What Feasts at Night 02/25/24

What Feasts at Night by T. Kingfisher (2024) is the second book in the Sworn Soldier series of horror novellas. Retired soldier Alex Easton has returned home to invite Miss Potter to study mushrooms in Gallacia as a favor to Angus. From the moment they begin the trek into the mountains ka has a bad feeling about things.

The short of things is the lodge isn't ready. The man in charge of the place is two months dead. And there's probably a curse or some other evil about the place. Nonetheless, Alex and Angus find a housekeeper and her grandson to get the place ready for Miss Potter.

And that's when the horror begins. This is an evil that comes in the form of dreams and steels away one's breath. To practical Alex it means pneumonia or consumption. To the housekeeper, it's a supernatural being. To the grandson, it's his burden to bear as he's the first new victim.

This second story involving Alex, Angus and the unflappable Miss Potter didn't frighten me to my core as What Moves the Dead (2020) did. Fungus gets me in ways that breath sucking dream demons just don't. Like Alex I'm too practically minded and will definitely put up a fight in my dreams. That said, I wonder if T. Kingfisher has further horrors in store for the trio.

Like the first book, this one sits on the Road Narrative Spectrum. This time, Alex et al aren't coming to the problem with status or privilege. Instead, Alex is up against a monster, head to head, making it a Scarecrow/Minotaur set of travelers (99). The journey is to the wildlands (99), the overgrown areas around the neglected lodge. The route there is the Blue Highway (33) in the form of the road that takes the trio up into the small mountain village from the capital.

Five stars

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