Mezhivets - The Hungry Season

Between the living and the dead, the boundary is breaking. Perfect for fans of Uprooted, Mexican Gothic, and dark folklore fantasy, this Ukrainian folk horror continues the story of Fedir-a dead man who returned as boundary-walker to protect his village from the things that hunger in the dark. The dead won't stay buried this winter. Fedir, the Mezh… Between the living and the dead, the boundary is breaking. Perfect for fans of Uprooted, Mexican Gothic, and dark folklore fantasy, this Ukrainian folk horror continues the story of Fedir-a dead man who returned as boundary-walker to protect his village from the things that hunger in the dark. The dead won't stay buried this winter. Fedir, the Mezhivets of his village, has held the line between the living world and the spirit realm for years. But something is accelerating the corruption that creates upyri-the vampiric dead. Graves that should stay sealed for months are tearing open in days. Fresh corpses walk with impossible hunger. When a desperate widow begs Fedir to resurrect her son, he refuses. There's a difference between his return and true resurrection-a line that must not be crossed. But grief makes people dangerous. And someone in the village is teaching them how to use death-magic to survive the brutal winter. Now the boundary between worlds is tearing. As Fedir hunts the source of the corruption, he discovers a cunning woman selling forbidden knowledge at the crossroads. She argues that he hoards the power of death while people starve. That he's become a tyrant, not a protector. And she may be right. Worse, his eight-year-old daughter Ulyana is beginning to see what he sees-the shadows between worlds, the hungry dead, the spirits that feed on the living. His curse is becoming hers. The boundary-walker's burden will pass to the next generation whether he wants it or not. To seal the breach, Fedir must sacrifice what little humanity he has left. In this morally complex dark fantasy, humans are often more monstrous than the spirits they fear. Every choice has a cost. Every victory demands sacrifice. And the line between protection and tyranny grows thinner with each passing day. WHAT READERS ARE SAYING: "Atmospheric Ukrainian folklore meets monster-hunter investigation. Dark, philosophical, and impossible to put down." "Morally grey in the best way. No easy