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Corpsemouth and Other Autobiographies
A family’s Halloween haunted house becomes a conduit to something ancient and uncanny; a young man’s effigy of a movie monster becomes instrumental in his defense against a bully; a family diminishes while visiting a seaside town, leaving only one to remember what changed; a father explores a mysterious tower, and the monster imprisoned within; a man mourning the death of his father travels to his father’s hometown, seeking closure, but finds himself beset by dreams of mythic bargains and a primeval, corpse-eating titan.
John Langan, author of the Bram Stoker Award-winning novel The Fisherman, returns with ten new tales of cosmic horror in Corpsemouth and Other Autobiographies. 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 Sarah Langan.
John Langan, author of the Bram Stoker Award-winning novel The Fisherman, returns with ten new tales of cosmic horror in Corpsemouth and Other Autobiographies. 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 Sarah Langan.
370 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 31, 2022
249 people are currently reading
3709 people want to read
About the author
John Langan
83 books1,872 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 - 30 of 186 reviews
August 25, 2022
John Langan is one of those writers who never lets me down; even when he’s not at top form, his stories still have enough skill and rich depths to plunder that I don’t mind at all – and he can write literary horror like nobody’s business! I somehow missed this newest collection of short stories when it came out in May, and compensated for the oversight by buying it, a copy of his newly re-edited first collection and two more books from Word Horde. Apologies to my credit card…
Langan’s more recent collections have always been loosely thematic, but this one more so: the subtitle “And Other Autobiographies” is quite revealing, as I feel this may be his most personal and auto-fictional collection yet. Some elements are recurrent: fishing, Scotland, small towns in the Hudson River valley, childhood memories, loss, fathers and sons. His stories have always touched upon a very personal and human sort of horror (I’m thinking here of his masterful novel “The Fisherman”, which is just as much about grief as it is about literal monsters, or “Sephira”, which is about adultery, and incidentally, a supernatural creature is involved), and these stories follow that style. There are bullies, cruel relatives, teachers who have crossed boundaries, secrets that come to the surface… The supernatural elements are subtle, more weird and existential than gory or openly menacing – which is exactly what I love about these stories. They all feel like something a friend or a relative might tell you after one too many scotches by the fire on a brisk fall evening: you’ll never know if it was the liquor and the darkness that gave you the goosebumps or if it was because every word of the story you just heard was true.
If you have never read John Langan before, I’m not sure this is where I’d recommend you start: “The Wide, Carnivorous Sky” might be a better hook, or the aforementioned “The Fisherman”, but if you have read and liked his work before, this newest offering is worth every penny and should be savored slowly like a fine whiskey. This man is a master of his craft.
Langan’s more recent collections have always been loosely thematic, but this one more so: the subtitle “And Other Autobiographies” is quite revealing, as I feel this may be his most personal and auto-fictional collection yet. Some elements are recurrent: fishing, Scotland, small towns in the Hudson River valley, childhood memories, loss, fathers and sons. His stories have always touched upon a very personal and human sort of horror (I’m thinking here of his masterful novel “The Fisherman”, which is just as much about grief as it is about literal monsters, or “Sephira”, which is about adultery, and incidentally, a supernatural creature is involved), and these stories follow that style. There are bullies, cruel relatives, teachers who have crossed boundaries, secrets that come to the surface… The supernatural elements are subtle, more weird and existential than gory or openly menacing – which is exactly what I love about these stories. They all feel like something a friend or a relative might tell you after one too many scotches by the fire on a brisk fall evening: you’ll never know if it was the liquor and the darkness that gave you the goosebumps or if it was because every word of the story you just heard was true.
If you have never read John Langan before, I’m not sure this is where I’d recommend you start: “The Wide, Carnivorous Sky” might be a better hook, or the aforementioned “The Fisherman”, but if you have read and liked his work before, this newest offering is worth every penny and should be savored slowly like a fine whiskey. This man is a master of his craft.
May 1, 2022
The best book oh John Langan’s career, literally every story is pitch perfect. I would be hard pressed to find a better horror book released this year.
May 9, 2025
As a big time fan of Laird Barron, I've often see links or recommendation to John Langan. It made sense as the two are real good friends in real life but also but also because the two are rising names within the Post-Lovecraftian cosmic horror weird fiction subgenre which was niche 20 years ago compared it is now. Having said that, I've still haven't read a single word of Langan. I know his novel, The Fisherman is his popular go to as an in for his writing but I know that Langan, like Barron is predominantly a short story writer so I opted for one of his newest short story collection, Corpsemouth and Other Autobiographies.
Unlike Barron, whose overall thematic nature of his collection are cryptic and deciphered at the end of the reading, Langan is upfront with his. The collection features eleven short stories that are about family, nostalgia, hunger, and memory. The title "Autobiographies" is no misnomer. All of the stories here connect back to the author’s childhood, family history, and interest, explained beautifully in the story notes at the end of the collection. Almost all (8 out of 11) stories here are told in first person to hammer in the "autobiographies" nature of the collection.
Langan's prose is the opposite of Barron, in that Barron blends the literary with the pulp while having his own voice, Langan's very much is literary in his voice and style. He's what often time other authors call an author's writer. It's beautiful, it's atmospheric and it's something I know that a lot of newer authors with literary background writing horror for an easy in to the publishing world would kill for (talking about many horror books pushed by tiktokers and booktuber). The stories despite being short, are hardly short, they're often 20-30 pages minimum with one being a novella length. The length, might feel bloated or meandering to some really fits in with the way Langan build his story up, crafting atmospheric slice of life nature perturbed by external or supernatural force. Despite the theme of autobiography and eight of the stories were told from first person, it's hardly one note or repetitive.
There are no outright dud in the collection but if I were to pick a favourite, “Caoineadh” would've been mine. “Caoineadh” is a haunting banshee story centering on the trauma of WWII with the central characters made of a mother and his son. Langan has such a way with fiddling the mundanity of life with folk and cosmic horror.
Langan with this collection proved to me why he fits the phrase “a writer’s writer.” He's almost an identical twin of Barron writing but certainly prettier and this is not a slight to Barron at all, whose work I love a lot. It's an amazing collection of strong character driven and atmospheric and unsettling Post-Lovecraftian weird fiction horror.
Unlike Barron, whose overall thematic nature of his collection are cryptic and deciphered at the end of the reading, Langan is upfront with his. The collection features eleven short stories that are about family, nostalgia, hunger, and memory. The title "Autobiographies" is no misnomer. All of the stories here connect back to the author’s childhood, family history, and interest, explained beautifully in the story notes at the end of the collection. Almost all (8 out of 11) stories here are told in first person to hammer in the "autobiographies" nature of the collection.
Langan's prose is the opposite of Barron, in that Barron blends the literary with the pulp while having his own voice, Langan's very much is literary in his voice and style. He's what often time other authors call an author's writer. It's beautiful, it's atmospheric and it's something I know that a lot of newer authors with literary background writing horror for an easy in to the publishing world would kill for (talking about many horror books pushed by tiktokers and booktuber). The stories despite being short, are hardly short, they're often 20-30 pages minimum with one being a novella length. The length, might feel bloated or meandering to some really fits in with the way Langan build his story up, crafting atmospheric slice of life nature perturbed by external or supernatural force. Despite the theme of autobiography and eight of the stories were told from first person, it's hardly one note or repetitive.
There are no outright dud in the collection but if I were to pick a favourite, “Caoineadh” would've been mine. “Caoineadh” is a haunting banshee story centering on the trauma of WWII with the central characters made of a mother and his son. Langan has such a way with fiddling the mundanity of life with folk and cosmic horror.
Langan with this collection proved to me why he fits the phrase “a writer’s writer.” He's almost an identical twin of Barron writing but certainly prettier and this is not a slight to Barron at all, whose work I love a lot. It's an amazing collection of strong character driven and atmospheric and unsettling Post-Lovecraftian weird fiction horror.
May 28, 2024
Está claro que John Langan no es para mí. He tenido que pagar 23 euros de mi bolsillo para confirmar lo que hace casi un año barrunté gratis. Por pecar de confiado, por creer en las segundas oportunidades, soy más pobre y algo más infeliz, pues vuelvo a tener ese regusto astringente de la decepción con los novedosos matices biliosos de la estafa. Esta podría ser una reseña de sacar el hacha, como suele decirse por estos mentideros cuando muchas horas de lectura desperdiciadas solo son satisfechas con una o dos adicionales de escritura catártica, salvaje, desaforada y homicida. Pero esta no será una de esas reseñas. Porque entiendo que el problema es mío. En estos días de combate singular contra Langan, he aprovechado los recesos para indagar en redes sociales qué opiniones suscitaba esta colección. Y vuelvo a comprobar que soy leyenda. Algunos dicen que en Langan han leído las escenas más emocionales no ya de la literatura de terror, si no de la Literatura -las mayúsculas son mías-, otros elevan a Langan a la categoría de genio, otros dicen que su horror es tan personal como revolucionario, y algunos ponen dos o tres de los cuentos contenidos en esta antología como futuros clásicos. Leyendo esto, yo ya no se si he leído una copia suecada de Bocadaver o es que le he pillado una especial ojeriza al pobre autor.
Porque yo no he encontrado ni una pizca de emotividad en sus páginas que resulte ni convincente ni contagiosa, ni un solo relato que no me parezca haber sido escrito con la distancia y falta de implicación de una redacción escolar, ni uno en el que el elemento terrorífico esté presentado como algo que busque estremecer o inquietar en vez de como una contingencia más en la vida de sus insípidos personajes. La intención de Langan al añadir ese subtítulo a Bocadáver era indicar que parte de su vida, de su biografía, estaba incluida en cada uno de estos relatos. Es cierto que hay lugares y referencias que se repiten de relato en relato, pero ninguna de estas historias tiene ese componente emocional, nostálgico o introspectivo que se le presupone a una anécdota familiar. Porque muchas de estas "autobiografías" no son más que una descripción de una vida familiar, mejor, peor o normal, contada de manera anodina, sin profundizar, sin indagar, simplemente exponiendo situaciones cotidianas en que lo sobrenatural irrumpe no como un suceso extraordinario, como he dicho antes, sino como algo natural que no merece mayor atención que un bautizo o una comunión que terminó con tu tio alcoholizado bailando Paquito el Chocolatero. Y esto último si es terrorífico y merece detenerse para abarcarlo con el léxico más lovecraftiano posible. Ahora, tras leer estos cuentos y su novela, descubro que el pésimo narrador de El pescador no era un recurso narrativo de Langan, que esa incapacidad de generar tensión, suspense o implicación en la historia está también aquí, en cada una de las historias. Porque el narrador es el propio Langan.
La antología contiene los siguientes relatos:
Kore (**): la tradición de Halloween de una familia a lo largo de los años se desmarca con una última entrega que acongojara a propios y extraños. Ni el subversivo final mejora la mediocridad del conjunto.
Monstruos caseros (***): un chiquillo relata un suceso de su infancia que involucra a un amigo suyo que de amigo tenía muy poco, pues siempre le hacía de menos, le desdeñaba y hasta le rompía sus juguetes, porque sí, por puro placer. Ni siquiera el muñequito de Godzilla que fabricó con tanto cariño logró escapar de sus garras. Por este motivo el chiquillo planea su venganza. Afila una lanza y le pide a su amigo acudir a la ciénaga que hay al lado del vecindario, donde le obligará a disculparse por su comportamiento. Sin embargo, algo inesperado ocurre. Este relato me parece el mejor de la colección porque su final me hizo muchísima gracia.
Las fauces abiertas de Caribdis (**): siendo un niño, en unas vacaciones de verano, el protagonista viajó con su familia, sus padres, sus hermanas y su hermano al pueblo de Innsmouth, aunque en ese entonces ya no se llamaba así, por lo que sea. Pero, cosa extraña, nadie recuerda que su hermano fuera a ese viaje familiar. De hecho, nadie salvo el protagonista recuerda a ningún hermano. Y es que Innsmouth sigue siendo un lugar con oscuros poderes, aunque menos húmedos y con menos branquias. Sí, en este relato no hay profundos, solo una chorrada que no diré por eso de los destripes.
Sombra y sed (*): a raíz de la aparición de una misteriosa torre en un descampado, el protagonista y su familia son atacados por su padre, presa de un estado rabioso en el que arranca la garganta al perro de la familia a dentelladas. El protagonista logra rechazar el ataque, obligando a su padre a huir en el interior de la torre, a donde le seguirá para poder salvarlo de sí mismo. Las cosas allí se complican. Y mucho. Tanto, que no tiene ni sentido.
Bocadáver (**): tras la muerte de su padre, el protagonista y su familia viaja a Escocia para permanecer una temporada con el resto de la familia y cerrar heridas. Allí, el protagonista intentará conectar con la herencia celta de su padre y meditar sobre las últimas palabras escritas que le dejó su padre, pues en sus últimos momentos, intubado como estaba, no podía comunicarse de otra forma. Lo que en un principio creía era un galimatías sin sentido producto de la medicación gracias a las explicaciones de su tío resulta estar vinculado a una antigua leyenda artúrica, en concreto, a un ser monstruoso: Bocadáver.
Ancla (***): con ocho años, el protagonista es sacado de la cama en plena noche por su padre, que empuña una espada y le pide que él se arme también, pero con una lanza, y acuda al jardín con el. Allí hay un criatura plantada frente a la casa, una suerte de oso flamígero los estudia como si buscara algo y no fuera capaz de encontrarlo. Padre e hijo, espada en mano y lanza en ristre, esperan a que la criatura se marche. Este ser parece estar vinculado a un amigo de su padre que pasó una temporada en su hogar, un poeta famoso que debe su talento a cierto pacto.
Fuera de casa, vigilando los cuervos (**): el protagonista nos relata un episodio de su juventud, en el que conoció a su primera novia y su grupo de amigos, góticos-punkies que le iniciaron en la música de un misterioso grupo que firma como The Subterraneans. Tras escuchar la cinta admite que la música no es nada del otro jueves, pero con el paso de los días se sorprende volviendo una y otra vez a esas canciones hasta el punto en que imagina ver la música a su alrededor, como si el grupo fuera la puerta a otro mundo, más oscuro y tenebroso.
Lo que se pierde, lo que se deja ir (***): el protagonista acude a una reunión de antiguos alumnos sin muchas ganas de reencontrarse con sus antiguos compañeros, solo para comprobar hasta qué punto han cambiado. Allí se topa con un antiguo profesor que fue expulsado poco antes de graduarse como consecuencia de un escándalo, de estos que involucran a profesores con alumnas y terminan con embarazo no deseado, matrimonio fallido, divorcio con condiciones draconianas, perdida de la custodia y medidas expeditivas, y delictivas, para recuperarla. Caído en la más absoluta desgracia, el profesor comparte con él su nuevo plan para reencontrarse con su hijo aprovechando lo mucho que ha aprendido de artes místicas tras su paso por la cárcel.
El suplemento (***): El protagonista se reencuentra con su antigua jefa en la biblioteca, y digamos que no le ha sentado muy bien la jubilación, pues la encuentra demacrada, mucho más envejecida de lo que debería. La razón de esta decadencia se debe a un libro que intercambió con un extraño sujeto, un libro que le permite experimentar cómo hubiera sido su vida. Pero, por supuesto, estas visitas al pasado hipotético tienen un precio.
Pesca con espejos (**): el joven protagonista va a ser iniciado por su prima en la pesca con espejos, un ritual ancestral que aprendió de su abuelo que permite introducir al conjurador en una dimensión alternativa a través de espejos u otras superficies reflectantes. En esta dimensión uno puede moverse como si flotara y acceder desde ahí a otros puntos del espacio usando estas superficies como puertas. La prima del protagonista le propone un trato: deshacerse de aquellos que les han hecho daño y entregar sus vidas a la deidad que gobierna esta dimensión.
Canoineadh (**): la madre del protagonista relata a su hijo una experiencia que vivió en la Segunda Guerra Mundial, durante un bombardeo alemán sobre la ciudad en la que vivía y el encuentro que tuvo con una extraña niña pocos días después.
Porque yo no he encontrado ni una pizca de emotividad en sus páginas que resulte ni convincente ni contagiosa, ni un solo relato que no me parezca haber sido escrito con la distancia y falta de implicación de una redacción escolar, ni uno en el que el elemento terrorífico esté presentado como algo que busque estremecer o inquietar en vez de como una contingencia más en la vida de sus insípidos personajes. La intención de Langan al añadir ese subtítulo a Bocadáver era indicar que parte de su vida, de su biografía, estaba incluida en cada uno de estos relatos. Es cierto que hay lugares y referencias que se repiten de relato en relato, pero ninguna de estas historias tiene ese componente emocional, nostálgico o introspectivo que se le presupone a una anécdota familiar. Porque muchas de estas "autobiografías" no son más que una descripción de una vida familiar, mejor, peor o normal, contada de manera anodina, sin profundizar, sin indagar, simplemente exponiendo situaciones cotidianas en que lo sobrenatural irrumpe no como un suceso extraordinario, como he dicho antes, sino como algo natural que no merece mayor atención que un bautizo o una comunión que terminó con tu tio alcoholizado bailando Paquito el Chocolatero. Y esto último si es terrorífico y merece detenerse para abarcarlo con el léxico más lovecraftiano posible. Ahora, tras leer estos cuentos y su novela, descubro que el pésimo narrador de El pescador no era un recurso narrativo de Langan, que esa incapacidad de generar tensión, suspense o implicación en la historia está también aquí, en cada una de las historias. Porque el narrador es el propio Langan.
La antología contiene los siguientes relatos:
Kore (**): la tradición de Halloween de una familia a lo largo de los años se desmarca con una última entrega que acongojara a propios y extraños. Ni el subversivo final mejora la mediocridad del conjunto.
Monstruos caseros (***): un chiquillo relata un suceso de su infancia que involucra a un amigo suyo que de amigo tenía muy poco, pues siempre le hacía de menos, le desdeñaba y hasta le rompía sus juguetes, porque sí, por puro placer. Ni siquiera el muñequito de Godzilla que fabricó con tanto cariño logró escapar de sus garras. Por este motivo el chiquillo planea su venganza. Afila una lanza y le pide a su amigo acudir a la ciénaga que hay al lado del vecindario, donde le obligará a disculparse por su comportamiento. Sin embargo, algo inesperado ocurre. Este relato me parece el mejor de la colección porque su final me hizo muchísima gracia.
Las fauces abiertas de Caribdis (**): siendo un niño, en unas vacaciones de verano, el protagonista viajó con su familia, sus padres, sus hermanas y su hermano al pueblo de Innsmouth, aunque en ese entonces ya no se llamaba así, por lo que sea. Pero, cosa extraña, nadie recuerda que su hermano fuera a ese viaje familiar. De hecho, nadie salvo el protagonista recuerda a ningún hermano. Y es que Innsmouth sigue siendo un lugar con oscuros poderes, aunque menos húmedos y con menos branquias. Sí, en este relato no hay profundos, solo una chorrada que no diré por eso de los destripes.
Sombra y sed (*): a raíz de la aparición de una misteriosa torre en un descampado, el protagonista y su familia son atacados por su padre, presa de un estado rabioso en el que arranca la garganta al perro de la familia a dentelladas. El protagonista logra rechazar el ataque, obligando a su padre a huir en el interior de la torre, a donde le seguirá para poder salvarlo de sí mismo. Las cosas allí se complican. Y mucho. Tanto, que no tiene ni sentido.
Bocadáver (**): tras la muerte de su padre, el protagonista y su familia viaja a Escocia para permanecer una temporada con el resto de la familia y cerrar heridas. Allí, el protagonista intentará conectar con la herencia celta de su padre y meditar sobre las últimas palabras escritas que le dejó su padre, pues en sus últimos momentos, intubado como estaba, no podía comunicarse de otra forma. Lo que en un principio creía era un galimatías sin sentido producto de la medicación gracias a las explicaciones de su tío resulta estar vinculado a una antigua leyenda artúrica, en concreto, a un ser monstruoso: Bocadáver.
Ancla (***): con ocho años, el protagonista es sacado de la cama en plena noche por su padre, que empuña una espada y le pide que él se arme también, pero con una lanza, y acuda al jardín con el. Allí hay un criatura plantada frente a la casa, una suerte de oso flamígero los estudia como si buscara algo y no fuera capaz de encontrarlo. Padre e hijo, espada en mano y lanza en ristre, esperan a que la criatura se marche. Este ser parece estar vinculado a un amigo de su padre que pasó una temporada en su hogar, un poeta famoso que debe su talento a cierto pacto.
Fuera de casa, vigilando los cuervos (**): el protagonista nos relata un episodio de su juventud, en el que conoció a su primera novia y su grupo de amigos, góticos-punkies que le iniciaron en la música de un misterioso grupo que firma como The Subterraneans. Tras escuchar la cinta admite que la música no es nada del otro jueves, pero con el paso de los días se sorprende volviendo una y otra vez a esas canciones hasta el punto en que imagina ver la música a su alrededor, como si el grupo fuera la puerta a otro mundo, más oscuro y tenebroso.
Lo que se pierde, lo que se deja ir (***): el protagonista acude a una reunión de antiguos alumnos sin muchas ganas de reencontrarse con sus antiguos compañeros, solo para comprobar hasta qué punto han cambiado. Allí se topa con un antiguo profesor que fue expulsado poco antes de graduarse como consecuencia de un escándalo, de estos que involucran a profesores con alumnas y terminan con embarazo no deseado, matrimonio fallido, divorcio con condiciones draconianas, perdida de la custodia y medidas expeditivas, y delictivas, para recuperarla. Caído en la más absoluta desgracia, el profesor comparte con él su nuevo plan para reencontrarse con su hijo aprovechando lo mucho que ha aprendido de artes místicas tras su paso por la cárcel.
El suplemento (***): El protagonista se reencuentra con su antigua jefa en la biblioteca, y digamos que no le ha sentado muy bien la jubilación, pues la encuentra demacrada, mucho más envejecida de lo que debería. La razón de esta decadencia se debe a un libro que intercambió con un extraño sujeto, un libro que le permite experimentar cómo hubiera sido su vida. Pero, por supuesto, estas visitas al pasado hipotético tienen un precio.
Pesca con espejos (**): el joven protagonista va a ser iniciado por su prima en la pesca con espejos, un ritual ancestral que aprendió de su abuelo que permite introducir al conjurador en una dimensión alternativa a través de espejos u otras superficies reflectantes. En esta dimensión uno puede moverse como si flotara y acceder desde ahí a otros puntos del espacio usando estas superficies como puertas. La prima del protagonista le propone un trato: deshacerse de aquellos que les han hecho daño y entregar sus vidas a la deidad que gobierna esta dimensión.
Canoineadh (**): la madre del protagonista relata a su hijo una experiencia que vivió en la Segunda Guerra Mundial, durante un bombardeo alemán sobre la ciudad en la que vivía y el encuentro que tuvo con una extraña niña pocos días después.
October 7, 2022
Superb.
July 29, 2022
Finished this one Tuesday night, forgot to update until now. Yet another fantastic collection from John Langan, really showcasing his autobiographical bent and also drawing in some of the lore and locations first seen in The Fisherman. Always glad to get more!
January 31, 2024
This was incredibly disappointing compared to The Fisherman. 😭😭😭 I just didn't connect with 2/3s of the stories. I think I need to stick to his feature length offerings. 🤔
February 28, 2023
9,5 This was, in my opinion, the best of Langans short story collections up to now. But I want to reread them all, just to be sure. But I had the sense that these stories were signs of an author who had matured in his craft, using beautiful, but crystal clear prose, that did not distract by overly purple descriptions or archaic formulations, but still managed to subtly pull the reader in and create an unsettling atmosphere.
What helped with that was the way these stories were rooted in personal details. With the openness of a courageous author Langan makes use of his own life and his own memories (as the story notes at the back make clear). And he shows how only an author who is honest about his own shortcomings and anxieties can write great horror. Because here, with his own relationship with his parents and his sons as inspiration, he looks at the insecurities we feel about familial relatioships, even if our families are fairly normal. No gross neglect or horrible abuse here. But still - we sometimes feel we didn't say the right thing at the right moment, or we feel we're not the favorite, or we feel our parents disapproval about a choice we made, or we are afraid they will be taken from us, or ... or we fear we don't really know the ones we love - because ultimately it isn't possible to look into each others brains. These insecurities are, I think, universal, which makes reading these stories cathartic, even if they are about a Catholic family with parents from Scotland, or a father with a career in literature and a son who chooses a different path.
The supernatural elements (very evocative here as Langan builds on images from his novel 'The Fisherman' of a city at the coast of a black sea and it's vampiric watchmen) take on a metaphorical role, almost, standing in for the real cause of distress.
And yes, these stories are terrifying, but not in a gross way by lots of gore, but because of the mirror they provide for our own terrors. I loved them all, be they about a family trip to Scotland where an old monster turns up, a casette tape with music that grips the listener a bit too deeply, a tower suddenly appearing in a back yard and a father who gets lost in it, or an old manuscript that has a weird effect on its reader. 'Anchor' is a particularly great story, about a boy growing up and remembering a friend of his father who stayed with them and a strange fire that showed up ... Here the price we pay for our creative endeavours gets externalised. But all the stories are great. If you like thoughtful, well written horror, with a bit of cosmic horror thrown in, this is required reading. It inspired me to start writing another story, which is the best praise a short story collection can get, in my opinion.
What helped with that was the way these stories were rooted in personal details. With the openness of a courageous author Langan makes use of his own life and his own memories (as the story notes at the back make clear). And he shows how only an author who is honest about his own shortcomings and anxieties can write great horror. Because here, with his own relationship with his parents and his sons as inspiration, he looks at the insecurities we feel about familial relatioships, even if our families are fairly normal. No gross neglect or horrible abuse here. But still - we sometimes feel we didn't say the right thing at the right moment, or we feel we're not the favorite, or we feel our parents disapproval about a choice we made, or we are afraid they will be taken from us, or ... or we fear we don't really know the ones we love - because ultimately it isn't possible to look into each others brains. These insecurities are, I think, universal, which makes reading these stories cathartic, even if they are about a Catholic family with parents from Scotland, or a father with a career in literature and a son who chooses a different path.
The supernatural elements (very evocative here as Langan builds on images from his novel 'The Fisherman' of a city at the coast of a black sea and it's vampiric watchmen) take on a metaphorical role, almost, standing in for the real cause of distress.
And yes, these stories are terrifying, but not in a gross way by lots of gore, but because of the mirror they provide for our own terrors. I loved them all, be they about a family trip to Scotland where an old monster turns up, a casette tape with music that grips the listener a bit too deeply, a tower suddenly appearing in a back yard and a father who gets lost in it, or an old manuscript that has a weird effect on its reader. 'Anchor' is a particularly great story, about a boy growing up and remembering a friend of his father who stayed with them and a strange fire that showed up ... Here the price we pay for our creative endeavours gets externalised. But all the stories are great. If you like thoughtful, well written horror, with a bit of cosmic horror thrown in, this is required reading. It inspired me to start writing another story, which is the best praise a short story collection can get, in my opinion.
March 12, 2025
This is the fourth collection of John Langan's I've read in the past several weeks. If there's one thing you expect from Langan, it's you'll get nothing ordinary or cliche. What you will get is a distinct originality and uniqueness in every story. You may find them existing in a familiar universe, the same corridors of upstate New York, a lot of people of Scottish ancestry, similar looking symbols, but every tale will be something utterly unto itself going in directions you never could have imagined. Not everything is straight up horror, and there are several stories based in mythology or magical realism, moreso than I recall from his previous books. This collection particularly contains stories that are more personal, whether they're snippets based on something that happened in his life, or elements or parts of the narrative are directly fictionalized from incidents involving him, his family and friends. I know I definitely read at least two of the included stories before, though it's long enough ago that nothing in the book felt familiar while I was reading it. Langan's short fiction continues telling a whole novel's worth of literary horror carefully condensed into short story format. - 4.5/5*
July 18, 2022
I like that Laird and Langan watch American Dad together lol, I bet Laird sees himself as Roger.
January 21, 2023
Last year, I read John Langan's second novel "The Fisherman", and that experience made me believe that this was an author I needed more of. So, after browsing a few more of his titles at Amazon, I selected this one to be put on my wish list for Christmas. "Corpsemouth"? What a bizarrely intriguing title!
After lurching my way through all 275 pages of this, I have decided that Langan either peaked with "The Fisherman" or he should really just stick to writing novels. This isn't to say that this collection is all bad. There are a few gems here, and I had told Constance (my girlfriend and steady reading companion) when I had finished reading it that I wished I could give it two-and-a-half stars, but as it is, I couldn't bring myself to give it three.
The subtitle "and Other Autobiographies" makes it clear that the stories in this collection are all drawn from Langan's life in some way or another. There are constant references to family in Scotland, to his father working for IBM, to his siblings. The extensive notes following the stories explain each tale's inspiration, if one were at all interested. I wonder if reading these would have made the stories more engaging? I didn't read them all, mainly because the ones I did read ended up killing the imaginative effort put into the stories to which they're connected.
Now, there isn't anything particularly wrong with Langan's writing. He's definitely capable of crafting an eerie tale when the ideas are fleshed out enough. With this collection, though, too many stories consist of just a bare-bones plot, nothing much more than an idea that's talked about to death by one of the characters. A father gets stuck in a time-traveling prison, for example. and spends much of the story explaining to his son what he'd discovered there. In another story, a librarian explains to the narrator (for many pages) how a certain book she's come into possession of has affected her physical body. In yet another story, some kid explains to the narrator how a cassette of some obscure band is able to show him glimpses of "the beyond." This type of structure appears over and over and over, and I quickly found myself dying inside whenever a new story started and yet another character launches into some long backstory explaining the weirdness on which the story is based.
Maybe this is just Langan's style. It's certainly the way "The Fisherman" was structured, with much of that novel delivered as a story told to the narrator by a bartender he meets on his way to check out a secretive fishing spot. I get that there's a certain sense of "mythology building" that comes with characters sharing backstory and local lore – it’s a method that's been present in fiction since at least Washington Irving's description of the area surrounding Sleepy Hollow. The problem arises when the backstory becomes the story, and anything happening outside of the backstory feels like page filler.
Take the titular story, for example. There's page after page about the narrator visiting with family in Scotland, none of which has any bearing on the actual story (which is laughably anti-climactic). Or the last story in the collection, which begins with an extensive description of the narrator's relationship with his mother vs. his other siblings, and the places they would vacation -- when really the story is only about his mother's encounter with some girl who sings for the souls of the dead during the German blitzkrieg of World War II. None of the story's opening information serves any real purpose in the narrative, and it makes me think Langan was simply padding his pages to meet some sort of word count required by whatever editor he was writing for.
This is a shame, because the first three or four stories in the collection are actually quite good. Unfortunately, it all quickly cycles into the drudgery of repetitive structures and themes. Langan really does have some good ideas (the book made from layers of Odin’s eye is particularly clever), but he spends far too much time hammering in the unnecessary details and not enough exploring the rich directions his ideas could take him. As in the story told in the form of a letter from father to son, the father admits his tendency to digress into details that have little-to-no bearing on the tale he’s telling, writing something like, “I know, I know. Too much information.”
No shit.
After lurching my way through all 275 pages of this, I have decided that Langan either peaked with "The Fisherman" or he should really just stick to writing novels. This isn't to say that this collection is all bad. There are a few gems here, and I had told Constance (my girlfriend and steady reading companion) when I had finished reading it that I wished I could give it two-and-a-half stars, but as it is, I couldn't bring myself to give it three.
The subtitle "and Other Autobiographies" makes it clear that the stories in this collection are all drawn from Langan's life in some way or another. There are constant references to family in Scotland, to his father working for IBM, to his siblings. The extensive notes following the stories explain each tale's inspiration, if one were at all interested. I wonder if reading these would have made the stories more engaging? I didn't read them all, mainly because the ones I did read ended up killing the imaginative effort put into the stories to which they're connected.
Now, there isn't anything particularly wrong with Langan's writing. He's definitely capable of crafting an eerie tale when the ideas are fleshed out enough. With this collection, though, too many stories consist of just a bare-bones plot, nothing much more than an idea that's talked about to death by one of the characters. A father gets stuck in a time-traveling prison, for example. and spends much of the story explaining to his son what he'd discovered there. In another story, a librarian explains to the narrator (for many pages) how a certain book she's come into possession of has affected her physical body. In yet another story, some kid explains to the narrator how a cassette of some obscure band is able to show him glimpses of "the beyond." This type of structure appears over and over and over, and I quickly found myself dying inside whenever a new story started and yet another character launches into some long backstory explaining the weirdness on which the story is based.
Maybe this is just Langan's style. It's certainly the way "The Fisherman" was structured, with much of that novel delivered as a story told to the narrator by a bartender he meets on his way to check out a secretive fishing spot. I get that there's a certain sense of "mythology building" that comes with characters sharing backstory and local lore – it’s a method that's been present in fiction since at least Washington Irving's description of the area surrounding Sleepy Hollow. The problem arises when the backstory becomes the story, and anything happening outside of the backstory feels like page filler.
Take the titular story, for example. There's page after page about the narrator visiting with family in Scotland, none of which has any bearing on the actual story (which is laughably anti-climactic). Or the last story in the collection, which begins with an extensive description of the narrator's relationship with his mother vs. his other siblings, and the places they would vacation -- when really the story is only about his mother's encounter with some girl who sings for the souls of the dead during the German blitzkrieg of World War II. None of the story's opening information serves any real purpose in the narrative, and it makes me think Langan was simply padding his pages to meet some sort of word count required by whatever editor he was writing for.
This is a shame, because the first three or four stories in the collection are actually quite good. Unfortunately, it all quickly cycles into the drudgery of repetitive structures and themes. Langan really does have some good ideas (the book made from layers of Odin’s eye is particularly clever), but he spends far too much time hammering in the unnecessary details and not enough exploring the rich directions his ideas could take him. As in the story told in the form of a letter from father to son, the father admits his tendency to digress into details that have little-to-no bearing on the tale he’s telling, writing something like, “I know, I know. Too much information.”
No shit.
August 20, 2024
I understand the intent, but the commonalities between the stories felt more like repetition than like a shared current. It got kind of tedious. Oh, your parents are from Scotland? Oh, someone wears karate pants as pajamas?
July 20, 2022
*** 3.77 Stars out of 5, rounded up to 4 for Goodreads ***
Let me address that weird rating first. No, I didn't make it up, I just rated each story individually and that's the average I got.
This is, yet again, another great collection by Langan. Not my favourite of his but still pretty good. Most importantly, this book doesn't contain any bad or filler stories. Yeah few were just ok but the majority of the ranked from good to phenomenal.
Before I start, I want to say is that I found this collection to be a tad bit more genre fiction less literary than Langan`s usual fare. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying this in a bad way. I'm not of those snobs who looks down on genre fiction. In fact, I really liked the fact that Langan`s genre fiction masterfully managed to avoid being full of tropes and pastiches. This was definitely a genre fiction done well.
First of all, even though it isn't explicitly mentioned, just know that this is a themed anthology. That theme is family, with a clear focus on father-son relationship. I'm normally not a huge fan of themed anthologies, have always found them to be a bit repetitive. This was definitely not the case with this one. I loved how Langan managed to keep me fully interested throughout by the brilliant use of different perspectives, immersive narratives and plots, and variety of questions he raised and explored within each story. Speaking of the narrative creativity and plot, I've got to say, this was Langan`s best in terms of those elements. I loved how it sometimes felt like I was reading a good thriller. Another interesting and well done thing was the inclusion of sci-fi elements in the collection. Sci-fi/horror blends are pretty hot at the moment but it's quite rare to find one that's done well. Langan's nailed that too, I really enjoyed the way he incorporated those elements.
Ok, let's talk about what was not so great. To me, John Langan is the best weird/horror author when it comes to the quality of writing and prose. His words impacts me so deeply, on a level that very few writers(horror/weird or not) have managed to match so far. However, I found this collection to be a notch below than his usual in terms of writing. Don't get me wrong, the writing is still great here, it is just that Langan`s set the bar so high that sometime even he can't match it. My only other complaint is that few stories kind of lacked atmosphere (looking mainly at you Kore).
Let's finish this off with favourites. The highlights of the collection for me "The Anchor", "What Is Lost, What Is Given Away", "The Supplement", and "Caoineadh".
All in all, if you are a fan of weird and uncanny or good literature overall, this is a must read for you. Savour it, wait some time and let it marinate, and savour it again.
Let me address that weird rating first. No, I didn't make it up, I just rated each story individually and that's the average I got.
This is, yet again, another great collection by Langan. Not my favourite of his but still pretty good. Most importantly, this book doesn't contain any bad or filler stories. Yeah few were just ok but the majority of the ranked from good to phenomenal.
Before I start, I want to say is that I found this collection to be a tad bit more genre fiction less literary than Langan`s usual fare. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying this in a bad way. I'm not of those snobs who looks down on genre fiction. In fact, I really liked the fact that Langan`s genre fiction masterfully managed to avoid being full of tropes and pastiches. This was definitely a genre fiction done well.
First of all, even though it isn't explicitly mentioned, just know that this is a themed anthology. That theme is family, with a clear focus on father-son relationship. I'm normally not a huge fan of themed anthologies, have always found them to be a bit repetitive. This was definitely not the case with this one. I loved how Langan managed to keep me fully interested throughout by the brilliant use of different perspectives, immersive narratives and plots, and variety of questions he raised and explored within each story. Speaking of the narrative creativity and plot, I've got to say, this was Langan`s best in terms of those elements. I loved how it sometimes felt like I was reading a good thriller. Another interesting and well done thing was the inclusion of sci-fi elements in the collection. Sci-fi/horror blends are pretty hot at the moment but it's quite rare to find one that's done well. Langan's nailed that too, I really enjoyed the way he incorporated those elements.
Ok, let's talk about what was not so great. To me, John Langan is the best weird/horror author when it comes to the quality of writing and prose. His words impacts me so deeply, on a level that very few writers(horror/weird or not) have managed to match so far. However, I found this collection to be a notch below than his usual in terms of writing. Don't get me wrong, the writing is still great here, it is just that Langan`s set the bar so high that sometime even he can't match it. My only other complaint is that few stories kind of lacked atmosphere (looking mainly at you Kore).
Let's finish this off with favourites. The highlights of the collection for me "The Anchor", "What Is Lost, What Is Given Away", "The Supplement", and "Caoineadh".
All in all, if you are a fan of weird and uncanny or good literature overall, this is a must read for you. Savour it, wait some time and let it marinate, and savour it again.
February 10, 2025
4.5 ⭐️
What an awesome collection of stories!!
What an awesome collection of stories!!
August 19, 2022
Not much of a surprise coming from me, but Langan knocks it out of the park again. Though I still prefer Wide Carnivorous Sky and Sefira, this collection is still pretty much perfect. The stand out story was Anchor which is actually the only one I had read before. It just captures the adult bromance so well. Though the story that gave its name to the collection, Corpsemouth, was a close runner up.
July 2, 2022
First things first: I think this is Langan's best title yet. "Wide Carnivorous Sky" may have been more memorable if it only wasn't such a mouthful.
When Langan describes these works as "Autobiographies" he isn't embellishing. All of these stories are taken from his own life experiences to some extent. For that reason, I would recommend you do not skip the story notes at the end of this book. Aside from their inspiration in his own life, the main theme of this work is family. For that reason, this book lacks the wild monsters of "Wide Carnivorous Sky" and the heady themes of "The Fisherman," but makes up for those in some very well examined anxieties about family life and the anxieties inherent to having loved ones. The best stories in this collection deal with the death of Langan's father and the struggles of having an aging parent. Not everyone will find these stories particularly scary, but some certainly will, and anyone who ever worries about their parents or children will be at least unsettled.
Also interesting is that Langan appears to be developing his own mythos of sorts. References to the city on a black lake featured in "The Fisherman" abound in this collection.
The best story in the book, in my opinion, is the title story, which encapsulates the main themes of the collection while including a classic Langan monster.
Overall I give this collection a solid 3/5. I don't really have any bad things to say about it except that the grounding of these stories in Langan's own life makes for a much more slow-paced collection than Langan's usual fare, although they are by no means diminished in prose.
When Langan describes these works as "Autobiographies" he isn't embellishing. All of these stories are taken from his own life experiences to some extent. For that reason, I would recommend you do not skip the story notes at the end of this book. Aside from their inspiration in his own life, the main theme of this work is family. For that reason, this book lacks the wild monsters of "Wide Carnivorous Sky" and the heady themes of "The Fisherman," but makes up for those in some very well examined anxieties about family life and the anxieties inherent to having loved ones. The best stories in this collection deal with the death of Langan's father and the struggles of having an aging parent. Not everyone will find these stories particularly scary, but some certainly will, and anyone who ever worries about their parents or children will be at least unsettled.
Also interesting is that Langan appears to be developing his own mythos of sorts. References to the city on a black lake featured in "The Fisherman" abound in this collection.
The best story in the book, in my opinion, is the title story, which encapsulates the main themes of the collection while including a classic Langan monster.
Overall I give this collection a solid 3/5. I don't really have any bad things to say about it except that the grounding of these stories in Langan's own life makes for a much more slow-paced collection than Langan's usual fare, although they are by no means diminished in prose.
June 17, 2022
This is a highly personal horror collection that finds terror in age, distant family, and a black sea in a cursed place. Potent and warmly dense.
May 14, 2025
You know that expression, "don't meet your heroes," because you're just setting yourself up for disappointment? I feel like I just ignored that advice... and it turned out okay anyway!
The Fisherman is one of my all-time favorite books. I'm talking in Top 3, easily. Because of that, I've ironically always been hesitant to visit any of John Langan's other works because I was convinced there was no way anything else could live up to it, and I'd just end up walking away let down, so why bother? I've owned this book for about three years before I finally decided to pick it up and give it a chance. And while I was right in that it wasn't life-changing, it was still extremely solid.
This was another situation where the author's note to the reader at the end of the book really colored my perception of what came before it and gave me a new appreciation. At first I was confused as to why so many of these short stories in this collection had such similar details. At least three of them deal with adult sons trying and failing to emotionally connect with their fathers. A fictionalized version of upstate New York is the setting for the majority of them (CUNY gets name-dropped a lot), and everyone is a second-generation Scottish immigrant. Also this is one of the most aggressively Gen X books I've ever read; damn near every protagonist was either a kid or a teenager in the 80's.
What stuck out a series of distractingly uniform details made more sense once I realized that these were collectively meant to be literal autobiographical elements of the author's life. In retrospect, it is right there in the title, but went over my head and was a pleasing little revelation at the end.
As is the case with most short story collections, some were stronger than others, but nothing here was outright bad, and the good ones were really good. I'll specifically remember "Mirror Fishing" (I get really squeamish with palm/hand injuries and this had an intense ending that had me physically uncomfortable), "The Supplement" (yet another fresh exploration into themes of grief), and "What Is Lost, What Is Given Away" (I just found it to be a really unique premise for a missing person situation) for a very long time. There are also glimpses of a coherent cosmic worldbuilding in the background of some of these stories if you squint hard enough, and I'm now more interested (and willing!) to dive into his other works to see if there's more going on there.
The Fisherman is one of my all-time favorite books. I'm talking in Top 3, easily. Because of that, I've ironically always been hesitant to visit any of John Langan's other works because I was convinced there was no way anything else could live up to it, and I'd just end up walking away let down, so why bother? I've owned this book for about three years before I finally decided to pick it up and give it a chance. And while I was right in that it wasn't life-changing, it was still extremely solid.
This was another situation where the author's note to the reader at the end of the book really colored my perception of what came before it and gave me a new appreciation. At first I was confused as to why so many of these short stories in this collection had such similar details. At least three of them deal with adult sons trying and failing to emotionally connect with their fathers. A fictionalized version of upstate New York is the setting for the majority of them (CUNY gets name-dropped a lot), and everyone is a second-generation Scottish immigrant. Also this is one of the most aggressively Gen X books I've ever read; damn near every protagonist was either a kid or a teenager in the 80's.
What stuck out a series of distractingly uniform details made more sense once I realized that these were collectively meant to be literal autobiographical elements of the author's life. In retrospect, it is right there in the title, but went over my head and was a pleasing little revelation at the end.
As is the case with most short story collections, some were stronger than others, but nothing here was outright bad, and the good ones were really good. I'll specifically remember "Mirror Fishing" (I get really squeamish with palm/hand injuries and this had an intense ending that had me physically uncomfortable), "The Supplement" (yet another fresh exploration into themes of grief), and "What Is Lost, What Is Given Away" (I just found it to be a really unique premise for a missing person situation) for a very long time. There are also glimpses of a coherent cosmic worldbuilding in the background of some of these stories if you squint hard enough, and I'm now more interested (and willing!) to dive into his other works to see if there's more going on there.
July 24, 2022
Homemade Monsters and Corpsemouth are the two pieces that worked for me the most and had the right emotions and writing mechanics keeping me wanting more till the end with right words left out and left in.
There were a few other good pieces but I find these two the stellar heartfelt and haunting pieces I will mention.
Homemade Monsters
A visit to the age of ten and one young man’s dealing with a bully Eddie and his destruction of a dear Godzilla creation.
This is a story with things that remain and was a haunting great little telling.
Corpsemouth
A trip back home, the first land his father and mother called home, one now lost to the world, he travels to the denizens of the town in Scotland to his kin, ones connected by far in another land, dreams are visited and new discoveries unravel as myths and land are traversed.
Out on a trip down memory Lane an interesting haunting story is mentioned involving Merlin, a king and a monstrous giant creature.
There is truth here, from the author mentioning in his story notes, about loss, family, and visiting his land of ancestry.
Review also @https://www.more2read.com/review/corpsemouth-and-other-autobiographies-by-john-langan/
There were a few other good pieces but I find these two the stellar heartfelt and haunting pieces I will mention.
Homemade Monsters
A visit to the age of ten and one young man’s dealing with a bully Eddie and his destruction of a dear Godzilla creation.
This is a story with things that remain and was a haunting great little telling.
Corpsemouth
A trip back home, the first land his father and mother called home, one now lost to the world, he travels to the denizens of the town in Scotland to his kin, ones connected by far in another land, dreams are visited and new discoveries unravel as myths and land are traversed.
Out on a trip down memory Lane an interesting haunting story is mentioned involving Merlin, a king and a monstrous giant creature.
There is truth here, from the author mentioning in his story notes, about loss, family, and visiting his land of ancestry.
Review also @https://www.more2read.com/review/corpsemouth-and-other-autobiographies-by-john-langan/
August 6, 2025
Tengo sentimientos encontrados con John Langan. Me pasó con su novela, El pescador, y me ha pasado con muchos de los once relatos que encontramos en esta colección, aunque diría que por motivo distintos. En el caso de la novela, creo que maneja elementos que me fascinan y por momentos pensé que podría convertirse en uno de mis libros favoritos, pero me parece que tiene una estructura que lastra parte de la lectura —su último tercio se eterniza hasta llegar a un clímax que, de alguna manera, ya has experimentado en la mitad del libro—. En cuanto a los relatos de
Bocadáver y otras autobiografías
, muchos se ven eclipsados, pese a tener buenas ideas, por la cantidad superflua de información personal que incluye; sus marcos narrativos son desaconsejablemente prolijos en detalles —ya lo dice el narrador de Lo que se pierde, lo que se deja ir, «Te estoy dando demasiada información, supongo».
Se podría decir que Ancla engloba lo mejor y lo peor de lo que Langan es capaz: una historia en la que equilibra perfectamente lo autobiográfico/familiar y lo fantástico-extraño. En ella, el escritor consigue la habitual atmósfera inquietante de manera progresiva, acompañada de una extraña melancolía. Pero no está libre de esas digresiones eternas que alargan el relato de tal manera que podríamos estar hablando de una novela corta, frustrando ligeramente la experiencia. ¿Lo bueno? Que Langan tiene un estilo cristalino —no he encontrado un calificativo mejor— que aligera mucho la lectura de sus obras, y esto entronca con algo que me gusta de él y es el carácter mundano de sus historias. Esto desemboca en que cuando el elemento fantástico irrumpe en la trama, el efecto es verdaderamente extraño, logrando que esté realmente vivo. Esto, en esencia, es lo que hace que, a pesar de tener sentimientos encontrados con él, al final prevalezca lo positivo.
Dicho esto, sus relatos funcionan mejor o peor y no siempre se debe a esa generosidad de información prescindible que le achaco —en este sentido el que peor parado sale es Caoineadh; otros simplemente son insustanciales—. No me voy a parar a hablar de todos, pero sí me gustaría mencionar los relatos que más me han gustado: Bocadáver, engloba todo lo que me gusta de Langan, salvo el clímax, que me pareció incomprensiblemente decepcionante; Ancla, por lo positivo que mencioné antes y porque a pesar de ser el más largo con diferencia, lo leí con mucho interés; Fuera de casa, vigilando a los cuervos y El suplemento, relatos en los que Langan demuestra que cuando parte de ideas interesantes y se apega a ellas sin perderse en digresiones, consigue resultados de enorme calidad.
P.D. Por darle más importancia de la que se debería a la puntuación, le pongo 3 estrellas pero en realidad son 3,5.
Se podría decir que Ancla engloba lo mejor y lo peor de lo que Langan es capaz: una historia en la que equilibra perfectamente lo autobiográfico/familiar y lo fantástico-extraño. En ella, el escritor consigue la habitual atmósfera inquietante de manera progresiva, acompañada de una extraña melancolía. Pero no está libre de esas digresiones eternas que alargan el relato de tal manera que podríamos estar hablando de una novela corta, frustrando ligeramente la experiencia. ¿Lo bueno? Que Langan tiene un estilo cristalino —no he encontrado un calificativo mejor— que aligera mucho la lectura de sus obras, y esto entronca con algo que me gusta de él y es el carácter mundano de sus historias. Esto desemboca en que cuando el elemento fantástico irrumpe en la trama, el efecto es verdaderamente extraño, logrando que esté realmente vivo. Esto, en esencia, es lo que hace que, a pesar de tener sentimientos encontrados con él, al final prevalezca lo positivo.
Dicho esto, sus relatos funcionan mejor o peor y no siempre se debe a esa generosidad de información prescindible que le achaco —en este sentido el que peor parado sale es Caoineadh; otros simplemente son insustanciales—. No me voy a parar a hablar de todos, pero sí me gustaría mencionar los relatos que más me han gustado: Bocadáver, engloba todo lo que me gusta de Langan, salvo el clímax, que me pareció incomprensiblemente decepcionante; Ancla, por lo positivo que mencioné antes y porque a pesar de ser el más largo con diferencia, lo leí con mucho interés; Fuera de casa, vigilando a los cuervos y El suplemento, relatos en los que Langan demuestra que cuando parte de ideas interesantes y se apega a ellas sin perderse en digresiones, consigue resultados de enorme calidad.
P.D. Por darle más importancia de la que se debería a la puntuación, le pongo 3 estrellas pero en realidad son 3,5.
May 30, 2023
No one is writing short fiction like John Langan. No one.
Corpsemouth and Other Autobiographies is filled with stories that are dread-inducing, touching, cosmic and weird, and as the title would suggest, autobiographical. Langan pours himself into each story and the efforts are stronger for it. From black oceans to possessed Halloween haunted houses to kaijus and mythical monsters, Corpsemouth has it all and John Langan is firing on all cylinders.
Corpsemouth and Other Autobiographies is filled with stories that are dread-inducing, touching, cosmic and weird, and as the title would suggest, autobiographical. Langan pours himself into each story and the efforts are stronger for it. From black oceans to possessed Halloween haunted houses to kaijus and mythical monsters, Corpsemouth has it all and John Langan is firing on all cylinders.
May 31, 2024
(Audiobook-3.5) At least on audiobook, the autobiographical nature of some of these stories felt very drawn out. Even on “Corpsemouth”, which had all the ingredients of a great story, it dragged in spots. I could also blame the perfect starter “Kore”, which achieves its dark goal succinctly. “Shadow and Thirst” is the product of its great influences. Langan’s notes on his crafting of the stories were enjoyable, and I feel smart for guessing Laird Barron was the friend in “Anchor”. I may have to retry in text form.
October 31, 2023
Compared to other Langan collections I’ve read, this one is less horror and more a reflection on revisiting memories from your youth—sometimes learning that your parents weren’t entirely truthful when shaping the version of events that you believed for years. I always enjoy the story-in-a-story structure, and Langan’s writing flows like you’re listening to a family member opening up about their past while sitting around a smoldering campfire after everyone else has gone to bed.
November 16, 2024
I'm pretty conflicted here. I loved the second, third, and fourth stories SO much, but by the end of the collection I was skimming. A lot of the stories are "POV character is actually sitting in front of another character, only hearing about The Horror secondhand via long monologue", which I didn't mind at first but steadily lost patience with as the collection progressed.
Also, I thought the introduction was a bit annoying :x solid 3 stars.
Also, I thought the introduction was a bit annoying :x solid 3 stars.
March 19, 2024
Enjoyed:
The Open Mouth of Charybdis
Shadow and Thirst
Outside the House, Watching for the Crows (Personal favourite of the bunch)
What Is Lost, What Is Given Away
The Supplement
Mirror Fishing
Let down by repetitive structure and a few weak endings.
The Open Mouth of Charybdis
Shadow and Thirst
Outside the House, Watching for the Crows (Personal favourite of the bunch)
What Is Lost, What Is Given Away
The Supplement
Mirror Fishing
Let down by repetitive structure and a few weak endings.
April 26, 2025
The average is technically 3.9 for i have rated each story individually. very good collection. Langan’s writing is hypnotic. My favourite story was “Shadow and Thirst” but there were many strong ones.
Kore - 3 🌟
Short and cute, a nice way to start the collection. The horror is not particularly present, the twist at the end is expected but enjoyable nonetheless. Langan’s writing is crazy good.
Homemade monster - 4 🌟
Again Langan’s writing is beautiful. The story is essentially about a kid and his bully but there are so many other things happening around this characters. It’s like opening a window into someone’s life and it’s amazing, the familiarity, the rituality of it all. I just can’t wrap my head around how good the writing is at describing both the inconceivable horrors and the amenities of everyday life.
The Open mouth of Charibdys - 3.5 🌟
The central part is the best part. The protagonist is again a kid, someone’s son and someone’s brother. There is a description of a supposed final painting by Gauguin which is haunting and beautiful. Also Innsmouth apparently.
Shadow and thirst - 5 🌟
Again the tale is of a father and a son. There is a tower and a vampire and a mention of that black ocean which we saw also in Langan’s novel “the fisherman”. I loved it; perhaps it’s because it added to the mythos of the black ocean, but I also think it stands really well onto itself. Truly Langan is something else.
Corpsemouth - 3.5 🌟
Imagine you go visit father’s side of the family because your father’s dead. There you spend a lot of time with your uncle and he tells you weird tales about Scotland. Then one night you find yourself in company of said uncle and you have to help him beat the shit out of the oldest god who wants to eat everything there is and then you briefly glimpse the Other Side. And the your uncles asks you if you want to perhaps join his cult and beat this god back into the earth every night. I would have said yes because you can also glimpse higher powers and knowledge that come from a city on the edge of a black ocean.
Anchor - 4 🌟
The bromance of the century.
Outside the house, watching for the crows - 4.5 🌟
A man recount the strangest thing (hehe) that ever happened to him. It’s about a music cassette and the strange visions that come with it. If I started to see glimpses of the city on the black ocean I would have entered a state of obsessions so desperate, let’s just hope that never happens, shall we? I would have followed Jude btw.
What is lost, what is given away - 3.5 🌟
This was bleak
The supplement - 3.5🌟
Raw sadness at a crumbling of a fine mind. I wonder what would I see in the book. Also this felt a lot like a Magnus archive episode, like a lot a lot.
Mirror fishing - 4.5 🌟
You know I really didn’t see the direction the story was going on until I found myself there. Chills, literal chills
Caoineadh - 4 🌟
I saw many say this was the best of the collection and I can certainly see why. I do like my stories with a bit more concrete horror perhaps. It still was a very good story and a fitting way to end the collection.
Kore - 3 🌟
Short and cute, a nice way to start the collection. The horror is not particularly present, the twist at the end is expected but enjoyable nonetheless. Langan’s writing is crazy good.
Homemade monster - 4 🌟
Again Langan’s writing is beautiful. The story is essentially about a kid and his bully but there are so many other things happening around this characters. It’s like opening a window into someone’s life and it’s amazing, the familiarity, the rituality of it all. I just can’t wrap my head around how good the writing is at describing both the inconceivable horrors and the amenities of everyday life.
The Open mouth of Charibdys - 3.5 🌟
The central part is the best part. The protagonist is again a kid, someone’s son and someone’s brother. There is a description of a supposed final painting by Gauguin which is haunting and beautiful. Also Innsmouth apparently.
Shadow and thirst - 5 🌟
Again the tale is of a father and a son. There is a tower and a vampire and a mention of that black ocean which we saw also in Langan’s novel “the fisherman”. I loved it; perhaps it’s because it added to the mythos of the black ocean, but I also think it stands really well onto itself. Truly Langan is something else.
Corpsemouth - 3.5 🌟
Imagine you go visit father’s side of the family because your father’s dead. There you spend a lot of time with your uncle and he tells you weird tales about Scotland. Then one night you find yourself in company of said uncle and you have to help him beat the shit out of the oldest god who wants to eat everything there is and then you briefly glimpse the Other Side. And the your uncles asks you if you want to perhaps join his cult and beat this god back into the earth every night. I would have said yes because you can also glimpse higher powers and knowledge that come from a city on the edge of a black ocean.
Anchor - 4 🌟
The bromance of the century.
Outside the house, watching for the crows - 4.5 🌟
A man recount the strangest thing (hehe) that ever happened to him. It’s about a music cassette and the strange visions that come with it. If I started to see glimpses of the city on the black ocean I would have entered a state of obsessions so desperate, let’s just hope that never happens, shall we? I would have followed Jude btw.
What is lost, what is given away - 3.5 🌟
This was bleak
The supplement - 3.5🌟
Raw sadness at a crumbling of a fine mind. I wonder what would I see in the book. Also this felt a lot like a Magnus archive episode, like a lot a lot.
Mirror fishing - 4.5 🌟
You know I really didn’t see the direction the story was going on until I found myself there. Chills, literal chills
Caoineadh - 4 🌟
I saw many say this was the best of the collection and I can certainly see why. I do like my stories with a bit more concrete horror perhaps. It still was a very good story and a fitting way to end the collection.
December 30, 2023
Extremely personal, autobiographical anthology. I feel like it's pretty far from The Wide, Carnivorous Sky's vibe, but it does what it's set out to do EXTREMELY well. I honestly would personally struggle with describing a lot of it as "horror" but it absolutely draws a lot from the genre and does its own unique thing with it. The overarching vibe is somber and painfully human. I couldn't relate to all of it, but the amount of emotion Langan puts into his prose gripped me at all times.
Reviews of the individual stories, written as I was going through them:
Kore - ★★★★
This one's fairly short and I would have liked just a few more pages of it, but it has some great imagery and is extremely eerie.
Homemade Monsters - ★★★
Magical realism and passion for kaiju! Not my favorite but I think I could appreciate ti more on a reread.
The Open Mouth of Charybdis - ★★★½
Fun idea, but the explanation of the core concept felt a bit rushed.
Shadow and Thirst - ★★★★
This one didn't quite feel like horror either but the plot went in places I couldn't ever expect and it was a very, very fun read as a whole.
Corpsemouth - ★★★½
One of those stories which I probably would appreciate a bit more on a reread. Imagery and emotionality are as great as ever.
Anchor - ★★★★½
Really, really nice story. One of my favorites from this anthology.
Outside the House, Watching for the Crows - ★★★★
Weird, magical, enchanting. Not a favorite but a really pleasant read
What Is Lost, What Is Given Away - ★★★½
Primarily just a human drama. This one wasn't a favorite either but Langan's writing is super good at just pulling me in and making me invested regardless of the actual contents
The Supplement - ★★★★
Another human story tinged with supernatural horror. I like how the sadness in this anthology doesn't feel forced or emotionally exploitative, it just kind of has this... truth to it, in its own way.
Mirror Fishing - ★★★½
One of the weirder yet more standard stories in the anthology. Definitely more of a Stephen King-esque affair (as Langan himself admits in the story notes), it wasn't quite my cup of tea but it was refreshingly different from the more somber stuff.
Caoineadh - ★★★★★
One of my favorites from this anthology. Lonely and beautiful. Really nice, subdued imagery. The prose got me emotional at several points.
I read half of this anthology in the beginning of the year, after a huge reading slump, and I think I was way less emotionally receptive during that time period for this reason. I'll probably need to go back to it at some point and give the stories before Anchor a reread.
Reviews of the individual stories, written as I was going through them:
Kore - ★★★★
This one's fairly short and I would have liked just a few more pages of it, but it has some great imagery and is extremely eerie.
Homemade Monsters - ★★★
Magical realism and passion for kaiju! Not my favorite but I think I could appreciate ti more on a reread.
The Open Mouth of Charybdis - ★★★½
Fun idea, but the explanation of the core concept felt a bit rushed.
Shadow and Thirst - ★★★★
This one didn't quite feel like horror either but the plot went in places I couldn't ever expect and it was a very, very fun read as a whole.
Corpsemouth - ★★★½
One of those stories which I probably would appreciate a bit more on a reread. Imagery and emotionality are as great as ever.
Anchor - ★★★★½
Really, really nice story. One of my favorites from this anthology.
Outside the House, Watching for the Crows - ★★★★
Weird, magical, enchanting. Not a favorite but a really pleasant read
What Is Lost, What Is Given Away - ★★★½
Primarily just a human drama. This one wasn't a favorite either but Langan's writing is super good at just pulling me in and making me invested regardless of the actual contents
The Supplement - ★★★★
Another human story tinged with supernatural horror. I like how the sadness in this anthology doesn't feel forced or emotionally exploitative, it just kind of has this... truth to it, in its own way.
Mirror Fishing - ★★★½
One of the weirder yet more standard stories in the anthology. Definitely more of a Stephen King-esque affair (as Langan himself admits in the story notes), it wasn't quite my cup of tea but it was refreshingly different from the more somber stuff.
Caoineadh - ★★★★★
One of my favorites from this anthology. Lonely and beautiful. Really nice, subdued imagery. The prose got me emotional at several points.
I read half of this anthology in the beginning of the year, after a huge reading slump, and I think I was way less emotionally receptive during that time period for this reason. I'll probably need to go back to it at some point and give the stories before Anchor a reread.
May 10, 2025
Corpse Mouth and Other Autobiographies Corpse Mouth and Other Autobiographies by John Langan is a chilling, richly layered collection that reminded me why I fell in love with literary horror in the first place. Langan’s prose is dense and deliberate, often demanding close attention, but the reward is worth it—every story feels like a doorway into something ancient and unsettling. “Corpsemouth,” the title story, especially lingered with me; it balances cosmic dread with personal grief in a way that felt deeply human. Langan doesn’t just write horror—he builds myths, and then lets them rot slowly before your eyes. If you’re into horror that makes you think and squirm in equal measure, this one’s for you. by John Langan is a chilling, richly layered collection that reminded me why I fell in love with literary horror in the first place. Langan’s prose is dense and deliberate, often demanding close attention, but the reward is worth it—every story feels like a doorway into something ancient and unsettling. “Corpse Mouth,” the title story, especially lingered with me; it balances cosmic dread with personal grief in a way that felt deeply human. Langan doesn’t just write horror—he builds myths, and then lets them rot slowly before your eyes. If you’re into horror that makes you think and squirm in equal measure, this one’s for you.
September 20, 2022
Langan’s stories always perfectly capture this sense of the numinous, which is what I always look for in horror. The stories in this collection were often poignant, pinning down experiences and sensations that are powerful, but not always easy to put into words (like the feeling of walking into a bookstore with a lot of money to spend, or that uncomplicated/pure sense of happiness that we sometimes feel in our teens).
I loved the references to Langan’s other stories and novels, as well as the references to other authors and artists. But more than anything, I love the sheer inventiveness that Langan brings to his stories - there’s always something new to appreciate and enjoy.
My favourite stories were Kore and Mirror Fishing, as well as The Open Mouth of Charybdis and Anchor (which I’d read earlier in Autumn Cthulhu).
I loved the references to Langan’s other stories and novels, as well as the references to other authors and artists. But more than anything, I love the sheer inventiveness that Langan brings to his stories - there’s always something new to appreciate and enjoy.
My favourite stories were Kore and Mirror Fishing, as well as The Open Mouth of Charybdis and Anchor (which I’d read earlier in Autumn Cthulhu).
January 28, 2025
I really like The Fisherman, but this, this one wasn't for me. I think I finally realized that short story collections aren't for me. :(
Anyway, here are the stories and my ratings!
Kore 1/5 stars
Yeah... a short Halloween story and the wife may be an ancient goddess or maybe she isn't.
Homemade Monsters 2/5 stars
Sometimes the best way to get rid of a bully is to have something big step on him.
The Open Mouth of Charybdis 3/5 stars
Don't blink if you want to keep your brother or he'll have never existed!
Shadow and Thirst 2/5 stars
A father enters a tower and begins to mass murder himself, but it's for a good reason.
Anchor 3/5 stars
A mythological guardian is awful at its job.
Outside the House, Watching for Crows 1/5 stars
A guy is introduced to an obscure band and becomes obsessed with it, but it turns out it was just a phase.
What is Lost, What Is Given Away 1/5 stars
Man, high school reunions can be such a pain, even if your old teacher appears and claims to be a mathemagician.
The Supplement 4/5 stars
Why is everybody in every story about cursed books so damn eager to read cursed books?
Best short story in this collection, about a mother willing to pay the ultimate price for just a little more time with her deceased daughter.
Mirror Fishing 2/5 stars
As a kid you always knew your baby sitter was up to no good...
Started off really strong but then just became a whole lot of nothing.
Caoineadh 1/5 stars
Sometimes you get to sing a mystical song to lead the souls of the dead to heaven and sometimes you don't.
Anyway, here are the stories and my ratings!
Kore 1/5 stars
Yeah... a short Halloween story and the wife may be an ancient goddess or maybe she isn't.
Homemade Monsters 2/5 stars
Sometimes the best way to get rid of a bully is to have something big step on him.
The Open Mouth of Charybdis 3/5 stars
Don't blink if you want to keep your brother or he'll have never existed!
Shadow and Thirst 2/5 stars
A father enters a tower and begins to mass murder himself, but it's for a good reason.
Anchor 3/5 stars
A mythological guardian is awful at its job.
Outside the House, Watching for Crows 1/5 stars
A guy is introduced to an obscure band and becomes obsessed with it, but it turns out it was just a phase.
What is Lost, What Is Given Away 1/5 stars
Man, high school reunions can be such a pain, even if your old teacher appears and claims to be a mathemagician.
The Supplement 4/5 stars
Why is everybody in every story about cursed books so damn eager to read cursed books?
Best short story in this collection, about a mother willing to pay the ultimate price for just a little more time with her deceased daughter.
Mirror Fishing 2/5 stars
As a kid you always knew your baby sitter was up to no good...
Started off really strong but then just became a whole lot of nothing.
Caoineadh 1/5 stars
Sometimes you get to sing a mystical song to lead the souls of the dead to heaven and sometimes you don't.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 186 reviews