What Feasts at Night

• Author: T. Kingfisher
• Genre: Horror
• Publication Date: February 13, 2024
• Publisher: Macmillan Audio 
• Series: Sworn Soldier #2

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for providing me with an ARC of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

The follow-up to T. Kingfisher’s bestselling gothic novella, What Moves the Dead .

Retired soldier Alex Easton returns in a horrifying new adventure.

After their terrifying ordeal at the Usher manor, Alex Easton feels as if they just survived another war. All they crave is rest, routine, and sunshine, but instead, as a favor to Angus and Miss Potter, they find themself heading to their family hunting lodge, deep in the cold, damp forests of their home country, Gallacia.

In theory, one can find relaxation in even the coldest and dampest of Gallacian autumns, but when Easton arrives, they find the caretaker dead, the lodge in disarray, and the grounds troubled by a strange, uncanny silence. The villagers whisper that a breath-stealing monster from folklore has taken up residence in Easton’s home. Easton knows better than to put too much stock in local superstitions, but they can tell that something is not quite right in their home. . . or in their dreams.

If there’s one author who can get me to venture into the horror genre without even thinking twice, it’s T. Kingfisher. For the most part, I’ve classified some of her previous books as “cozy horror,” but this one is anything but. It’s not terrifying, but this story is very creepy and has no shortage of gothic vibes to keep me hooked and listening non-stop.

Although this is a novella, it is the second in a series, and while it works as a standalone, you’d miss out on a lot of important information if you didn’t take the time to read What Moves the Dead first. That one is another novella, but it provides backstory for the characters, a lot of important information that is referenced in this story, and overall, it’s just a really good story you should read before starting this one.

When this story opens, Alex Easton and Angus are headed back to Easton’s family hunting lodge deep within Gallacia. The country doesn’t seem to be overly welcoming, full of cold and damp forests, sharp cliffs, rain, and holes in the road big enough to lose a sheep in. But this pales in comparison to the welcome they receive when they arrive at the Easton lodge—the caretaker is gone, the house has clearly been neglected, inquiries in the village reveal that the caretaker has died, and there’s a weird pervasive silence that has taken over the grounds. This sets the overwhelming gothic tone of the novel, and the silence almost becomes a growing entity throughout the story as well. 

As for the characters, we obviously have Alex, who is their usual witty, dry, sarcastic self that I’ve grown to love over the course of the series. Angus has time to shine in this story, as does the irrepressible Miss Potter, who is obsessed with mycology (the study of fungi), and has landed in the perfect place to study it—an environment that is consistently damp. In addition, one of my favorite characters wasn’t even human, but was Hob the horse with a huge personality that comes through on paper.

Coming off the devastating fiasco at the house of his friends, Easton wants to rest in a sunny place. But they can’t say no to Miss Potter, and as a favor to her and Angus, they head out to their family hunting lodge. Instead of the rest they’re craving, they find themselves embroiled in another mystery, one that’s potentially just as dangerous as the one they just barely escaped. Easton is once again racing the clock to save lives—will they be successful?

The story is fast-paced and interesting throughout, and it left me feeling hopeful that there will be more stories featuring Easton, Hob, Angus, and Miss Potter, since I’ve become quite attached to this bunch. The narrator, Avi Roque, is fantastic, and did just as wonderful a job with this story as with the first one. They are non-binary, and the androgynous tone of their voice is absolutely perfect to narrate Easton—it made it so much easier to remember that Easton identifies as non-binary as well, although there is a complicated system of pronouns in Gallacia, and I couldn’t hope to spell them properly just going off the audiobook, so I substituted “they/them” for Easton’s pronouns and hope that anyone reading this review forgives me for this oversight. Overall, this is a wonderful story, and I hope this review inspires you to read it!

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