I try to stay up to date on horror books, but I’ll still miss things. So when The Nightmarchers by J. Lincoln Fenn came out in 2018 on ebook, I missed it. It remained in a blindspot for me until Gallery Books reached out to me about a paperback release. Now, not only did I get to read it, but I get to talk about it so more people can discover this read. And considering Fenn gave us a “sporror” novel with this one, well, I think many of you are going to love it.
The Nightmarchers has a varied narrative structure. It opens with letters written in the past, then shifts to a present tense and modern day point of view. Sprinkled throughout are cryptic text-based communications. The letters are written by a woman named Irene, a distant relative of the main protagonist of the novel: Julia. Choosing to have the letters first, instead of being introduced when Julia reads them, was an effective choice for two main reasons. The first being that it immediately sets the tone. I was instantly drawn into Irene’s experience. Her scientific mind enhanced the horrors around her, and I wanted to know more.
That leads me into the second benefit of opening the book with her letters—pacing. When Julia reaches the island, there is an entirely different atmosphere. Interrupting her story to give the readers a glimpse into the past would undo the dread Fenn built. Instead, the reader gets to see mirrors between the past and the present. That familiarity also serves to make the third narrative voice even more unsettling. Every so often Julia’s story is interrupted—by cryptic text-based communications. These serve to show that she is more in the dark than she knows, and so is the reader.
Atmosphere is the defining gem in The Nightmarchers’ crown. I mentioned earlier that this book could be classified as “sporror”. For the uninitiated, that term refers to horror involving mushrooms. When mushrooms get involved, reality can get a little murky. Julia’s perspective also gets muddled. The plot has so many threads, there are multiple untrustworthy parties involved, and our narrator is unreliable. I can’t really classify this as a fault, though. It does end up feeling immersive. Internally everything makes sense, so I choose to believe that was the artistic intent.
I’ve managed to get this far into the review without discussing the context of the title or even the plot. This is because for me, those structures are what made me appreciate this book more. I’m not saying anything here is anything less than enjoyable. Ghosts that call you to walk with them if you step on forbidden land? A cult on an island with limited access outside the super wealthy? Science with terrifying global implications? It’s pretty cool! The only thing that took me out of it was nearly necessary for this story and the genre in general. That problem was Julia.
She was a perfect protagonist for this novel. When telling a story like this, you need someone who doesn’t know enough to say no and is desperate enough to stay. Julia had both of those qualities. She also happened to have experience with the wealthy and be a former investigative reporter. Add in her relation to the driving family behind the powers at play, and she really was made for this. Which all protagonists are. And admittedly, by the end, I cannot even argue with these. As stated above, there are internal consistencies. It just got to be a little overdone for me, at times.
All in all, though, I did like this book. In fact, I already directly recommended it to someone. This subset of horror has its drawbacks built in, so I cannot fault Fenn for leaning into them. And again, I can’t say more, but the “leaning into it” was so well done. As a bonus, the paperback really is gorgeous. You can pick it up yourself on October 29 – just in time for Halloween!
Cover image and advance copy courtesy of Gallery Books.
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