What Feasts at Night
Ratings93
Average rating3.8
More funny than scary, but doesn't even manage that.Just a vehicle for gender bending pronoun peddling. I think I am over this author.
I picked this book up because I like the writing of the author but not quite the storytelling. I was hoping this book would be an improvement to the last story and there was some improvement. This book does better with introducing the characters and the fictional country the story takes place in. The pronouns are introduced and quickly explained more naturally than in the first book.
The story is just a little slow and not much happens. If I were to describe the story to someone else, I know I wouldn’t have much to say. The whole story is a bit tepid as there is not much pulling you in. The writing is good, but story could have used more work. It almost felt incomplete.
I can’t tell if I am going to try other books by this author since I have heard such good things about them.
This book had fun reading this book. I really liked Alex because I found him to relatable. It had a creepy vide to it that I found entertaining.
The first book What Moves the Dead was a little more disturbing in a good way but this was still highly enjoyable. It talked about a succubi type being that attacked during your dreams. She was causing problems at the MC Alex Easton's home. It seemed a little less threatening to everyone because it was a slow-paced attack but still creepy. Overall I'd give it a firm 4 stars.
Yeah, I don't think this is a series for me. I didn't even get the point of this book. Oh well.
Kingfisher is one of my favorite authors; I love the way that she writes. I especially love how Kingfisher writes horses and her other characters.
This is such a well done 'ghost story' and I love the way she wrote dreams. Miss Potter's reaction to Easton's assumption that she didn't believe in supernatural things because she's a scientist was most excellent as were her attempts at Galatian. The widow's character was also so well done. Loved the commentary on the doctor, people either call him for everything or nothing because he might as well be an undertaker or an omen of death, was fantastic.The way she wrote what the characters experienced was also amazing; the way Easton's chest felt, the silence in kan ears.Loved how Kingfisher wrote with pronouns too.
I loved this book and I think it is a great sequel to the first one, although it does not surpass it. I love Easton as a character and Miss Potter, and loved to see them both return. The new characters introduced were also great, The Widow especially. The way the story was told was good and made it really suspenseful. The vibes were also immaculate. The superstitious things that the Widow was going I enjoyed thoroughly. It was definitely less creepy than the first book, but fungi will do that to you.
T. Kingfisher is one of my favorite authors and I'm always looking for the latest or have a few things from her backlist. What Feasts at Night is a quite good follow up to What Moves the Dead, which is a retelling of Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher.
In “Feasts” Alex Easton returns home to Gallacia to find the family's hunting lodge in disrepair and the caretaker no more. The feel is very true to older horror tales, like Dracula, where the “peasants” know the score and the score is Restless Spirits and folk magic/remedies and generally not monkeying around with things best left unmonkeyed around with. This is the book for when you want to crawl into bed at the end of the day and feel safe and warm while things are not all right on the page.
If I could ask the author anything, it would be why the animal skeletons? I'm not just talking about this book, but a very recurring element of Kingfisher's stories. Often the bones are, um, alive? The author clearly loves animals and so pets have a great chance in these books, but sometimes the pet is a bone dog. You understand.
In this case, it's not a dog, and the instance is really disturbing, although for you pet people, I'll say it's okay.
This series will always have a place on my shelves because this style of story takes me make to teen me. A story for the thick anthologies of old horror I used to borrow from the library. In the case of What Moves the Dead, my not insignificant fascination with Poe.
What Feasts at Night has some frightening moments but ultimately wastes too much time on its setup for a lackluster ending.
A spooky dark forest with a questionable house and locals that don’t like the people staying at the house is exactly what this book needed. The fact that the narrator is Alex and they are in their home country again just makes it all better! And that is only the first little bit of the book! The people Alex has around them and the investigation really made me enjoy this book and experience. I can’t believe I almost didn’t read this duology.
Does anyone else write horror + humor better than T. Kingfisher? (I'm serious, if you have an answer please let me know!) I found this more satisfying than the first Alex Easton book, [b:What Moves the Dead 58724626 What Moves the Dead (Sworn Soldier, #1) T. Kingfisher https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1632936332l/58724626.SY75.jpg 91735925], possibly because What Feasts at Night isn't based on a classic tale and thus the plot has more freedom to go wherever Kingfisher's uniquely weird mind takes it. In addition to being creepy and funny (often at the same time), the novella features several passages that are breathtakingly beautiful. I was lukewarm on the series when it started, but now I'm hoping that Alex, Angus, and Hob the horse have many more macabre adventures ahead.
3.5 - Slow start but really picked up by the end. Alex has some pretty rotten luck. I didn't think the first book needed a sequel, but it was nice to get more depth from these characters. Overall enjoyed it and would recommend to T. Kingfisher fans.
Rating: 3.41 leaves out of 5-Characters: 3.5/5 -Cover: 3.75/5-Story: 3/5-Writing: 5/5Genre: Fantasy, Horror, Gothic, HisFic-Fantasy: 4/5-Horror: 1/5-Gothic: 4/5-HisFic: 3/5Type: AudiobookWorth?: YesHated Disliked Meh It Was Okay Liked Really Liked LovedWant to thank Netgalley and publishers for giving me the chance to read this book.This books, in my opinion, was better than the first. The first one was based on The Fall of the House of Usher and the story isn't my fav to begin with and has been done SO MANY TIMES but this one was nice. I hadn't heard about the lores and myths before so I was more attentive. That being said thought the story was fine it wasn't great and Alex is just... a pain 60% of the time.
What Feasts at Night was written by my all-time favorite author, T. Kingfisher. I adore her work. I've never read a bad book written by her, really. But despite saying that, What Feasts at Night fell a little short for me. While I adored the first book, What Moves the Dead, the sequel just didn't feel quite as horrifying or shoot pure terror down my spine. I don't think I had a proper scare the whole novella. It felt removed from reality – I didn't believe any of the things that were happening. Not the same way I did while reading What Moves the Dead.
What Feasts at Night feels rather more like a regular old ghost story. Two dimensional. The ghost at the center of the book was original (as far as I know) but the threat she posed never felt particularly lethal. And don't mistake me - there was Kingfisher's usual wit and humor in the text, of course, but this book just felt like it was missing something for me. I'm not even sure what it IS missing, but there's a distinct lack of something.
So, while I still enjoyed it, I think I'm going to give this one 3.5 stars. Not up to Kingfisher's usual work for me.
First and foremost, I genuinely love how the series reads. You don't have to read the previous to understand the next book, though it will offer some extra insight into how the characters are and why they do or say certain things.
I love the small and manageable story; it got to the point with little effort and kept you wanting to read until you were finished. And I was a little sad when the book ended! I love how you think there's something paranormal happening, but there's actually a scientific reason behind it.
I didn't like that the copy I received had a bad format. It seems that for every set of 10-15 pages, the format would change from a regular paragraph to a sentence on a line, then two to three words the next, and then back to a full sentence. It really pulled me out of the story itself because I had to keep trying to reread to understand what was happening. Once and a while there were random 0s and 1s as well which threw me out of the atmosphere of the novella too. I hope by the time the novella is published that this is cleared up.
Because of this issue, I found that the novella is less engaging than its predecessor. I would definitely like to the final version before I make the call officially on how engaging.
It's good for a spooky read, and it's good if you need to pad your reading challenge! I would recommend it!