I finished this book in one day. ONE DAY. Just could not put it down!

🐰

What Moves the Dead is a retelling of the classic short story "Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allen Poe. It’s set in the 1890s with a now-named narrator, Alex Easton, a sworn soldier from the fictional country of Gallacia. Easton arrives at the Usher manor after receiving a letter from Madeline Usher explaining that she is not well and her brother thinks she is dying. When Easton arrives, it becomes clear Madeline’s illness is far from normal…

🍄

One of the most fascinating things about this book is its mix of some elements of fantasy along with horror and mystery. I really appreciated the author’s development of the country of Gallacia (along with its system of pronouns, more extensive than just he/she/it — for example, Easton uses “kan,” a gender-neutral pronoun for all Gallatian soldiers). I won’t say much else, but there are some other fantasy/sci-fi/creature horror elements that I deeply enjoyed as well.

🐇 The plot and the characters are compelling, and it’s brilliantly written, of course, but it also had me laughing out loud at moments. There’s such a great balance of dark themes undercut with dry, quick humor.

🍄 Also, word of advice — don’t read this book while eating. Especially not the last couple chapters. I wanted to puke but also could not look away. The body horror is REAL and there’s a certain image from the climax of this book that I will probably never forget.

All in all, this book is amazing and you should read it. Especially if you have a strong stomach.

I love it. It’s creepy and atmospheric both inside and outside the gloomy, dilapidated manor house, leaving nowhere feeling truly safe. Especially after the hares show up.

The ending is a little abrupt for the author’s usual style, but it’s an homage to the original. Kingfisher’s story still feels complete and not rushed, and that’s not something I can say about Poe’s work, which feels like he got tired of writing, dashed out a few more sentences, then called it good.

Thank you, Tor Nightfire, for the eARC.

This was very creepy and super gross and I really enjoyed it! WHAT MOVES THE DEAD is a retelling of an Edgar Allan Poe short story. I've never read it, but other reviews say this is a good companion/retelling of it.

I quite liked the main character, Alex Easton, and thought they were pretty multidimensional for only 160 pages. I was a little let down by the ending—it was very abrupt! I felt like there should have been maybe a page or two more? It kind of just felt like the end of a chapter, not the end of a book.

Hand me a T. Kingfisher book and I'm going to love it. Hand me a T. Kingfisher retelling of Fall of the House of Usher and I am going to be FROTHING AT THE MOUTH to tell everyone about it.

What Moves the Dead has all the Kingfisher hits: obscure, detailed knowledge about something you never knew or thought to research, fantastic POV and creative voices, great, quirky characters that live rent-free in your head, and masterful creeping horror. Of the creepiest sort. The entire book is a deft hand in expanding a cornerstone work of American literature, treated with the utmost care while still creating something that stands apart from the source material.

Five out of five stinking redgills.

I don’t normally read horror, but I can’t resist anything written by T. Kingfisher, and this book did not disappoint. It was just as funny and quirky as I hoped, and more disturbing than I could have imagined. This is not a story for the squeamish, faint of heart, or easily offended, but I enjoyed it very much.

This is definitely the Edgar Allen Poe retelling I didn’t know I needed. "The Fall of the House of Usher” was never among my favorites. Now I feel like I need to go back and reread the original, though I’m fairly certain Poe’s characters won’t have half the relatable charm and good humor of T. Kingfisher’s.

“If we ran, then the small child that lives in every soldier’s heart knew that the monsters could get us. So we did not run, but it was a near thing.”

The story grabbed my attention and would not let go, and I suspect I will be thinking about it for a long time to come. Highly recommended for fans of gothic horror. Also, I second the author’s recommendation of Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s <i>Mexican Gothic</i>, but of the two, I enjoyed T. Kingfisher’s story more.

Thanks to Tor Nightfire for providing me with an ARC through NetGalley, which I volunteered to review.

What Moves The Dead by T. Kingfisher is a retelling of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher”. This creepy little story gets under your skin in the best worst way. Thanks to Macmillan-Tor/Forge, Tor Nightfire and NetGalley for the ARC.

Interesting take on The Fall of The House Of Usher. This definitely did a good job of creating a gothic atmosphere with the imagery of the house and the mushrooms. I would say this book is mostly vibes, so if you click with them, you will like it! Also, something that I was not expecting was that it was funny! It wasn't like laugh-out-loud funny but there were comments here and there that felt clever in a funny way which I definitely liked. When I have read other gothic literature, I definitely don't usually care about the story or the characters, but in this case, I felt that the characters were definitely interesting and I wanted to know more about them.

How could I forget: I thought the discussion on language and pronouns was a super interesting part of the story and I liked how it fit into the story. This made me want to learn more about language and pronouns in general. I always think it's a good sign when a book leaves me wanting to learn more about a particular subject.

I didn't dislike the vibes but I also didn't LOVE the vibes... For a novella, I felt like it was pretty slow (maybe it's the gothic vibes that didn't hook me in?) As I mentioned above, I liked how the humor would break up the serious tone of the overall story. Even though I liked the characters, there was something about reading the story that felt difficult or laborious for me.

An interesting take on the House of Usher story. It was sufficiently creepy in the tradition of Poe, but had its own spin on the details. Definitely makes you think of fungus in a whole new way.

Going into this I had no idea this was a retelling. It instantly peaked my interests then grabbed me by both shoulders and shook. Cannot wait to suggest this to everyone in the library for a fun and quick read.

What a creepy story! This book was such an interesting read. I read Fall of the House of Usher by Poe a long time ago but don't remember it at all so I basically went into this book blind without knowing the plot or premise and I'm glad I did. Kingfisher did a fantastic job with the atmosphere and uneasy feeling of the house and characters. The book was the perfect length to get the story across and leave an impact. I would definitely like to read more from this author, they have a very interesting and engaging writing style.

“The dead don’t walk. Except, sometimes, when they do.”

WHAT MOVES THE DEAD
What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher is a short retelling of Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher.” It reminded me that an Edgar Allen Poe reread is in order as it has been too long. Also, Mike Flanagan who produced The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor, and Midnight Mass just wrapped his Netflix series adaptation and it may be possible that it will release this year? There will be many familiar faces and Mark Hamill is joining the cast. AND. I. AM. HERE. FOR. IT.

Ok. Beck to What Moves the Dead. Alex Easton is a retired soldier who has come to the aid of their friend, Madeline. She is sick with an unknown illness and it appears her brother, Roderick has the same illness. But one looks at their home and one can see that there is someone about the house that isn’t right.

T. Kingfisher’s writing has just the perfect aesthetic to take on an Edgar Allen Poe story. She perfectly captures the eerie grotesqueness of this story. The author does bring her own voice to the story and I do wish it were longer. I understand it is a retelling of a short story but I felt that with her unique touch there could have been more. I did appreciate the author’s note at the end of the book and I urge everyone to read it. But if you are looking for a creepy short story for this Fall, then this is it!

I decided to reread Poe's story The Fall of the House of Usher before reading What Moves the Dead, and I have to say that Kingfisher did a brilliant job at retelling this iconic story. I was blown away at how the author captured the same sense of dread and horror of the original story while also adding a unique and extremely creative twist.

The story beings with Alex Easton, a retired, gender-queer solider, going to the house of their friend Madeline Usher, after receiving a note from Madeline that she is sick. Before reaching the house, Easton meets Eugenia Potter, a British mycologist, who is fiercely independent and smartly aware of the limitations of being a woman scientist in the 1890's. Even in this first scene, we get a creepy sense of unease, from the toxic mushrooms to the view of the dilapidated house across the lake.

This sense of dread continues to grow as Alex reaches the house and takes in the tattered curtains and moldy walls. They meet Roderick, Madeline's brother and Easton's former comrade-in-arms, who is emaciated, sickly and jumps at the littlest sound. Easton is also greeted by Denton, an American doctor, called in by Roderick to examine Madeline.

In true Kingfisher form, the setting and atmosphere becomes just as much a character as the rest. I missed the author's witty, snarky humor which is absent in this story, but the writing was just as descriptive and evocative. It also has the same dreamy, folktale quality as a lot of her other works.

From creepy, twisted hares to the horrifying answer to what is causing the fall of the house of Usher, What Moves the Dead showcases T. Kingfishers ability to tell a compelling story that will keep you turning the pages.

I'd highly recommend this book if you love horror stories that involve creepy houses, love Poe retellings and are already a fan of T. Kingfisher's writing.

*Thank you so much to Tor Nightfire and NetGalley for the digital arc. My opinions are my own.

Creepy and well written. The cover is fantastic as well. Enjoy the references to Poe. Would recommend for purchase and a possible book club title.

The Fall of the House of Usher is one of my favorite Poe stories, and T. Kingfisher is one of my favorite authors, so I was stoked to see this, and it did not disappoint. This had everything that I love in it--gothic ruined mansion, family dynamics, mysterious illness, and, of course, sentient plants. A deliciously creepy book.

Retired soldier Alex Easton travels to the remote countryside of Ruritania to check on their childhood best friend Madeline Usher who is suffering from a strange illness.
When Alex arrives at the crumbling Usher ancestral home, they’re stunned to find Madeline and her brother Roderick are both rapidly declining - aging over night, it appears - with bouts of sleepwalking and strange voices.
With the help of an American doctor who is also a houseguest as well as a local mycologist, Alex investigates what is causing the bizarre malady in the Usher siblings - a mystery that becomes more ominous with the discovery of seemingly possessed wildlife and fungi that is consuming the estate.

This atmospheric retelling of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher is absolutely fantastic! What Moves the Dead is a novella that packs a huge punch of gothic horror and paranormal fantasy, filling readers with dread the longer we spend at the crumbling estate.

Huge thanks to Tor Nightfire and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review. What Moves the Dead is scheduled for release July 12, 2022.

I've marked this as a story with "transgender representation," and although that is a way of seeing Alex Easton I don't know of it's one ka would approve of. I could simply be another American man committing a dreadful solecism in kan opinion. Oh well.

Now. On to the bad, awful, hideous, nightmarish stuff.

You've most likely read "The Fall of the House of Usher" at some point in your school career/teenaged glooms. (Not-Americans even know about this story, and I understand it's popular among Poe's French-speaking admirers.) So did T. Kingfisher, and did she have questions after reading it! Wowee toledo.

Alex Easton, our narrator-cum-PoV person, has a strangely English name and a uniquely different cultural outlook. Ka was born female and swore into the life of a soldier, an ungendered occupation among kan fellow countrymen. I suspect it wasn't uncommon for warrior societies to have permeable gender boundaries given that not all man-plumbed persons are suited to soldiering and not all woman-plumbed persons are suitable to motherhood. Those being the basic occupations of the sexes for much of human history, it would surprise me greatly if most didn't have some kind or sort of accommodation to this reality. I believe the warrior graves with female bodies in them discovered all over Europe and Asia are an indicator of this.

Easton, as ka is known to the Usher siblings ka knew in distant childhood and youth, has at last emerged from soldiering...one senses unwillingly...now that peace has returned. A letter from kan friend Madeline Usher brings ka at the trot: "Roderick thinks I am dying." For one thing, bonds that old...and ka was Roderick's commander during the war, to boot...can't be gainsaid. Off ka, and kan batman Angus, and kan horse Hob (all well-sketched characters of great sensitivity in their portrayal) trot to the Ushers' ancestral home in neighboring Ruravia (!) to Do What Needs Doing.

Thus the nightmare begins. Ka finds Roderick a wisp, Madeline a cold shell of her former lovely self, and Roderick's American friend Denton...whose soldiering was done in the Civil War, in a medical tent. Despite kan poor opinion of Americans, this earns him a degree of latitude for being gauche and unfamiliar with how to treat sworn soldiers like ka. (That little pronoun, in kan Gallacian language, is used for both sexes of sworn soldiers. Tidily solves the vexed problem of gendered soldiery.) Alex finds Denton, and the English language, adequate but frustratingly unsophisticated, leading to kan delightful outburst, "Damnable English language—more words than anybody can be expected to keep track of, and then they use the same one for about three different things."

I relate, my soul sibling Alex. I so so relate.

I don't think it helps anything to recapitulate "The Fall of the House of Usher." I am aware that some people haven't read it, though honestly I find that easier to conceptualize than to understand. Let's just say that the mycohorror subgenre that's come into being and has fetidly overgrown the various horror and adjacent literary fields...<I>Annihilation</i> and its siblings, <I>The Girl with All the Gifts</i>, on and on...have been gazumped (from German gesumpf, tossed into a swamp) by T. Kingfisher's lighter, brighter touch and inimitable ability to slosh humor over a rankly rotting, unnaturally ambulating, little-white-hyphae-shedding Object of Horror, and not have the results resemble a desecrated grave.

I loved the read. I think most people I know would at the very least like it. And, fellow old-enough-to-remember souls, I think Denton the American is a call-out to <I>The Rocky Horror Picture Show</i>. I can't prove it...the author doesn't mention it in her self-deprecating endnotes...but I found myself humming "Denton, Denton/you've got no pretensions" every time he hove into view.

...wait...what are those little white...EEEEEEEEEEEEEE

What Moves the Dead is a wonderfully creepy an incredibly atmospheric horror novella with all the gothic, spooky, strange vibes. This is my first book by T. Kingfisher and it was great! I loved this elevated retelling of such a classic tale, centering around the Usher House where our narrator is summoned to visit his sick childhood friend.

What the heck is actually going on in that sinister Usher House?! Why does Madeline look like a zombie, sleepwalking through the night? What makes Roderick so hysterical? This is not a bloody slasher horror book but rather one that slowly creeps up on you in small and barely detectible ways. The entire time you're reading, you have a gut feeling that something isn't quite right but it's almost like peeking through your fingers when you cover your eyes at the scary part of a film - you want to keep looking even though you're unsettled.

Inspired by The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allen Poe and mixed with a touch of Mexican Gothic, horror fans should add this to your TBR!

This was my first T. Kingfisher book. I assure you, it won't be the last. I truly didn't know what to expect going in, since I did read the source material, but by "read", I mean "skimmed enough to take a test 20 years ago", so I can't imagine that really counts. Anyway, we encounter retired soldier Alex Easton who is travelling to the home of childhood friends, the Ushers. Things aren't going great for the Ushers, and Alex wants to help them out, as good friends do.

Only... things are not okay here in this town. Alex finds many unsettling facets, not the least of which is the very ill (near death's door, really) Madeline Usher. And her brother Roderick isn't doing a whole lot better. Frankly, there are so many things wrong with this place, it's hard to tell what the actual culprit might be. There are questionable mushrooms, rabbits that are... well like the ones on the cover of this book- just not okay. Is it the water? The house itself? An illness?

Alex wants to get to the bottom of this, and hopefully remove the Ushers from the whole situation. Only, they refuse to go. They have a fairly incompetent American doctor who I enjoyed, though he can't exactly help them. Alex also finds a mycologist who is quite interested in the fungi around town to help with the cause. She is a gem too.

The writing of this story is an absolute dream. I fell into this world wholly and completely, with the author's incredibly atmospheric prose and witty dialogue. I truly can't recall having read a story that could be so sinister, yet so delightful. Yes, everything was a terrifying mess, but also yes, I adored Alex and the other characters, enjoyed their interactions, and could not put the book down.

Bottom Line: I positively devoured this story, with its incredible atmosphere, gorgeous writing, and wonderful characters.

What fun! This is not my go-to genre and I’m so glad I picked it up and dove in. Love the Poe - ness of it with so many twists and turns and WONDERFUL writing. Awesome reading non-binary pronouns that are varied - loved the representation!! This is my first Kingfisher and won’t be my last. Heartfelt thanks to Tor Nightfire for the copy. You made my day!

Another great novel by this author that makes any subject scary and eerie. These are books you need to be immersed in so that the whole story can be experienced. I have read other books by this author and after each one, the book stays on my mind for days.