This was a spellbinding retelling of a Poe classic. I was sucked in from the first paragraph and couldn't put it down. This was a single sitting read for me! Kingfisher's handling of a nonbinary character was elegant and excellent. It made the book even stronger. Plus there were creepy mushrooms.

This book helped me understand how prose can be visceral. I highly enjoyed this haunting tale and loved the way that Kingfisher threads the narrative between exploration and horror. This is my new go to recommendation for people who don't like horror stories or anyone who wants to read a fresh retelling. Kingfisher continues to never disappoint me even as she pulls me along into genres I'm not as familiar with. Five stars.

Fans of Edgar Allan Poe will enjoy this homage to his work and it had wonderful gothic vibes. I loved the descriptions of the plants and the eerie life the spores took on.

At times, the plot was a little repetitive, but overall it was a good story.

THIS BOOK WAS EVERYTHING. Kingfisher is so unbelievably skilled at creating a gothic and creepy atmosphere that draws you in and gives you chills down your spine. The focus on mushrooms' and the decay of life, the eloquent writing, the enjoyable characters - everything about this book made it top tier for me. Now, I will say I've never read Mexican Gothic, which I've seen numerous people compare it to, but if I loved this one this much, I can't wait to experience another gothic horror, so I can't give the comparison that many reviews online have, but I can say, I was enthralled and I loved this book so much. It was perfectly creepy, and gave me the dose of horror I was looking for. Five well deserved stars.

This was haunting, eerie and just so good. Kingfisher has such a fantastic writing style that just makes you want to consume the story,

Better late than never!

Here is my review of What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher.

Holy. F*ck.

I don’t read horror often so maybe that’s why I was so creeped out BUT let’s say I wouldn’t read this at nighttime. It’s very vivid, fast paced, sinister. There’s something about the way the story unfolds that makes you feel afraid.

I would say add this to your spooky TBR if you haven’t read it, and put attention to all the details!

Special thanks to Netgalley for the digital copy, I ended up getting a physical one from the publisher as well which made the reading a lot more comfortable ;)

An absolutely gripping retelling of "The House of Usher"! Given, I'm a sucker for a good fungus centered horror story, but this was so unexpectedly good: I understood and felt for the characters, the period language was fun, the story was perfectly paced, with the increasing, creeping dread and understanding. I really enjoyed this and look forward to trying more by Kingfisher.

3.5/5 stars. This was great! I'm a huge Edgar Allan Poe fan, so I loved the reimagining. The writing was great, and the story definitely got my heart racing and gave me goosebumps.

This cover definitely intrigued me to read this book. I was surprised by how short it was but it was the perfect length for this story. This story held many combined genres, was inclusive, and really sucked the reader in. I didn't love the scenes with the hares, but I'm ultra sensitive to animals.

This book was unique, interesting, and fun to read. While I enjoyed reading it for personal reading, I will not be adopting it for my classroom. Thank you to the publisher!

T. Kingfisher could write an encyclopedia that I'd want to read, so when I saw that What Moves The Dead was a revamping of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher", I was giddy with excitement. Yes, giddy. I said what I said. Instead of a regurgitated version, Kingfisher has added her own reconception to Poe's short story and it's a doozy.

As with Poe, Kingfisher begins her tale with a first-person narrative. However, unlike Poe and his exceptionally vague male protagonist, Lieutenant Alex Easton is a genderqueer retired soldier friend of the female Usher—a deviation from Poe's who is a friend of the male sibling. Kingfisher has also made the addition of a female mycologist, an American doctor, as well as various townspeople, to complete the cast. Though I have to admit Angus, the Scottish personal assistant of Lt. Easton, was a personal favorite.

Kingfisher always crafts her stories with creeping dread and from the beginning pages, she molds (pun not intended but in this case, highly appropriate) this inspired tale with care. The Usher property is blooming with nasty, foul-smelling mushrooms, the manor house is crumbling and filled with mildew and decay, and the Ushers themselves are pallid skeletal things. None of that is anything new. Oh, but the hares. If nothing else will give you the heebie-jeebies in this story, the hares will. You know that feeling you get while watching horror movies, where a person skitters around on all fours or jerkily ambulates—familiar but thoroughly alien? Kingfisher must dream of that feeling because she excels at writing the wrongness of things.

It's like Kingfisher took a look at Poe's narrative and decided to complete all of the gaps, mapping out the dark corners and watery lake depths. She scaffolded onto the original with a light touch, melding some gratifying humor and wit with the expected gothic conventions. However, if you were a fan of Silvia Moreno-Garcia's Mexican Gothic and Jeff Vandermeer’s Annihilation, you'll be over the moon to know that this is also a fungal horror. Undeniably, Kingfisher gives us the answers to the questions that plagued us after finishing the original. Poe's version left the reader with so many interpretations and very little solid evidence. Kingfisher doesn't wait for the House of Usher to break atwain; She lights it on fire and watches it burn.

WHAT MOVES THE DEAD is a completely dark read. This retelling both pulled me in and freaked me out at the same time.

What: dark, gothic, alternate-history
Features: a fungal nightmare, a dark foreboding body of water, disease, mystery
Assets: a brief novel packing in rich details of an alternate history/world, thick atmosphere, creeping dread
Obstacles: readers may feel like they're lost in the same fog permeating the setting
Who it’s for: fans of dark fantasy, gothic fiction

8:30 at night and ugh, I don't wanna read anything or watch anything or play anything and it's (almost) too early for bed, so I start flipping through ARCs and oh yeah, I wanted to read this one! Two hours later, and I'm wonderfully creeped out. I definitely prefer this to her other horror novels.
Thank you very much to Tor and NetGalley for the ARC!

T. Kingfisher is officially my favorite author discovery of 2022! I love her writing style and the way she remakes and reshapes classic fairytales

4.5 stars. I read both this and it's inspiration (The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allen Poe) this year. I read this first, though I think my rating would've been the same either way. This is a short read with some seriously creepy vibes and the atmosphere is really what sells the story. I do wish that there would have been more exploration of the plot and that Kingfisher had taken things much further than the original novel, but this reimagining was still quite vibrant. There is definitely a gross out factor to the tale, so be forewarned. The representation is really well handled and I think the Gothic style comes through brilliantly. I'm just a big fan of T. Kingfisher all around.

This is a short quick read, and is a retelling of a classic Poe. It was creepy, and amazing, and I wanted more. Kingfisher is now on my radar

After I read this novella, I did a Google search of T. Kingfisher and learned many things about her. The first is that T. Kingfisher is a pen name. The second is that she has released over 40 books. The third is that I should have been reading her works much earlier. As it is, What Moves the Dead is the first of her books that I have read.

A riff on the The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe, What Moves the Dead is the story of Alex Easton going to visit their childhood friend at the house of Usher after they receive a letter requesting help. Their friend, Madeline Usher, says that she is sick and dying and needs help, so Alex rushes there as soon as they can. What Alex finds there is a perfect gothic story, brother and sister holed up in a damned house, along with a doctor they do not trust. Everyone and everything falling apart. The horror and mystery that Alex finds there makes What Moves the Dead a fast paced, thin novella that is really satisfying.

Much of the success of this novella can be attributed to T. Kingfisher’s writing. In a short period of time, she develops the setting and the characters with such detail that it feels as if I read a 400 page novel. The writing in this novella is masterful, and I found myself rereading sentences because of how gorgeous they are. This is one of those novellas that I will probably reread simply because of the writing. There is so much depth to some of the scenes and writing that I can really feel the dampness and sickness that is seeping from the walls and the pages. I cannot recommend What Moves the Dead enough. I know now that I have to read some of T. Kingfisher’s other works.

I received this as an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was my first read by T Kingfisher, who I was very excited to try a book from. It was a lot shorter than I expected, but more than enough to get the story told well and concisely. I'm thinking I would have gotten even more out of the book if I had read the house of usher before reading this one, but I definitely took a lot from the story.

I found the story creepy, uncomfortable at times and extremely strange, which I absolutely loved! The whole book just gave me creepy vibes, everything about it was ominous.

Spine tingling and deeply eerie. In a different story, I’d love to learn more about the fictional country and it’s relationship with gender. Am now terrified of mushrooms