Revenge of the Phantom Press is a novel by FTBlogger William Brinkmann. It is the sequel to The Rift, which I previously reviewed, although it may be read as a standalone.

To recap The Rift, it follows Tom Larsen, a young man in the skeptical community who goes full men’s rights activist after propositioning a woman in an elevator. It’s a fictionalized story about Elevatorgate and the feminist wars in the skeptical/atheist community. I recommend it if you have any sort of feeling about that topic.

In the Bolingbrook universe, not only is there a skeptical community, but also the paranormal is real. There are psychics, aliens, ghosts, the Illuminati, machine spirits, and more. Many of the leaders in the skeptical movement are participating in the coverup. By the end of the previous book, Tom Larsen has discovered the truth of the paranormal. It goes against his skeptical/humanist values to cover it up, so instead he leaves the skeptical movement to join the unbelievable-yet-true tabloid, The Bolingbrook Babbler. Most people, including his parents, think he went nuts.

At the start of the book, we learn that Tom isn’t very good at his job. He radiates mediocre white dude energy. He struggles to form contacts in the Department of Paranormal Activity, and can’t seem to capture a photo of the local lake monster.

But then, the Bolingbrook Babbler blows up. Which is to say, the offices literally blow up, and the journalists scatter. They’re attacked by something claiming to be the Phantom Press. The Phantom Press was an organization of ghosts that produced scandalous periodicals, but they disappeared decades ago. So what’s really going on? Tom investigates with the help of skeptical activist Juanita, and the Anti-Psychic Kitty.

This is a well-written book that moves at a decent clip (while being somewhat on the long end). It’s basically ruled by the pattern of planting and payoff—stuff gets mentioned, and then becomes important later on. To the extent that the story is interested in worldbuilding, it’s mostly interested in the history of Bolingbrook, a small town outside Chicago. The details and logic of the paranormal are left unclear. I found it a little hard to get invested in solving the “mystery” of the Phantom Press when I didn’t really have a grasp on the space of possibilities. To avoid disappointment, it’s better to think of it as an adventure rather than a mystery.

The book has much less commentary on skepticism than The Rift, placing more focus on the paranormal. Nonetheless, it is interesting to have the paranormal situated in the same universe as the skeptical community. There’s an implicit sense of corruption in the skeptical leadership as they participate in the coverup. But there’s also sympathy for people like Juanita who try to work within the system, and a little dialectic between her and the Bolingbrook Babbler’s mission to speak the unbelievable truth.

Given Tom’s unusual history with skeptics, he inspires a lot of different reactions from them, from contempt, to pity, to forgiveness and compassion. True to life… skeptics tend to adopt a wide range of emotional strategies, as their opponents tend to be a mixture of grifters and victims of grifters; and skeptics congregate not just for ideology, but for social and entertainment value. But regardless of the status of the skeptical movement, and the existence of the paranormal, skeptical values remain strong and true.

Thanks to William Brinkmann for providing a review copy of the book. If you’d like another perspective, Bébé Mélange also wrote a review.