What Stalks the Deep by T. Kingfisher Book Review

Edgar Allan Poe's Fall of the House of Usher.” So that's what book number one is, and that's what kind of drew me into this particular series. I have that one. I've also read the second one, which is What Feasts at Night. So this is the third one, What Stalks the Deep, and I will tell you right off the bat that it's good, but I had a couple of issues with it, which I will explain in a bit.

So, let's read the summary. The next installment in the New York Times bestselling Sworn Soldier series features Alex Eastston investigating the dark, mysterious steps of a coal mine in America. Alex Eastston does not want to visit America. They particularly do not want to visit an abandoned coal mine in West Virginia with a reputation for being haunted.

But when their old friend, Dr. Denton, summons them to help find his lost cousin who went missing in that very mine, well, sometimes a sworn soldier has to do what a sworn soldier has to do. It is considered horror, fantasy, novella, fiction, gothic, queer, and LGBT.

It is only 192 pages in hardcover. As you can see by the first one, it's pretty thin. I want to say this again is just the first one. This one is only 163 pages, and that's including the author notes—158 without the author notes. But overall, pretty good.

Now again, I picked it up because I actually picked this up while standing at the register at Barnes & Noble grabbing a coffee. It was on the stand right by their coffee shop where if you make a purchase in the café, you can grab it for $5. So I did. And I actually want to say this was one of my first forays into T. Kingfisher.

But I have definitely expanded my T. Kingfisher collection since then. Each time something by T. Kingfisher pops up, I eagerly gravitate toward it because I do love all of their writings in so many different ways. But I have found that this particular series is kind of a little hit and miss with me.

With the first one, I loved it. The Edgar Allan Poe reimagining was incredibly well done. The second one is like a cabin in the woods and there's something in the woods, giving a really spooky atmospheric vibe. This is the first one that I have done as an audiobook, and it didn't fit the vibe that I was looking for. I do wish I had just read the ebook.

In my head, though I knew the character of Alex Eastston was a bit sarcastic, there is something about the audiobook for me that almost feels a little too lighthearted and humorous in its delivery, thus negating some of that horror atmospheric element that I was looking for. It gave it a little bit more campiness than I was hoping for, because when it comes to a lot of T. Kingfisher's books, I feel like they have atmospheric gravity. The scene really sets the tone.

When you're going to tell me “West Virginia coal mine,” I’ve picked up quite a few books recently in that West Virginia region, such as the region of Appalachia, and it's been popping up frequently. I think a lot of people recognize it as this spooky, mysterious area. So I was eager to pick it up. Again, the story's not bad, but it really was not what I was expecting.

Alex is back just in time for this mystery to be solved. Dr. Denton reaches out because his cousin Oscar has gone missing in this mine. Oscar was really excited about this mine, and then all of a sudden Dr. Denton gets this telegram that says, “Oh no, please don't come,” and it's actually a really lengthy telegram which probably cost a fortune. Then he doesn't hear from him again, so Dr. Denton is very concerned.

Though I’ve been reading a lot of Appalachia-type books, I just don't feel like I was able to maintain that creepy vibe with the audiobook narrator. I’m really conflicted on that because I do feel like there are elements—because there's something in this cave, supernatural or what, we’re not sure, but we’re potentially sure that it is something supernatural considering this is the third one in the series and something supernatural has been happening in each of the other ones.

However, there's something about the way it's conveyed in the audiobook that makes it feel not as intense. That’s the best way to put it from my perspective. If you pick it up and you really like it, then I'm glad it worked for you. I do think I might go back and just read the physical book once I run across it.

It releases on September 30th by Tor Nightfire. So at the end of this month, it should be out in the next week or so. I’m going to try to release this on or around the 29th or 30th. So probably by the time you hear this, it should be available.

But I will probably pick it up and read the actual book because I think that's going to help me maintain that atmospheric horror I'm looking for with the fog and the monsters and the stalking in the deep. And it’s all there—all the elements are there. It should have really worked for me, but I just don't think the narrator put that same level of spookiness in it.

Now, they didn't do a bad job. Narrators narrate in the way they read it or perhaps with whatever guidance they've been given. And so I suppose when I’ve read the other two books in either physical or ebook form, I have been reading them with much more moody, somber thoughts in mind because the settings have been far darker and richer and deeper and intense.

It just didn't come across that way for me. So as we're solving this mystery in the cave—what happened to Dr. Denton's cousin, and what's going on? Is it supernatural? Is it something else? Someone else?—I get conflicting vibes. The horror gets a little broken for me and it becomes kind of a lightly supernatural book.

I don't think it was the way it was written though, and that's just my perspective. I'd love your thoughts on this because again, I'm starting to wonder if I need to listen to the other audiobooks for these and see if they're conveyed in the same way. I've been reading them like they're Edgar Allan Poe stories—very moody, somber, dark, gray, foggy. I wasn't able to get into that headspace listening to this audiobook.

The plot isn’t particularly intense. I felt like the other ones were more so. This one, I guess because I've already been delving into Appalachia regional books lately, just felt not quite as spooky.

I love spooky books, and that’s why I picked it up. That and the author—they are fantastic. But let's just say there is a creature in here that could be good or bad. There are several unknown elements to be figured out.

The mines are actually pretty intense because there are gases, potential collapse, and even Alex themselves seems to be affected by some of the gas to the point they're like, “What's going on? Why is this person doing this?” And it’s because they're being suffocated by a gas.

I'm going to give it four stars because again, I don't think it's T. Kingfisher's writing style that made it feel less mysterious. I think it was just the narration. I do speed my narration up a little bit, but I still don’t think that affected the gravity of the situation. And I'm not dogging this book.

I just feel like it was at odds with itself with regards to the narration versus the story. This is one time where I wish I had read the ebook instead of listening to the audiobook because I felt like I was missing something, and that doesn't happen very often.

Overall, it's a pretty interesting book. I think it ends in a fairly interesting way as well. There is a little bit of moral dilemma toward the end, and I like that gray area where some people are kind of on one side and some are on the other.

That's pretty intense when people are very close-knit and not everybody is seeing eye to eye. I like seeing how the author is going to unravel them or potentially have people fall apart, because even in real life, it can go those ways as well.

It’s not so much a haunted coal mine. I kind of wish it was ghosts. I kind of wish it was something more demonic personally. But if you read it, let me know what you think. I'm going to leave it here. I know this was shorter, but what can I do when it's only 190 pages? And I think my audiobook was only about four, four and a half hours long, so I was able to finish it in one sitting. If I go into too much more detail, I’ll spoil things. Overall, pretty good story, but the delivery just didn't hit the mark for me.

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