What feasts at night felt like such a drastically different book than its prior. While I did like continuing on with Alex Easton's adventures, this one left much to be desired.

I was excited to for the story to go to Easton's home country, and to learn more but I had a hard time getting invested in this one. I did enjoy the addition of side characters in this and I do think the breath stealing monster was an interesting aspect.

Overall though, I wished for a lot more from this but I would love to read more about these characters adventures.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc.

If you want a scary story that creeps up on you, this is it. It's a sequel to What Moves the Dead; even so, it's also a perfectly good read all on its own. I daresay I like it even better than the first. The characters are a little more fleshed out, the story is even more foreboding, and it's good to see the main character in their homeland.

I enjoyed the way the local superstitions feed the story, and just the pervasive sense of dread. You can tell something is Very Wrong, and that adds to the suspense and atmosphere. And of course, there are the little bits of humor thrown in here and there that Kingfisher excels at using that only make the horror scarier in contrast.

What Feasts at Night is the second book (novella) in the horror series that started with What Moves the Dead. Alex Easton is a sworn soldier and is returning to the place that she grew up. While there, Alex learns of a creature that steals breath away from people who are sleeping. Alex does not believe in ghosts or this creature but things quickly go down hill.

I really enjoyed this book! I liked it better than the first one. I think the first one was a bit slower and more gothic. Where this one was more fast paced and got on with the horror much quicker. It is a novella so it was very short and I read through it quickly. I liked all of the fun characters as well. We had a few from the first book that appeared again and a few new ones as well. The fun characters helped me connect better with the story and I had people to cheer for.

This novella felt a bit like a dark fairy tale (which I typically don't like). I think it worked very well with this story. The horror was not super in your face or scary but it was dark and you felt a sense of danger throughout. I liked how everything wrapped up in the end. I think the cover of this book is also super unique and cool.

I would recommend this to people looking for a short horror novella. I think people who don't read a lot of horror will like this one since I don't think it was super scary. I think people who like fairy tales will enjoy this as well. Thanks so much to netgalley and Tor for the arc of this book in exchange for an honest review!

What Feasts at Night is a sequel to What Moves the Dead and follows the same soldier as they return home with their friends. It had a similar feeling to What Moves the Dead but in my opinion the pacing was much better with What Feasts at Night. The story pulls you in quickly and the characters are easy to connect to when reading.

What Feasts at Night was a fantastic second book in the series. I loved Alex Easton, and was excited to see their return. I was pleasantly surprised by how good this one was a follow up to What Moves the Dead. It had the same classic gothic horror setting, with atmospheric and tense tones.

I expected the fungi plot to continue in this story, but T. kingfisher surprised me with a new enemy and side characters that made an impact. I loved this story, and you will too, you’ll just be scared to sleep.
Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this story before its publication.

T. Kingfisher's writing is so delicious and entrancing, and this was such a good sequel to What Moves the Dead!

ARC provided by NetGalley.

What Feasts at Night was a remarkably enjoyable follow up to Kingfisher’s previous title, What Moves the Dead. Nestled in another dilapidated abode in relative seclusion, Alex Easton must contend with more supernatural forces attempting to claim the lives of ka and kan friends. We continue to gain insight to Easton’s life before and during kan time as a soldier, wrestling with the effects of trauma on the mind. Dark, mysterious, and humorous, the plot builds wonderfully through this novella.

I only wish it had been as consistently dark as the first.

*Mild spoilers ahead*

While we are witness to the slow deaths and reanimation of Madeline and Roderick through What Moves the Dead, we do not read anything as disturbing and twisted, nor shocking in this follow-up. Yes, the former caretaker is dead from the start, but we didn’t witness his decay into death. Everyone we truly got to know and who played a part in the story was fine in the end.

This entry also felt less grounded than the first. There are indeed mushrooms/fungi that take over the nervous systems of certain bugs and control them. While this doesn’t happen to animals or humans, the fact of these mushrooms/fungi existing and operating in this same way gave credence to the horror.

Haunted/cursed remains of unmarked graves are a common horror element, as are dreams that affect reality. However there was nothing tangible or tangentially real that caused any of this. I had hoped that Miss Potter’s presence and the odd mushrooms in the spring house would have provided another avenue of explanation to make the haunting more real. Or that the body below the spring house would have been the source of some leaking toxin. But no, it was far more straightforwardly a haunting. A gruesome and terrifying one, but nothing more.

Don’t get me wrong, a straightforward haunting isn’t a bad thing, but that extra heft of reality made the previous title all the more impactful.

T. Kingfisher is such an atmospheric writer. Whenever I open one of her books, I know I am going to be totally submerged in her world, in this case Gallacia. If you have read the first Sworn Soldier book (which I highly recommend), you will be reunited with Angus and Alex Easton as they arrive at Eason's family Hunting Lodge, only to find the caretaker absent. I don't want to spoil the story for you, so let's just say there are rumors of a moroi, who takes the breath from sleeping humans. I love the way Kingfisher blends old country folklore into her stories. I read this book in one sitting and loved every word. I truly hope there is a third book in this series! Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

What Feasts At Night was not a sequel I was expecting to have, but I'm so happy to have it.

T Kingfisher has quickly become one of my favorite authors, I'll pretty much read whatever she puts out. What Moves the Dead was such a delightfully creepy read, and as a retelling of Edgar Allen Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher, I really wasn't sure what to expect of this sequel. Would it be another Poe retelling? What gruesome horror was Alex Easton going to have to face in this installment? Why is that horse on the cover unraveling??

I was delighted to discover this was a take on European folklore, seemingly a mix of vampiric creatures called moroi and the night hag. Kingfisher adds her own frightfully disgusting flair to it, of course, and the result is a terrifying nightmare creature that our poor Sworn Soldier has to deal with.

This novella was both punchy and eerie. I think it can be difficult to properly build atmosphere in so few pages, but Kingfisher did a great job. It's immediately clear that something is afoot at this lodge and that Alex is in over their unsuspecting head. The pacing was perfect, the characters had a lot of charm despite the spooky setting, and overall this story was very enjoyable if you're in the mood for something hair-raising and a bit gross. Highly recommend!

I love that this author really sets the mood in a slow burn entrance then slaps you in the face with suspense and thrill! Great read with easily likeable characters.

Thank you Tor Nightfire and NetGalley for my free ARC of What Feasts at Night by T. Kingfisher — available Feb 13!

Read this if you:
🐇 loved the first book in the Sworn Solider series
🌈 enjoy quirky, unique stories with endearing characters
🧟 want a smidge of horror but nothing to keep you up at night

Alex and Angus depart the Usher manor and head home to Gallacia, to ready the old family hunting lodge for Miss Potter's mycological studies. Upon arrival, something isn't right, and Alex hears whispers that a legendary moroi has taken up residence at the lodge, stealing breath from its residents while they sleep. Will they be able to save anyone else from this terrible fate before it's too late?

First and foremost, T. Kingfisher can absolutely do no wrong. Her stories are full of vibrant, unconventional characters and I love them all to bits. The characters in this latest installment are no exception! We already know and adore Alex, Angus, and Miss Potter, but get ready to expand your heart to make room for a cranky widow and her grandson. I enjoyed how easily this second story flowed from the first, and I will read any and every book that comes out in this delightfully terrifying series.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Alex Easton is back at it again, another decaying estate; another brush with the paranormal.

This was such a fun combination of horror and folklore, creating fantastic atmosphere for such a short novella! It was creepy, unsettling and keeps you guessing on what is reality and what isn’t.

I thought this was a perfect follow up to What Moves the Dead and can’t wait to see what comes next!

I came away from this mostly feeling meh. It’s definitely atmospheric and creepy as advertised but I think I like everything about it except the main character Easton? It’s just not clicking for me, I love all the side characters and Hob the horse but Easton just isn’t for me. The writing is great, the plot comes together very well.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Im a huge Kingfisher fan...and this book didn't disappoint.

Entering back into the world of Alex Easton was great; even in short books Kingfisher is so good at world building and character development. This story takes place back in Eastons native Gallacia and has Angus and Miss Potter and Hob and another inexplicable phenomenon mixed with superstition and folklore. I love the way it mixes the whimsical with the very real after effects of war bc it manages to be very human and insightful. Recommend.

I read What Moves the Dead in October and loved it, and I felt the sequel did not disappoint! I think I liked the plot of the first one a little more, simply because I enjoyed that it was a crazy nature connection that had caused the illness. I did appreciate the creative liberty in this one, though, to leave whether or not the sickness was caused by the Maroi or just our imaginations ambiguous. I felt that it would have been better to make the Widow a little kinder to Alex, given va had done nothing to deserve such pure hatred, and that's what it felt like to me when she was offering him up instead of Bors - not for sacrifice so much as out of spite. As always, the voice was phenomenal and the humor well sprinkled and the story well told!

2.5 stars - feels like the pacing of this story was off, Alex struggles to accept what is happening for at least 75% of this book which was extremely frustrating. Wanted more character development from the side characters and more expansion on the folklore being explored in this book. The writing was beautiful and I really enjoyed the commentary on PTSD and the effects of war.

A great follow up to Book #1 What Moves the Dead, T. Kingfisher brings us together again with Alex Easton, retired Soldier when they travel back to their home in Gallacia to meet up with Miss Potter for another hair raising trial with the supernatural.
A quick read this story expands on a folklore tale of the Moroi, I enjoyed hearing about this story and felt Kingfisher did a great job bringing it to life in this shortie.
Recommended for fans of TK, fantasy and retellings of Folklore/fairy tales.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for an ARC of this ebook in exchange for an honest review !

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Nightfire for providing me with this ARC.

While I've never met a T. Kingfisher book I didn't like, What Feasts at Night was regrettably not my favorite of her works by any means. Though the novella does a great job setting the atmosphere of fictional country Gallacia, it failed to truly creep me out like its predecessor, What Moves the Dead, or like her other works, The Twisted Ones and A House with Good Bones. Though I really liked the vibes of the book, with main character Alex Easton returning to their isolated hunting lodge in the forest of their home country of Gallacia, I wasn't creeped out or terribly invested in the story. 

“Serrated ranks of pine lined the road, with the bare branches of oaks thrusting out between them like arthritic fingers. The sky was the color of a lead slug and seemed barely higher than the trees themselves. Combined with the wagon ruts that left a ridge down the center of the road, I had the unpleasant feeling that I was riding straight down a giant throat.”*

Kingfisher, as always, really knows how to set a scene, using haunting imagery left and right to create a feeling of foreboding. I could easily picture the deserted hunting lodge in a state of disrepair,  with its taxidermied trophy heads looming over everything. So too, could I picture the cold dank forest in which it sat, and the small village town where Alex and Angus hire help in the form of a stout widow and her grandson. The widow was truly my favorite of all the characters in this novella, even out of the returning ones, like Alex, Angus, and Miss Potter. I loved her open disdain for her employer, the “wastrel” Alex, and her own brand of practicality that she managed to maintain even amidst her own countless superstitions. It is through her that Kingfisher’s trademark sense of humor really shines.

“As Angus had predicted, I did not like the Widow, but that was neither here nor there, because I understood her perfectly well. She needed the money and was grateful to have it and resented both the need and the gratitude. She dealt with that resentment by taking it out on her employer, namely me.”

The employer in question, Alex Easton, is a bit worse for the wear after the events of What Moves the Dead, which is something the novella doesn't shy away from. I really liked all of the references and flashbacks to the previous book, as I feel so often that the heroes in works of media are left unchanged by such traumatic events. But that is not at all the case for Alex, who is still working through their trauma from both the war and the horror that struck their friends, The Ushers. Readers can choose to start the series with either entry, but I do think having read What Moves the Dead added layers to both Alex’s and my own experience of reading What Feasts at Night.

I also really liked that Alex had not returned to this lodge or village in Gallacia for many years, so their understanding of the beliefs and culture of the villagers was just familiar enough to move the plot along, but wasn't expert enough to not need things spelled out for them. This made them the perfect narrator for the situation, as readers never really felt Alex had quite a full understanding of the people, area, and the superstitions. Due to Alex’s own obliviousness and admitted shortcomings in comprehension of local beliefs, the sense of unease builds throughout the story, as it's obvious that something supernatural is at play—even though they are determined not to believe it.

Unfortunately, despite their experiences in What Moves the Dead, Alex has no problems denying what is going on in What Feasts the Night, even when it's painfully obvious. I was frustrated by their continued forced obliviousness to the situation at hand. I am sure this refusal to accept that there is something larger at play in the woods of Gallacia is to move the plot forward, but it didn't make a whole lot of sense to me as Alex has been so traumatized by the events of What Moves the Dead. It would have felt more logical if Alex were paranoid that something supernatural was actually going on rather than their continued nonacceptance of it. 

“Don't look, I thought, don't look. I'd learned long ago that things you don't see can kill you, but at least the visions don't stalk your mind for decades after.”

I was also really pleased that What Feasts at Night was less information dump-y than its predecessor about the pronouns and the whole sworn soldier thing. Instead of over-explaining the concepts, like in What Moves the Dead, this novella presents the ideas in a more off-handed, casual way that feels natural. Instead of these overly long introspective explanations that were the norm in What Moves the Dead, special pronouns and concepts are simply explained to an intelligent foreigner in a sentence or two, making them accessible and easy to grasp. This style of explanation meant I was not finding my attention slipping away and prevented the story from grinding to a halt for said information.

And the story is interesting enough, so I was glad I was able to give it my undivided attention without having to try to decipher other things and their significance. The creature the villagers of Gallacia fear is at large again is one that seems to encapsulate a lot of our own world's paranormal creatures, but still manages to be unique. Despite the originality of this being, I found I really lamented the loss of the Poe-retelling aspect of What Moves the Dead, as it made for a much stronger and more suspenseful story in which I had felt immediately invested. Sadly, nothing in What Feasts at Night quite compares to the building tension and dread of What Moves the Dead.

Though What Feasts at Night is a short and fun story with likable characters, good humor, and a disquieting atmosphere, there's not a whole lot of substance to the story and it also doesn't have the Poe retelling angle going for it.  One can easily read this novella in a single sitting if they aren't bothered by the slower place and longer set-up. I would definitely recommend this to readers who are looking for more of a cozy spooky novella than an actual horror story, as it presents a sense of unease more than actual scares. Though I didn't care for this entry in the Sworn Soldier series as much as the first, I'll still be on the lookout for upcoming books in the series, as I am curious where Alex's adventures will lead them next.

*All quotations taken from an ARC and subject to change at time of publication.

What Feasts at Night is the sequel to the excellent What Moves the Dead. Like What Moves the Dead, this book is a breezy read with some really creepy horror imagery, dream-stuff, PTSD, and T. Kingfisher’s signature humor. I read this in a couple of sittings and it moves well. Perfect if you want a quick creepy and funny read. I’m looking forward to future Alex Easton stories, if T. Kingfisher continues to write them.

Thank you to Tor Nightfire and NetGalley for an electronic ARC in exchange for an honest review.