A Journey into the Macabre
T. Kingfisher is back at it again, spinning gothic horror with a scalpel-sharp wit and a side of existential dread. If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to walk the fine line between laughing at death and actively running from it, Sworn Soldier delivers. Twice.
Let’s talk about these books—because if they unsettled me, they’ll probably haunt you, too.
Book #1 – “What Moves the Dead”
💀 A reimagining of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher with extra decay, extra fungal body horror, and just enough humor to make you feel guilty for laughing.
Meet Alex Easton, an ex-soldier whose gender is nobody’s business but their own, and whose luck ran out the moment they set foot in the House of Usher. The air is thick with rot, Madeline Usher is busy decomposing before death, and her brother Roderick looks like a Victorian ghost who never left the crypt. Oh, and the mushrooms? They’re watching.
Yes, you read that right. Mushrooms. Sentient, malevolent fungi that would love nothing more than to borrow your body for a little joyride—permanently.
Kingfisher’s horror thrives in the grotesque details: bodies bending wrong, whispers in the dark, and the creeping realization that the house itself is alive. The prose is deliciously eerie, and Alex’s dry, military humor cuts through the terror just enough to make you think, I might survive this. (You won’t.)
🖤 Dark Humor Moment:
Alex, staring at a corpse that might still be breathing: “I don’t like it when dead things move. I like it even less when they move toward me.”
Book #2 – “What Feasts at Night”
💀 Because the only thing worse than one haunted house is a second haunted house with extra meat on its bones.
This time, Alex Easton finds themselves in a whole new nightmare—one with teeth. If What Moves the Dead made you uneasy, this one will make you wish you’d never eaten dinner.
Madeline Usher might be gone (RIP?), but Alex’s past isn’t finished with them. What starts as a quiet escape turns into a grisly, blood-soaked horror show where the line between the living and the dead is less a barrier and more of a suggestion.
There’s something wrong in this house. Not just the usual gothic horror mold and whispers in the walls—no, this is worse. The kind of wrong that makes you question your reflection. The kind that turns bodies into meals.
If What Moves the Dead was fungi-fueled terror, What Feasts at Night is flesh-and-blood horror. Less creeping decay, more outright gnashing hunger. It’s grotesque, visceral, and filled with just enough grim humor to remind you that, yes, you are in fact reading this willingly.
🖤 Dark Humor Moment:
Alex, discovering yet another mutilated body: “At this point, I have to wonder if it’s me. Maybe I just bring the horror with me.”
Final Thoughts
Kingfisher has mastered the art of horrifyingly funny, balancing gruesome horror with characters who respond to it like tired, traumatized veterans of life’s worst nightmares. Alex Easton? A character who deserves a vacation. The universe? Actively working against that.
What Moves the Dead and What Feasts at Night aren’t just horror stories—they’re unsettling, suffocating, and laced with the kind of humor that makes you laugh and immediately check over your shoulder. Because if something is behind you, trust me, it’s already too late.
Read them. And maybe… don’t look too closely at the mushrooms in your yard.
“What Moves the Dead” – 3.5⭐️ Book
“What Feasts at Night” – 3.2⭐️ Book
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