4 & 3 out of 5 stars
What Moves the Dead and What Feasts at Night, by T. Kingfisher (2022 & 2024)
4/5 stars
What Moves the Dead
A fantastical and creepy one-sit read (short and gripping), which is a re-telling of Edgar Allen Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher, though you do not need to have read it to enjoy this novella. I read it at some point, maybe in high school, and barely remembered it.
In Poe's Usher the narrator goes unnamed and the location is some isolated place in the forests of the United States - but here we know the narrator is Alex Easton, a non-binary, retired "sworn soldier" (who mostly goes by just Easton) from the fictional country of Gallacia, somewhere in Europe. A sworn soldier is something unique to Gallacia. After war ravaged through the country and killed many of its men, women began taking the oath to become soldiers. Easton was born female, but identifies as neither sex in particular. Gallacia also has a complex system of at least seven different sets of pronouns (a few examples are ta/tha/than, va/van/var, and ka/kan) used to describe gender, age, occupation, religious status, and more. Easton goes by ka/kan, which is reserved for military personnel. I will use they/them pronouns, for clarity.
Easton is called to the House of Usher, in another fictional country called Ruravia, by Madeline Usher, a childhood friend, who lives there with her brother Roderick. Madeline expresses great distress that they are both ill, and that Roderick believes she is dying. She asks Easton to come visit them. When Easton arrives, what they find is a crumbling castle, a stinking, possibly poisonous tarn (lake), hares with the unsettling behavior of staring, unblinkingly, at anyone on the property, and an abundance of fungi and molds - both in and out of the house. Even more disturbing is the state of the siblings. Looking aged beyond their years, both are gaunt and weak, not sleeping, and have bouts of what seems like insanity, like speaking to no one, and paranoia about the walls talking and the house being alive.
Easton teams up with a few other supporting characters to try to unravel the mystery of the house, the tarn, the mushrooms everywhere, and the maladies of the declining siblings.
Angus is the faithful "man-servant" who served with Easton in the war, and before that served with Easton's father. His Scottish brogue is guttural and harsh, but he always has Easton's best interests at heart.
Miss Potter is a British mycologist (mycology being the study of fungi) who is quirky and quick-witted. Despite what others presume to know about "an English lady," she proves time and again that she is as up for an ominous adventure as anyone.
Dr. Denton is an American doctor, and friend of Roderick's. Where Madeline called upon Easton to come help, Roderick called Denton, who is as at a loss as all the rest to diagnose the Usher's symptoms.
And last but not least, Hob, Easton's opinionated horse (the horse doesn't talk, he just has a lot of attitude).
Kingfisher has written a horror novella with hints of sci-fi, quietly threatening and delightfully sinister, with some very uncanny valley moments, set in a dark and atmospheric world. And Easton is a strong, intelligent main character/narrator, who is refreshingly comfortable in their own skin, and all of the characters bring a sarcastic humor to the table that makes for lively and amusing interactions.
One of the funniest things about the story is when Easton talks about Americans - clearly they do not have a high opinion of us! (though the author is American)
"Ah. American. That explained the clothes and the way he stood with his legs wide and his elbows out, as if he had a great deal more space than was available. (I am never sure what to think of Americans. Their brashness can be charming, but just when I decide that I rather like them, I meet one that I wish would go back to America, and then perhaps keep going off the far edge, into the sea."
"Sometimes it's hard to know if someone is insulting or just an American."
Also, I loved Easton's take on talking to pets:
"...I say inane things like, 'Who's a good fellow then?' and 'Does kitty want a treat?' (Look, if you don't make a fool of yourself over animals, at least in private, you aren't to be trusted. That was one of my father's maxims, and it's never failed me yet.)"
3/5 stars
What Feasts at Night
It's not mandatory to have read What Moves the Dead to read What Feasts at Night, though there are a few brief references you might miss if you don't. Easton and Angus must travel to Gallacia to Easton's family hunting lodge. Miss Potter will be staying there to research local fungi, but the caretaker has gone missing. Easton arrives to find the surrounding woods eerily silent, and none of the villagers will set foot on the property except the Widow Botezatu and her grandson Bors, who come as cook/cleaner and caretaker because they need the money. Rumors run rampant that there is a "moroi" on the lose that lives at the Easton property - a breath-stealing monster who visits you in your dreams, and sits on your chest, breathing in your breath until you expire (sounds kind of like a Dementor!).
From a quick Google search: Moroi are a type of vampire, werewolf, or ghost in Romanian folklore. They are often depicted as pale, shadowy, and gaunt figures. Moroi are said to be the souls of unbaptized children or adults. In some versions, they are the phantoms of dead people who leave the grave to feed on the living.
I didn't enjoy this story as much, I think because it was less sci-fi and more ghost story. But I still loved Easton and his horse Hob, snarky Angus, eccentric Miss Potter, as well as the new characters. In particular, the Widow, who is exceedingly hostile to Easton, but somehow it's endearing. She's just so salty!
A third Sworn Soldier book, What Stalks the Deep, will be coming out later this year, where Easton travels to America. I'll read it, if only for the incredible, saucy insights about the American temperament!
UP NEXT: The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year, by Margaret Renkl
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