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Hello friends!!!

I was supposed to post this on Wednesday. Want to guess what I forgot to do? You guessed it! I forgot to post this on Wednesday. I really should have just created the blog and scheduled it to post on Wednesday, but here we are. On Saturday. Someday, I might be consistent with this, or I’ll just keep posting most Saturdays/Sundays. Only time will tell.

Anyways, let’s move on to the review!

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“So this was America.”

T. Kingfisher, What Stalks the Deep, First Line

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I am not necessarily claustrophobic, but if you were to ask me to crawl, belly down, through a winding tunnel to parts unknown, with the chance of a total collapse and maybe the inability to back out? Absolutely, I am afraid. The way that I was more scared of the location than the actual monster in this novel is impressive. I love a good atmospheric scare, especially in this sort of situation. 

This is the third book in The Sworn Soldier series, and it sees Alex reuniting with Denton after receiving a telegram requesting help. Denton’s cousin has gone missing in a family mine, and Denton is afraid that something unnatural is the cause. Having gone through the events at Usher House (from the first novel) with Alex, Denton knows that they are the only one who could possibly be called upon. Alex and Angus make their way to America to help out, and pray that the creature from before has not made an appearance again.

The location of an old coal mine is not what I would have expected to be frightened of, but when you think about it, the number of accidents that can happen when you are deep underground must have been high. The feeling that, if anything should happen, you might be in for a long and slow death-that hopelessness, it lingers with you throughout this novel. Alex perfectly illustrates that the situation can cause a fear you didn’t realize existed. Quite often, we find them saying they are not claustrophobic, yet they have no desire to enter that close-knit space. They will, of course, help out their friend. Alex can face their fears in a way I can only dream of, and that is one thing I absolutely love about the character.

We get a new character in this book whose name is Ingold, a friend of Denton and an intelligent scientist in his own right. He agrees to accompany the party to the mines to help find Denton’s cousin, providing whatever knowledge he can in the search. I enjoyed this new character. His character is that of the curious scientist but without the more excitable nature that we get from Eugenia Potter, the mushroom scientist from the first two books. He has an excitement of his own, but it presents in a calmer way.

Not only do we get the terrors of the location, but we also get very eerie and creepy creatures. That’s right, creatures. There is more than one. I’m not going to tell you too much about them, but just think about blobs that can shift and change, and one of them is very fleshy and bony. I promise you, T. Kingfisher does much better descriptions than I ever will.

Once again, T. Kingfisher creates an absolute masterpiece of atmosphere and terror. This novel scared me and made me genuinely anxious for the safety of these fictional characters. I enjoyed getting to learn about Inglod and his relationship with Denton. I also liked seeing how Denton and Alex differ as ex-soldiers (having been in different wars). Overall, I was more terrified of the location than I was of the creature, but that doesn’t mean that the creature is any less terrifying.

If you want to enjoy a quick trip into a coal mine without having to deal with the potential cave-in or explosion of gas, spend some time in this novel. I don’t believe you necessarily need to read the second book, but I do recommend you at least read the first book before moving into this one. All in all, another solid novel from one of my favorite authors.

4.5 ★

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And that’s the end! I have caught up on this series. I tried to find out if there were any other books planned for this series, but I didn’t see anything about it. I think that with the way this book ended, there is the possibility that it could continue on, but it is not a guarantee. In any case, I really enjoyed it, and it’s nice to be able to read through a shorter novel from time to time.

That’s all for this week!

Bye friends!!!