what feasts at night (book)

rating

starstarstarstar_halfstar

date

10 january 2026

genre

horror

author

t. kingfisher

what feasts at night is a sequel to what moves the dead, which is a loose retelling of poe's the fall of the house of usher, keeping the gothic horror and basic premise, but going wild on everything else from protagonist to resolution. the protagonist is alex easton, a retired non-binary soldier from the fictional eastern-ish european country of gallacia. what moves the dead initially endeared me a lot with its handling of (gender) identity, going so far as establishing a peculiar but very interesting ruleset of personal pronouns in the ruritanian language which intersects well with easton's personal identity. where dead was a re-telling of a classic gothic horror short story, night has a wholly original plot, although it does heavily feature folkloristic horror, specifically the concept of a moroi from romanian folklore (which shares some similarities with a nachtmahr).

at the outset of the novella, easton is looking to spend some time at a hunting lodge their family owns, together with their close companion angus and british mycologist eugenia potter they met in the previous book (with some heavy romantic tension happening between her and angus). arriving at the lodge, the caretaker of the property appears to be missing and the place is somewhat in disrepair. asking around the nearby village, they quickly find out that the caretaker has passed away, but the locals are very guarded about the circumstances of his death. finding a replacement caretaker also proves difficult, as whatever befell the previous one has the villagers apprehensive about taking up residence at the hunting lodge. finally, an old widow together with her grandson take the job, mostly out of desperation and despite their misgivings about the place.

it does eventually transpire that the villagers think the old caretaker was taken by a moroi. the folklore established here describes a moroi as a creature born from a deceased person buried on non-consecrated ground, which then sits on sleeping people's chests and steals their breath while invading their dreams, eventually leading to their demise. when both easton and bors, the widow's grandson start having nightmares of a woman sitting on their chests and both taking ill with lung problems, this seems to be confirmed.

both the characters and the environments in the novella are once again extremely well-written. even though the story starts off fairly slow in relation to the book's length, it's a joy to follow. easton is a great and layered protagonist, quick-witted and generally fairly blasé in the face of maybe-supernatural happenings, but there's also a lot of ptsd from their previous career as a soldier underneath the surface. the (from what i can tell after quick research) real folklore is interwoven very well, but the heightening of the stakes and subsequent resolution happens a bit rushed. given that the book is a snappy 160 pages, taking a bit more time here would have made the plot stronger for me.

while dead mostly finds rational explanations for possibly supernatural happenings, what feasts at night leans its ambiguity of whether the folkloristic explanations for what is going on are real more towards a reading that yes, there is actually something outside of the natural happening here. it's ambiguous enough that you can still read everything happening as dreams and hallucinations of people coming down with pneumonia, but it definitely doesn't spend as much time rationalizing everything as dead. i think it's a good choice here in the same way that i thought it was a good choice in dead.

i recommend both what feasts at night and what moves the dead for anybody who wants modern gothic horror that has very endearing characters, a good atmosphere and some bonus explorations of gender identity while being quick and easy reads.