partially Heard"
Angels and fatal workplace injuries are imaged, and chewed-over until transformed into holy things.
"The Deep Sea Swell"
Sea-sickness. The vertigo inherent in a passage over sunken Doggerland. Will the dead soon board, or have they already?
"Haak"
College professor gives an optional lecture on personal sources of Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" in a red-litten classroom.
"Breakwater"
Private dick thinks she is turning the tables on the spouse of her client, whom she fell for while investigating him for adultery.
The screen of Maureen’s computer flickered, and the image of Frank disappeared, to be replaced by the gmail login page, on which was the message “Error: Account Not Found.” A second later, a pop sounded inside the computer’s tower, and the screen went black. The machine sighed, and the power light blinked off. A strong odor of burnt plastic and metal issued from the stack. Maureen spent the next several minutes attempting to resuscitate it, but whatever malware Louise had employed had reduced the computer to an oversized paperweight. Maureen checked her phone, but it showed no evidence of her e-mail account, either. As more and more of her business had involved an online component, Maureen had armored her PC with successive firewalls, a squadron of the most efficient anti-malware available. For Louise to have slipped through all of it was more than a little intimidating. Maureen’s phone buzzed; she checked it, only to discover it, too, had been rendered inert.
"Errata"
"errata made flesh or…whatever."
Author John Langan gets some troubling news about certain copies of his books.
When I glanced back at the tablet, the screen had gone black. Ross’s voice said, “I’m really sorry,” and cut out. I pressed the power button a couple of times, to no effect. (Later, the repair guy in town would tell me the device was hopelessly dead, its circuits melted. “What’d you do to this?” he asked; I had no good answer for him.)
"Natalya, Queen of the Hungry Dogs"
Cancer. Riptides. Brothers and Sisters. Crown. Limbo.
This is a superb work of short fiction. Straubian par excellence in its depiction of a horrific, compelling after-life brother-and-sister showdown.
"Oscar Returns from the Dead, Prophesizing"
Remember when the Three Stooges took up plumbing? Or the dad in "The Coffee Table" supervised the baby and the titular table while his wife went to the grocery store? "Oscar Returns from the Dead, Prophesizing" is a slow motion reality-warping trainwreck, delightful and meticulous, then eerie, then hopeless for the protagonist.
"Alice's Rebellion"
Fairy tale action. Of a sort.
"Snakebit, Or Why I (Continue to) Love Horror"
A story disguised as notes for a story. A writer's diary predicting future criss-crossings of life. A tale about an isolated eyelet where sculptures and an avatar have a famous woman recluse linger to excite the imagination and responsibility of husband and wife professionals, each for their own reasons.
"Clapping Teeth and Driving Beats"
A prose poem of sorts. The shortest Langan work I have read.
[….] The other thing about zombies in the spring—it has to do with music. As the weather improves, people open the windows of their houses, their cars, turn up whatever’s on DST or Spotify or on disc or record.
* * *
In his introduction to Lost In the Dark and Other Excursions, Victor LaValle notes many of Langan's strengths. I added hashtags to those I found most correct:
#tremendous
#knotty
#discursive
#thorny
#weighty
#invigorating
#substantial
#playfulness
#wit
#funny
#playful
#effective
#masterpiece
#wonder
#satisfying
* * *
I agree with LaValle.
His new collection, Lost In the Dark and Other Excursions, includes stories published between 2017 and 2020, as well as two works not previously published.
"Madame Painte: For Sale"
A sparkling concatenation of points of view: first, third, and finally second person, present and future tense. To say it explores a dangerous and inaniment garden gnome from Denmark only scratches the bravura surface.
"Lost in the Dark"
A wonderful found reportage/found footage framing contains a report by John Langan, similar to an online post about "Blair Witch" or Jeff Strand's "Twentieth Anniversary Screening"(2021). It's all there in the fan-loving IMDB entry.
"My Father, Dr. Frankenstein
Cold War bioengineering sleight-of-hand plus the sons -doomed-by-fathers motif of U. S. fiction.
"A Song Only Partially Heard"
Angels and fatal workplace injuries are imaged, and chewed-over until transformed into holy things.
"The Deep Sea Swell"
Sea-sickness. The vertigo inherent in a passage over sunken Doggerland. Will the dead soon board, or have they already?
"Haak"
College professor gives an optional lecture on personal sources of Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" in a red-litten classroom.
"Breakwater"
Private dick thinks she is turning the tables on the spouse of her client, whom she fell for while investigating him for adultery.
The screen of Maureen’s computer flickered, and the image of Frank disappeared, to be replaced by the gmail login page, on which was the message “Error: Account Not Found.” A second later, a pop sounded inside the computer’s tower, and the screen went black. The machine sighed, and the power light blinked off. A strong odor of burnt plastic and metal issued from the stack. Maureen spent the next several minutes attempting to resuscitate it, but whatever malware Louise had employed had reduced the computer to an oversized paperweight. Maureen checked her phone, but it showed no evidence of her e-mail account, either. As more and more of her business had involved an online component, Maureen had armored her PC with successive firewalls, a squadron of the most efficient anti-malware available. For Louise to have slipped through all of it was more than a little intimidating. Maureen’s phone buzzed; she checked it, only to discover it, too, had been rendered inert.
"Errata"
"errata made flesh or…whatever."
Author John Langan gets some troubling news about certain copies of his books.
When I glanced back at the tablet, the screen had gone black. Ross’s voice said, “I’m really sorry,” and cut out. I pressed the power button a couple of times, to no effect. (Later, the repair guy in town would tell me the device was hopelessly dead, its circuits melted. “What’d you do to this?” he asked; I had no good answer for him.)
"Natalya, Queen of the Hungry Dogs"
Cancer. Riptides. Brothers and Sisters. Crown. Limbo.
This is a superb work of short fiction. Straubian par excellence in its depiction of a horrific, compelling after-life brother-and-sister showdown.
"Oscar Returns from the Dead, Prophesizing"
Remember when the Three Stooges took up plumbing? Or the dad in "The Coffee Table" supervised the baby and the titular table while his wife went to the grocery store? "Oscar Returns from the Dead, Prophesizing" is a slow motion reality-warping trainwreck, delightful and meticulous, then eerie, then hopeless for the protagonist.
"Alice's Rebellion"
Fairy tale action. Of a sort.
"Snakebit, Or Why I (Continue to) Love Horror"
A story disguised as notes for a story. A writer's diary predicting future criss-crossings of life. A tale about an isolated eyelet where sculptures and an avatar have a famous woman recluse linger to excite the imagination and responsibility of husband and wife professionals, each for their own reasons.
"Clapping Teeth and Driving Beats"
A prose poem of sorts. The shortest Langan work I have read.
[….] The other thing about zombies in the spring—it has to do with music. As the weather improves, people open the windows of their houses, their cars, turn up whatever’s on DST or Spotify or on disc or record.
* * *
In his introduction to Lost In the Dark and Other Excursions, Victor LaValle notes many of Langan's strengths. I added hashtags to those I found most correct:
#tremendous
#knotty
#discursive
#thorny
#weighty
#invigorating
#substantial
#playfulness
#wit
#funny
#playful
#effective
#masterpiece
#wonder
#satisfying
* * *
I agree with LaValle.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 14, 2025
Having only previously read The Fisherman, I wasn't aware just how much John Langan plays with how a story is told. I really enjoyed the different approaches he took in this collection, and enjoyed the majority of the stories overall (not all of them hit for me, but I could at least appreciate what he was doing).
If you're not familiar with what I'm referring to, just understand that Langan apparently likes to convey narratives in a non-traditional manner (not always, but it definitely seems to be his thing). This is especially apparent in the titular story "Lost in the Dark" (which I'd previously read, and had since forgotten about, in Ellen Datlow's anthology Haunted Nights), in which the majority of the narrative is told via a summary of movie scenes. Another example is "Snakebit, Or Why I (Continue to) Love Horror" which has Langan telling a story by explaining how he, as a writer, would build the story. It's all very different and very unique, and it's fun to read (though I don't think I could binge his work; it gets to be a bit much after a while).
Overall, I really enjoyed this collection, and I'd like to track down more of his shorter work. While I enjoyed The Fisherman, I can't say I loved it, and it may have had something to do with length. I think Langan works much better for me in short form.
If you're not familiar with what I'm referring to, just understand that Langan apparently likes to convey narratives in a non-traditional manner (not always, but it definitely seems to be his thing). This is especially apparent in the titular story "Lost in the Dark" (which I'd previously read, and had since forgotten about, in Ellen Datlow's anthology Haunted Nights), in which the majority of the narrative is told via a summary of movie scenes. Another example is "Snakebit, Or Why I (Continue to) Love Horror" which has Langan telling a story by explaining how he, as a writer, would build the story. It's all very different and very unique, and it's fun to read (though I don't think I could binge his work; it gets to be a bit much after a while).
Overall, I really enjoyed this collection, and I'd like to track down more of his shorter work. While I enjoyed The Fisherman, I can't say I loved it, and it may have had something to do with length. I think Langan works much better for me in short form.
September 17, 2025
Another pretty decent collection of Langan stories here, with a smattering of major standouts and perhaps, for me anyway, a couple of duds.
The titular 'Lost in the Dark' struck me as an especially well executed take on dark historical truth shrouded deeply in mystery, turned small town urban legend and local haunt, turned total pop culture phenomenon. It wears its influences pretty strongly (The Blair Witch Project) but never in a way I found distracting, and only serves as a vessel for this tale to be delivered. it's no surprise it serves as the collections namesake.
Other hits for me were 'Madame Painte: For Sale' (some of the gruesome visuals are stuck with me), 'Haak' (Peter Pan reinvented for the dark fantasy horror fan) 'Natalya, Queen of the Hungry Dogs' (literally the type of story that keeps me hooked on Langan) and I really appreciated the little bits of connective tissue between 'A Song Only Partially Heard' and 'The Deep Sea Swell' (lots of nautical themes happening in this here collection).
My enjoyment of the other stories here wandered from boredom to tedium at times, but I can't say there's one here I disliked so much that I couldn't find some merits in. Well, maybe the one tagged on zombie story at the very end... whenever Langan writes about zombies it rolls of my brain like water off a ducks ass.
The titular 'Lost in the Dark' struck me as an especially well executed take on dark historical truth shrouded deeply in mystery, turned small town urban legend and local haunt, turned total pop culture phenomenon. It wears its influences pretty strongly (The Blair Witch Project) but never in a way I found distracting, and only serves as a vessel for this tale to be delivered. it's no surprise it serves as the collections namesake.
Other hits for me were 'Madame Painte: For Sale' (some of the gruesome visuals are stuck with me), 'Haak' (Peter Pan reinvented for the dark fantasy horror fan) 'Natalya, Queen of the Hungry Dogs' (literally the type of story that keeps me hooked on Langan) and I really appreciated the little bits of connective tissue between 'A Song Only Partially Heard' and 'The Deep Sea Swell' (lots of nautical themes happening in this here collection).
My enjoyment of the other stories here wandered from boredom to tedium at times, but I can't say there's one here I disliked so much that I couldn't find some merits in. Well, maybe the one tagged on zombie story at the very end... whenever Langan writes about zombies it rolls of my brain like water off a ducks ass.
December 26, 2025
This is the first book by John Langan that I've read so I didn't know what to expect. Reading other reviews of his books suggests he is a thoughtful writer rather than a purveyor of gore, and I'd go along with that. I found the stories here interesting rather than horrifying, though admittedly it's been a few decades since I was horrified by a book - these days I'm mostly horrified by what humans do to each other in real life.
Anyhow I enjoyed the book though I found the stories a mixed bag. Some, like "Natalya, Queen of the Hungry Dogs", are fairly straightforward while others are on the cerebral side, but I found all of them interesting. Langan clearly likes exploring lots of different ideas and it's good to see an author having fun with their writing.
If you like "slasher horror" then you should probably look elsewhere, but for the rest of us I recommend this book as an entertaining way to explore some interesting ideas.
Anyhow I enjoyed the book though I found the stories a mixed bag. Some, like "Natalya, Queen of the Hungry Dogs", are fairly straightforward while others are on the cerebral side, but I found all of them interesting. Langan clearly likes exploring lots of different ideas and it's good to see an author having fun with their writing.
If you like "slasher horror" then you should probably look elsewhere, but for the rest of us I recommend this book as an entertaining way to explore some interesting ideas.
September 2, 2025
I always love a new John Langan collection to check out. This, his sixth collection, is, as usual, a mostly fantastic one. It's got great stories, most of which are fantastic horror (and a couple are quite funny). After this first read, my standouts would have to include: "Haak", "Lost in the Dark", "Natalya, Queen of the Hungry Dogs", "Oscar Returns From the Dead, Prophesizing", and "Snakebit, Or Why I (Continue to) Love Horror". I say check it out!
December 9, 2025
Another solid Langan collection that would've been better had he known when to stop. Not every neat idea needs its own story. That's a late era Metallica move.
October 31, 2025
Fantastic collection of stories, some better, some a little bit worse, but all of them definetly worth reading. After reading The Fisherman I knew Langan would become one of my favourite writes, and this consolides that. What I really like about his stories is that they're very personal, written from a very clear masculine perspective, but with great depth of characters and a just a respectful approach to their relationships and struggles. A lot of the stories are also written in very unique way, either by their format or the insertion of John himself into them.
9/10
Madame Painte: For Sale:
Collection I think starts a little bit weak, I didn't mind the story, but I also didn't find it scary or that much interesting.
6/10
Lost in the Dark:
Definetly a highlight! Good story elevated to a fantastic experience due to the format it is written in.
9/10
My Father, Dr. Frankenstein:
Another very interesting story which shines due to the format it's written in (footnotes), really adds to the authentic feel of the story.
8/10
A Song Only Partially Heard:
Very short and not as interesting, although I did like the ending.
6/10
The Deep Sea Swell:
Found it super engaging and illustrative! Short, but sweet with great ending.
9/10
Haak:
Very interesting fake story about Józef Teodor Korzeniowski, really liked the descriptions in it, although I felt the ending a lil bit on the weaker side.
8/10
Breakwater:
Noir story without much horror, was fine, but didn't find it that engaging.
7/10
Errata:
Honestly super fun little story, another cool format!
8/10
Natalya, Queen of the Hungry Dogs:
Longest story in the collection. Honestly? Im surprised but I liked the background stories of characters and the not "supernatural" events more than the horrors. Granted they were cool as well, especially the first supernatural encounter.
7/10
Oscar Returns from the Dead, Prophesizing:
Great little story with a very strong ending!
8/10
Alice's Rebellion:
Tbh I have to reread it, I was sleepy while reading it and can't remember much unfortunetly, which is probably why I feel like I didn't like it as much.
Snakebit, Or Why I (Continue to) Love Horror:
Another fantastic ending for the story, the plot before was also engaing, although I'm not sure if I totally dig the essay format of this one, I still liked the hell out of it!
9/10
Clapping Teeth and Driving Beats:
Story purely for fun, I liked it!
7/10
9/10
Madame Painte: For Sale:
Collection I think starts a little bit weak, I didn't mind the story, but I also didn't find it scary or that much interesting.
6/10
Lost in the Dark:
Definetly a highlight! Good story elevated to a fantastic experience due to the format it is written in.
9/10
My Father, Dr. Frankenstein:
Another very interesting story which shines due to the format it's written in (footnotes), really adds to the authentic feel of the story.
8/10
A Song Only Partially Heard:
Very short and not as interesting, although I did like the ending.
6/10
The Deep Sea Swell:
Found it super engaging and illustrative! Short, but sweet with great ending.
9/10
Haak:
Very interesting fake story about Józef Teodor Korzeniowski, really liked the descriptions in it, although I felt the ending a lil bit on the weaker side.
8/10
Breakwater:
Noir story without much horror, was fine, but didn't find it that engaging.
7/10
Errata:
Honestly super fun little story, another cool format!
8/10
Natalya, Queen of the Hungry Dogs:
Longest story in the collection. Honestly? Im surprised but I liked the background stories of characters and the not "supernatural" events more than the horrors. Granted they were cool as well, especially the first supernatural encounter.
7/10
Oscar Returns from the Dead, Prophesizing:
Great little story with a very strong ending!
8/10
Alice's Rebellion:
Tbh I have to reread it, I was sleepy while reading it and can't remember much unfortunetly, which is probably why I feel like I didn't like it as much.
Snakebit, Or Why I (Continue to) Love Horror:
Another fantastic ending for the story, the plot before was also engaing, although I'm not sure if I totally dig the essay format of this one, I still liked the hell out of it!
9/10
Clapping Teeth and Driving Beats:
Story purely for fun, I liked it!
7/10
August 19, 2025
Got a bookplated copy from the fine folks at Word Horde, which probably worked out to be a little less than it would have cost to drive across the Golden Gate Bridge and get up to Petaluma. Do love the store, though, and Ross and Jennifer Lockhart are really nice; we had a whole convo last time about how you could use one of these new dyed pb spines to hide evidence of a murder, like that Dahl story where the murderous wife serves the police the leg of lamb whose frozen version she used to kill her husband.
If someone were to write that story, John Langan is a great candidate. Part of the northeastern HS-teacher/horror writer Mafia, he does a lot of reflexive bits where the stories themselves comment on the tropes and traditions they're inhabiting, along with some fun fake autofiction where he's himself and is interviewing someone or telling a story to his son; the one with the zombie gecko is pretty amazing, and the fake documentary feature about a found-footage movie that was really a documentary twists nicely on itself. Solid creature feature on a ferry to the Outer Hebrides that sounds terrifying all on its own, even before you get to the haunted diving suit. But I think my favorite is the one he didn't actually publish, at once lit crit on how horror fiction works, and why it resonates with him, and an actual piece of fiction that he keeps stopping to break down for you even as the story keeps advancing--"Lost in the Haunted Funhouse," if you will.
I feel like I underrated his first two collections, since I reread "On Skua Island," the first of his stories I'd ever read, in another collection and was much more impressed with it than I had been the first time through. (His self-conscious bit, where people in the stories comment on the genre, history, and stereotypes associated with the particular tale being told has grown on me. It feels odd to me in a suspension-of-disbelief way to have people in a horror story not at least recognize the narrative beats of the universe they've found myself in. And I appreciate that he does this more in a spirit of literary acknowledgement than in winking irony, which frankly I've consumed quite enough of in my life.) According to Goodreads, I've read all of his collections, save for Sefiria, which is available only in a pricy small-press ed, and his first novel. Should probably get to those.
If someone were to write that story, John Langan is a great candidate. Part of the northeastern HS-teacher/horror writer Mafia, he does a lot of reflexive bits where the stories themselves comment on the tropes and traditions they're inhabiting, along with some fun fake autofiction where he's himself and is interviewing someone or telling a story to his son; the one with the zombie gecko is pretty amazing, and the fake documentary feature about a found-footage movie that was really a documentary twists nicely on itself. Solid creature feature on a ferry to the Outer Hebrides that sounds terrifying all on its own, even before you get to the haunted diving suit. But I think my favorite is the one he didn't actually publish, at once lit crit on how horror fiction works, and why it resonates with him, and an actual piece of fiction that he keeps stopping to break down for you even as the story keeps advancing--"Lost in the Haunted Funhouse," if you will.
I feel like I underrated his first two collections, since I reread "On Skua Island," the first of his stories I'd ever read, in another collection and was much more impressed with it than I had been the first time through. (His self-conscious bit, where people in the stories comment on the genre, history, and stereotypes associated with the particular tale being told has grown on me. It feels odd to me in a suspension-of-disbelief way to have people in a horror story not at least recognize the narrative beats of the universe they've found myself in. And I appreciate that he does this more in a spirit of literary acknowledgement than in winking irony, which frankly I've consumed quite enough of in my life.) According to Goodreads, I've read all of his collections, save for Sefiria, which is available only in a pricy small-press ed, and his first novel. Should probably get to those.
October 18, 2025
BWAF Score: 6/10
Let’s get something out of the way: John Langan is the thinking horror fan’s horror writer. If you want emotional gore without intellectual gristle, go read something with a dripping skull on the cover and a font that screams “13-year-old boy’s locker sticker.” But if you’re ready to read a horror story that quotes Heraclitus between decapitations and pulls off an exegesis on M.R. James while scaring the hell out of you—then John Langan has you cornered. The man’s back catalogue (including The Fisherman, Children of the Fang, and Sefira and Other Betrayals) is literary horror at its most self-conscious, most expansive, and yes, sometimes most frustrating.
Lost in the Dark and Other Excursions continues that trend. It’s a cerebral, uneven, but often exhilarating collection of horror stories that range from found-footage hauntology to uncanny satire and cosmic dread with a theological twist. Sometimes it feels like he’s showing off. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it’s like sitting through a lecture on horror theory with a ghost at your back tapping Morse code onto your spine.
By now, Langan’s style is its own genre. Long sentences, meta-narrative intrusions, “stories within stories,” and a frequent tendency to swap out climactic action for theological musings or structural experimentation. He’s like if Lovecraft had tenure, or if Borges wanted to make you shit your pants.
That tendency toward recursive narrative and high-literary horror is both his gift and his vice. In earlier collections (The Wide, Carnivorous Sky or Mr. Gaunt), Langan flirted with pulp but always pulled back toward the canonical. By The Fisherman, he had settled into his groove: old grief, haunted landscapes, and ancient things that don’t give a damn about your therapy bills.
This latest collection is firmly post-Fisherman—ambitious, scholarly, emotionally raw, and maddeningly opaque.
Lost in the Dark and Other Excursions is a grab bag of stories: haunted documentaries, doomed science fiction allegories, semi-comic philosophical pieces, and a few straight-up horror tales that sneak up behind you while you’re still admiring the prose.
The titular novella, Lost in the Dark, is the anchor piece: a layered, pseudo-academic breakdown of a found-footage horror film that maybe isn’t fiction. It centers on a woman named Agatha Merryweather, a long-imprisoned girl turned death-spirit host, and the doomed film crew who stumble upon her. It’s an inspired riff on The Blair Witch Project by way of The Exorcist, with an undercurrent of cosmic Catholic horror that would make Ligotti nod in approval.
The rest of the collection includes stories about reanimated philosophers, seaborne terrors, undead prophets, and (because it’s Langan) a garden gnome with secrets. Each story feels like its own excavation site—some buried treasure, some dusty bones.
Catholicism, horror folklore, the myth of narrative redemption, and the terror of interpretation. That’s your cheat sheet.
Langan loves to explore the idea that storytelling itself is a kind of magic or imprisonment. The act of framing horror, whether through cinema, academia, or family legend, becomes its own kind of summoning. In Lost in the Dark, Agatha isn’t just a ghost—she’s the archetype every town invents to explain its buried sins, mutated over time like an urban legend under radiation exposure. She’s also a literal manifestation of the “Keres”—death-spirits of primordial darkness, unkillable and unholy.
We get echoes of Beowulf, biblical exorcisms, and ritual containment. But Langan’s real monster isn’t the supernatural—it’s our inability to understand the horror until it’s too late. Knowledge, in this collection, is poison disguised as salvation.
Langan’s prose is dense. Sometimes breathtaking. Sometimes bloated. At his best, he writes sentences that tremble with dread and lyricism.
But pacing? Not always his friend. A 25-page build-up for a 2-page payoff is Langan’s signature move, and it doesn’t always land. Readers who love the sloooooow burn will find much to admire. Others may feel trapped in a lecture on haunted epistemology when they came for the blood.
The structure of the title novella mimics a critical essay, including breakdowns of key scenes and even film theory tangents. It’s brilliant—or insufferable, depending on how much horror academia you can stomach in your fiction.
Strengths
- Ambition: Langan is swinging big. These stories aren’t just about monsters. They’re about belief systems, epistemology, and the porous boundary between fiction and folklore.
- Atmosphere: Whether he’s setting a story in a mold-ridden mine, a decaying chapel, or the eerie waters of a dark sea, Langan is a master of conjuring unease.
- Originality: Very few writers would conceive a story like Lost in the Dark, let alone deliver it in the voice of a quasi-film professor narrating the behind-the-scenes trauma of a cursed production.
- Intertextuality: Horror nerds will eat this up. References to myth, folklore, horror cinema, and literary tradition abound. It’s the kind of book you can write a thesis about.
Critiques
- Glacial pacing: Several stories overstay their welcome. Oscar Returns from the Dead, Prophesizing and Alice’s Rebellion especially feel like clever concepts dragged through molasses.
- Emotional detachment: For all the fear, there’s a chilly distance to some of the stories. Characters often feel like mouthpieces for big ideas rather than people you grieve when they’re disemboweled.
- Over-intellectualization: Sometimes, Langan disappears up his own thematic wormhole. The writing is too smart for its own good, and not always in service of the horror.
If The Fisherman was his Lovecraftian eulogy to grief, and The Wide, Carnivorous Sky was him riffing on genre tradition, Lost in the Dark feels like Langan’s dissertation on horror as praxis. It belongs on the shelf beside Brian Evenson, Caitlín R. Kiernan, and Mark Z. Danielewski, but it will appeal most to readers of Victor LaValle and T.E.D. Klein—folks who want horror with both fangs and footnotes.
Lost in the Dark and Other Excursions is high-concept horror filtered through a PhD’s fever dream. At its best, it’s genre-defying and intellectually exhilarating. At its worst, it’s a bit like being haunted by a professor who won’t shut up.
Ambitious, uneven, occasionally brilliant, and undeniably Langan.
TL;DR: Think The Blair Witch Project if it was adapted by Werner Herzog, rewritten by Thomas Ligotti, and annotated by a deranged film critic. Dense, dark, and very smart… sometimes too smart.
Recommended for: Horror scholars, cursed film fanatics, fans of postmodern spooks.
Not recommended for: Anyone who thinks reading should involve fun. Or plot. Or characters who don’t quote Greek mythology in caves.
Let’s get something out of the way: John Langan is the thinking horror fan’s horror writer. If you want emotional gore without intellectual gristle, go read something with a dripping skull on the cover and a font that screams “13-year-old boy’s locker sticker.” But if you’re ready to read a horror story that quotes Heraclitus between decapitations and pulls off an exegesis on M.R. James while scaring the hell out of you—then John Langan has you cornered. The man’s back catalogue (including The Fisherman, Children of the Fang, and Sefira and Other Betrayals) is literary horror at its most self-conscious, most expansive, and yes, sometimes most frustrating.
Lost in the Dark and Other Excursions continues that trend. It’s a cerebral, uneven, but often exhilarating collection of horror stories that range from found-footage hauntology to uncanny satire and cosmic dread with a theological twist. Sometimes it feels like he’s showing off. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it’s like sitting through a lecture on horror theory with a ghost at your back tapping Morse code onto your spine.
By now, Langan’s style is its own genre. Long sentences, meta-narrative intrusions, “stories within stories,” and a frequent tendency to swap out climactic action for theological musings or structural experimentation. He’s like if Lovecraft had tenure, or if Borges wanted to make you shit your pants.
That tendency toward recursive narrative and high-literary horror is both his gift and his vice. In earlier collections (The Wide, Carnivorous Sky or Mr. Gaunt), Langan flirted with pulp but always pulled back toward the canonical. By The Fisherman, he had settled into his groove: old grief, haunted landscapes, and ancient things that don’t give a damn about your therapy bills.
This latest collection is firmly post-Fisherman—ambitious, scholarly, emotionally raw, and maddeningly opaque.
Lost in the Dark and Other Excursions is a grab bag of stories: haunted documentaries, doomed science fiction allegories, semi-comic philosophical pieces, and a few straight-up horror tales that sneak up behind you while you’re still admiring the prose.
The titular novella, Lost in the Dark, is the anchor piece: a layered, pseudo-academic breakdown of a found-footage horror film that maybe isn’t fiction. It centers on a woman named Agatha Merryweather, a long-imprisoned girl turned death-spirit host, and the doomed film crew who stumble upon her. It’s an inspired riff on The Blair Witch Project by way of The Exorcist, with an undercurrent of cosmic Catholic horror that would make Ligotti nod in approval.
The rest of the collection includes stories about reanimated philosophers, seaborne terrors, undead prophets, and (because it’s Langan) a garden gnome with secrets. Each story feels like its own excavation site—some buried treasure, some dusty bones.
Catholicism, horror folklore, the myth of narrative redemption, and the terror of interpretation. That’s your cheat sheet.
Langan loves to explore the idea that storytelling itself is a kind of magic or imprisonment. The act of framing horror, whether through cinema, academia, or family legend, becomes its own kind of summoning. In Lost in the Dark, Agatha isn’t just a ghost—she’s the archetype every town invents to explain its buried sins, mutated over time like an urban legend under radiation exposure. She’s also a literal manifestation of the “Keres”—death-spirits of primordial darkness, unkillable and unholy.
We get echoes of Beowulf, biblical exorcisms, and ritual containment. But Langan’s real monster isn’t the supernatural—it’s our inability to understand the horror until it’s too late. Knowledge, in this collection, is poison disguised as salvation.
Langan’s prose is dense. Sometimes breathtaking. Sometimes bloated. At his best, he writes sentences that tremble with dread and lyricism.
But pacing? Not always his friend. A 25-page build-up for a 2-page payoff is Langan’s signature move, and it doesn’t always land. Readers who love the sloooooow burn will find much to admire. Others may feel trapped in a lecture on haunted epistemology when they came for the blood.
The structure of the title novella mimics a critical essay, including breakdowns of key scenes and even film theory tangents. It’s brilliant—or insufferable, depending on how much horror academia you can stomach in your fiction.
Strengths
- Ambition: Langan is swinging big. These stories aren’t just about monsters. They’re about belief systems, epistemology, and the porous boundary between fiction and folklore.
- Atmosphere: Whether he’s setting a story in a mold-ridden mine, a decaying chapel, or the eerie waters of a dark sea, Langan is a master of conjuring unease.
- Originality: Very few writers would conceive a story like Lost in the Dark, let alone deliver it in the voice of a quasi-film professor narrating the behind-the-scenes trauma of a cursed production.
- Intertextuality: Horror nerds will eat this up. References to myth, folklore, horror cinema, and literary tradition abound. It’s the kind of book you can write a thesis about.
Critiques
- Glacial pacing: Several stories overstay their welcome. Oscar Returns from the Dead, Prophesizing and Alice’s Rebellion especially feel like clever concepts dragged through molasses.
- Emotional detachment: For all the fear, there’s a chilly distance to some of the stories. Characters often feel like mouthpieces for big ideas rather than people you grieve when they’re disemboweled.
- Over-intellectualization: Sometimes, Langan disappears up his own thematic wormhole. The writing is too smart for its own good, and not always in service of the horror.
If The Fisherman was his Lovecraftian eulogy to grief, and The Wide, Carnivorous Sky was him riffing on genre tradition, Lost in the Dark feels like Langan’s dissertation on horror as praxis. It belongs on the shelf beside Brian Evenson, Caitlín R. Kiernan, and Mark Z. Danielewski, but it will appeal most to readers of Victor LaValle and T.E.D. Klein—folks who want horror with both fangs and footnotes.
Lost in the Dark and Other Excursions is high-concept horror filtered through a PhD’s fever dream. At its best, it’s genre-defying and intellectually exhilarating. At its worst, it’s a bit like being haunted by a professor who won’t shut up.
Ambitious, uneven, occasionally brilliant, and undeniably Langan.
TL;DR: Think The Blair Witch Project if it was adapted by Werner Herzog, rewritten by Thomas Ligotti, and annotated by a deranged film critic. Dense, dark, and very smart… sometimes too smart.
Recommended for: Horror scholars, cursed film fanatics, fans of postmodern spooks.
Not recommended for: Anyone who thinks reading should involve fun. Or plot. Or characters who don’t quote Greek mythology in caves.
September 5, 2025
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ A Masterpiece of Horror
Lost in the Dark and Other Excursions by John Langan (Intro by Victor LaValle)
John Langan doesn’t just write horror—he excavates it. In this thirteen-story collection, he drags the uncanny out of academia, film history, folklore, and grief, stitching together a tapestry of cosmic dread that’s as cerebral as it is skin-prickling.
From cursed figurines and barnacle-slick specters to haunted mines and mythic islands, Langan’s excursions are anything but predictable. Each tale feels like a descent—not just into darkness, but into the liminal spaces between memory and myth, intellect and instinct. The standout? A story told entirely through endnotes that spirals into biotech paranoia. It’s bold, bizarre, and brilliant.
Victor LaValle’s introduction sets the tone: this is horror that thinks deeply, mourns loudly, and refuses easy resolution. Langan’s prose is dense but rewarding, and his story notes offer a fascinating peek behind the curtain—like a professor who moonlights as a necromancer.
If you loved The Fisherman, this is Langan at his most expansive. Not every story hits the same emotional depth, but the ambition and atmosphere are undeniable. A must-read for fans of weird fiction, cosmic horror, and literary hauntings.
Recommended for:
• Readers who like their horror tangled in footnotes and folklore
• Fans of Victor LaValle, Caitlín R. Kiernan, and Robert Aickman
• Anyone who’s ever felt the sea staring back
Happy reading 🦀🌊📚
Lost in the Dark and Other Excursions by John Langan (Intro by Victor LaValle)
John Langan doesn’t just write horror—he excavates it. In this thirteen-story collection, he drags the uncanny out of academia, film history, folklore, and grief, stitching together a tapestry of cosmic dread that’s as cerebral as it is skin-prickling.
From cursed figurines and barnacle-slick specters to haunted mines and mythic islands, Langan’s excursions are anything but predictable. Each tale feels like a descent—not just into darkness, but into the liminal spaces between memory and myth, intellect and instinct. The standout? A story told entirely through endnotes that spirals into biotech paranoia. It’s bold, bizarre, and brilliant.
Victor LaValle’s introduction sets the tone: this is horror that thinks deeply, mourns loudly, and refuses easy resolution. Langan’s prose is dense but rewarding, and his story notes offer a fascinating peek behind the curtain—like a professor who moonlights as a necromancer.
If you loved The Fisherman, this is Langan at his most expansive. Not every story hits the same emotional depth, but the ambition and atmosphere are undeniable. A must-read for fans of weird fiction, cosmic horror, and literary hauntings.
Recommended for:
• Readers who like their horror tangled in footnotes and folklore
• Fans of Victor LaValle, Caitlín R. Kiernan, and Robert Aickman
• Anyone who’s ever felt the sea staring back
Happy reading 🦀🌊📚
August 10, 2025
Probably my favorite collection of Langan's since Wide Carnivorous Sky, this one had a series of highlights early.
The titular Lost in the Dark is the belle of the ball, in my opinion. A text version of a found footage horror? I will need more of those from anyone who is willing, thanks.
Fans of Langan will find more of the same from him here: interesting twists, unique spins on other legends and how those stories are told. His penultimate story highlights something particularly poignant, which I will attempt to summarize here.
Always in a story there are two endings that you can create. The first being what the reader expects to happen and what has been building up throughout. The other being the exact opposite of the expectation. Both have their time and place, to be certain. But a third option exists, somewhere in between, that helps turn what may be a satisfying (if unremarkable) tale and allows it to have real staying power and become memorable. Langan takes great care to ensure that his stories have this quality, and continues to be one of the best at executing the subtle turns a story can take.
Solid 4/5 and as always, I look forward to the next piece of literature from a premier mind in modern horror.
The titular Lost in the Dark is the belle of the ball, in my opinion. A text version of a found footage horror? I will need more of those from anyone who is willing, thanks.
Fans of Langan will find more of the same from him here: interesting twists, unique spins on other legends and how those stories are told. His penultimate story highlights something particularly poignant, which I will attempt to summarize here.
Always in a story there are two endings that you can create. The first being what the reader expects to happen and what has been building up throughout. The other being the exact opposite of the expectation. Both have their time and place, to be certain. But a third option exists, somewhere in between, that helps turn what may be a satisfying (if unremarkable) tale and allows it to have real staying power and become memorable. Langan takes great care to ensure that his stories have this quality, and continues to be one of the best at executing the subtle turns a story can take.
Solid 4/5 and as always, I look forward to the next piece of literature from a premier mind in modern horror.
September 2, 2025
John Langan's Lost in the Dark and Other Excursions is a collection of cosmic horror stories, showcasing the author at the peak of his inventive powers. A follow-up to his award-winning novel The Fisherman, this anthology features thirteen tales that explore the intimate and philosophical dimensions of weird fiction. Reviewers praise Langan's ambition, his ability to conjure unsettling atmospheres, and his unique concepts.
However, the collection is not without its flaws. Langan's prose can be dense, and his slow-burn pacing sometimes frustrates readers seeking more immediate scares. Some of the more experimental stories, while intellectually stimulating for horror scholars, may feel overly academic and emotionally detached for others. The collection includes stories like "Lost in the Dark," which deconstructs horror tropes through a quasi-film studies lens, and "Natalya, Queen of the Hungry Dogs". For fans of intellectual, postmodern horror, this anthology is a rich and rewarding read, but it may not appeal to those who prefer straightforward, character-driven narratives
However, the collection is not without its flaws. Langan's prose can be dense, and his slow-burn pacing sometimes frustrates readers seeking more immediate scares. Some of the more experimental stories, while intellectually stimulating for horror scholars, may feel overly academic and emotionally detached for others. The collection includes stories like "Lost in the Dark," which deconstructs horror tropes through a quasi-film studies lens, and "Natalya, Queen of the Hungry Dogs". For fans of intellectual, postmodern horror, this anthology is a rich and rewarding read, but it may not appeal to those who prefer straightforward, character-driven narratives
September 3, 2025
I really like John Langan so I only rate him against his other works. "Children of the Fang" was a 5-Star Collection. "Wide Carnivorous Sky", while containing a personal favorite story, was probably the weakest. This is somewhere in between those two.
As expected, there were a few standouts here. "Natalya, Queen of the Hungry Dogs", a novella or novelette, really benefits from the extra length. I think this may be true of most of his work. 40 to 70 pages really seems to be the sweet spot for him.
Sometimes I think that John Langan's real talent would lay in the campus novel. He really seems to be great at describing academia and its concerns...but I guess he is a teacher. This coupled with his good sense of place and the ability to draw such settings, makes his more, erm, school oriented? work stronger than other stories, even if I occasionally find the kind of people represented as annoyingly pedantic.
I still love you John Langan. You cool. I await your next full length novel.
As expected, there were a few standouts here. "Natalya, Queen of the Hungry Dogs", a novella or novelette, really benefits from the extra length. I think this may be true of most of his work. 40 to 70 pages really seems to be the sweet spot for him.
Sometimes I think that John Langan's real talent would lay in the campus novel. He really seems to be great at describing academia and its concerns...but I guess he is a teacher. This coupled with his good sense of place and the ability to draw such settings, makes his more, erm, school oriented? work stronger than other stories, even if I occasionally find the kind of people represented as annoyingly pedantic.
I still love you John Langan. You cool. I await your next full length novel.
October 8, 2025
I enjoyed this collection of short stories, they were all very different - I couldn’t sense much of an overarching theme, though. Natalya Queen of the Hungry Dogs was by far my favorite of the short stories. It starts off slow, I had no idea where it was going and then BAM! it just drops you off in the middle of something crazy - the less you know the better in my opinion. This story is what bumped the collection to a 4.0 for me. I was just enthralled and could not put my book down.
A few of the stories employed an interesting structure where the story is told from the POV of the author himself. I found this to be very unique since I can't recall anything else I've read framed in the same way. There is also another notable story that is on the process of writing horror.
I have yet to read The Fisherman by John Langan, but I'm definitely excited to after this collection!
October 12, 2025
Maybe not the scariest Langan collection, but it could be the most interesting, showcasing a diverse range of approaches to stories.
Worth picking up solely for "Natalya, Queen of the Hungry Dogs," an epic, achingly beautiful story about friendship and death (and an unaging child ruling over her own personal hell kingdom).
Other standouts include "Oscar Returns from the Dead, Prophesizing," in which a pet-sitting mishap leads the narrator to madness and ruin; "My Father, Dr. Fraknenstein," told as a series of endnotes for a book about a real-life mad scientist; "Haak," which explores a dark connection between Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness and Peter Pan.
Worth picking up solely for "Natalya, Queen of the Hungry Dogs," an epic, achingly beautiful story about friendship and death (and an unaging child ruling over her own personal hell kingdom).
Other standouts include "Oscar Returns from the Dead, Prophesizing," in which a pet-sitting mishap leads the narrator to madness and ruin; "My Father, Dr. Fraknenstein," told as a series of endnotes for a book about a real-life mad scientist; "Haak," which explores a dark connection between Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness and Peter Pan.
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