What Feasts at Night | T Kingfisher

 

What Feasts At Night

T. KINGFISHER

 

                             

 

 ABOUT THE BOOK

 

A hair-raising standalone sequel to the bestselling and award-winning novella What Moves the Dead. Alex Easton returns to their home country of Gallacia, only to be confronted by a strange new horror.

When Alex Easton travels to Gallacia as a favour to their friend, the excellent Miss Potter, they find their home empty, the caretaker dead, and the grounds blanketed by an uncanny silence. The locals won't talk about what happened to the caretaker. None of them will set foot on the grounds.

Whispers of an unearthly breath-stealing creature from Gallacian folklore don't trouble practical Easton. But as strange visions disturb their sleep and odd happenings increase, they are forced to confront the dark shadow that hangs over the house...

Publisher: Titan Books Ltd
ISBN: 9781803369686
Number of pages: 176 

Publication Date: 13th February 2024 

REVIEW 

In this second instalment of the Sworn Soldier series that was begun with the Poe retelling of The Fall of the House of Usher, What Moves the Dead, T. Kingfisher brings us another slice of gothic creepiness in What Feasts At Night.

This time, our non - binary Sworn Soldier, Alex Easton, moves location to their homeland of Gallacia.

Holed up in Paris, taking a much needed rest following the events of What Moves The Night, Alex and their ever faithful companion Angus are due to meet Ms Potter at Alex’s family hunting lodge. 

In preparation, Alex has sent correspondence to the caretaker of the hunting lodge they own whilst they make their way across Europe to meet Ms Potter. 

Unbeknownst to Alex, a terrible affliction has befallen the caretaker, and the only way that they find out is when they actually get to the lodge and find that the previous caretaker has mysteriously died. 

As a member of the Gallacian Upper Classes, Easton needs some help to get their house in order and subsequently employs the formidable Widow Botezatu and her Grandson Bors to help around the house. Mainly because they are the only ones that will work up at the cursed hunting lodge and are desperate enough to ignore whatever it was that killed the former caretaker.

Similarly to the first book, T. Kingfisher deftly weaves elements of horror and folklore with sardonic humour and highly realised characters. In addition to this, she also discusses the trauma that soldiers experience, labelling the thinly disguised post traumatic stress disorder as ‘soldier’s heart’. In addition to the fantastical, she also interjects elements of history, slavic folklore and mycology into the story.

Whilst the beating heart of the story does take a while to pulse, it is the companionable domesticity that initially drives the story with the characters of Easton and Angus taking centre stage, and whilst there are plenty of comic sequences initially, it is not while the inimitable Ms Potter joins the fray with her ‘unintentional’ Gallacian phrasebook that the humour moves to full throttle. 

Whilst not exactly filled with brooding creepiness, it is T. Kingfisher’s skill in writing characters that you want to spend time with that takes centre stage in What Feasts at Night. However, don’t think that there is not the mystery and dread that characterised the first book, it’s just that they are not as centre stage as the previous book as this time the focus seems to be more on the characters and the world building of the idiosyncratic country of Gallacia.

What Feasts At Night is a great addition to the Sworn Soldier Series, expanding both the characters and the world around Alex Easton and it will be interesting to see if T. Kingfisher will call upon Alex, Angus and Ms Potter for more adventures.