151 pages
Published 2024
Read from March 2 to March 3
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Following up on Kingfisher's magnificent What Moves the Dead, What Feasts at Night finds sworn soldier Alex Easton returning to kan family's meager estate in Gallacia. There's a noticeable genre switch between the two volumes (though nothing as drastic as the switch between Emily Tesh’s Silver in the Wood and its follow-up, Drowned Country). Where Dead luxuriated in Gothic fungal horror, Night is cozy folkloric horror. It settles in with familiar characters and gives them space to hang out and make humorous asides before any of them encounter the shapeshifting, breath-stealing moroi. For long stretches, Night reads more like a light Ruritanian fantasy than a horror novel.
Regardless of genre, Night is quite enjoyable, a briskly told tale that feels much bigger than its margins. It takes a while, but we eventually do get some body-shuddering horror worthy of Dead’s legacy. I’m satisfied.
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