Another perfect gem from T. Kingfisher! I wish it had been longer, but the story said everything that it needed to say, and extending the horror story would perhaps have felt a bit like adding jump scares to a scary movie just to pad the runtime. No need to bloat a book with spookiness, when brevity does the job!

I love the vampiric nature of the moroi: Entering dreams, stealing life-force, shapeshifting into a winged creature, its presence being signaled by mist, etc. It's an old myth, but a fresh perspective, a creature that hasn't been the mainstream representation of vampires for some time. I also love the Dracula-like assembly of experts who try to assess the sick: The priest, the doctor, the scientist, the folklorist, the soldier... They are the blind wise-people assessing the elephant: Nobody has the full truth of the matter.

And once again, I love how Kingfisher uses a haunting and relates it to veterans. How the war stays with the soldier.

I love that this book made a horror story out of real, scary sleep disorders, like sleep paralysis, or sleep apnea. And considering that this book came out after COVID-19 Quarantine, the sickness at the center of this story is that much scarier and more visceral: Loved ones dying while fighting to breathe, while the people around them argue over which cures are legitimate, or whether the disease is even as sinister as purported. Too real.

A fantastic rainy day read!