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.

This was a great, gory retelling of Poe’s Fall of the House of Usher done in signature T. Kingfisher style. Overall it was a fun and quick read!

This book is really really weird and I think that’s its best trait. I was extremely spooked by The Fall of the House of Usher as a small child, (and also confused it with the popular musical artist, Usher, and was terrified of him as well). The narrator has a really interesting Narration Style, which is sometimes weird and sometimes makes everything spookier. The audiobook is also narrated by the fantastic Avi Roque, who gets five stars from me! Also, the main character is nonbinary. If you’re looking for something spooky, especially around this October, you should definitely pick this up. Also, just look at that COVER! Five stars.

What Moves the Dead was described as a retelling of The Fall of the House of Usher. Yes, please! I love me some Poe. Reading this rewrite made me really appreciate the decisions that Poe made in the original short story. Let me go back and say that I love T Kingfisher’s writing style. It was moody and creepy and made the whole thing flow. Everything I’ve ever read by Kingfisher has been beautifully written. Let me also say that I understand the changes made in this retelling. There were definitely themes added-mostly around gender identity.

Now, unfortunately, I found the changes took away from the mood. I get why Poe kept the narrator as an unnamed character. As the reader, I felt like I was the narrator, even though I have actually nothing in common with the little we did know about the character. I was seeing through their eyes. The addition of a backstory and of other characters was distracting. I was especially distracted by a character added that just seemed to be there to annoy the narrator, though not by acting in any really offensive way, especially for the time. One really odd character was charming while treating people as specimens while the other just seemed to be there for the main character to say, “Stupid American.” Regarding the three main characters from both stories, the relationships amongst them was just more interesting in the original. The point Poe was trying to make was far different than the point Kingfisher was trying to make. There was just something much more creepy about the narrator being completely in acknowledged by Madeline Usher.

I both read and listened to this book. I preferred to read. The narrator wasn’t bad, necessarily, but I got much more engrossed when reading it to myself. Though not my favorite by this author, I will still keep the name on my list of authors to watch for.

When a childhood friend writes Alex Easton to inform them of her illness, Alex finds themself at the ancestral Usher home - a decrepit gothic castle that looks like it could fall over at any moment. Alex soon discovers Madeline is not sick with any normal illness; she looks like a corpse and can be found sleepwalking and hallucinating through the halls at night. With the help of a mycologist, Alex attempts to unravel the mystery of the Usher home.

My first book by T. Kingfisher and it was great! What Moves the Dead is an incredibly atmospheric horror, giving gothic, fantasy, and spooky fungal vibes. I think it was the perfect amount of just creepy enough, without being absolutely terrifying or disgusting. If you have a free afternoon on a gloomy, rainy day, definitely read this!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Unfortunately, I didn’t finish this book. Although I love Poe, I just didn’t love this retelling.
Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Delightful! For fans of Poe, Shirley Jackson, and classic horror. I’ve actually never read the original but I loved this retelling. This story is obviously easier to read than the 1800s language that Poe wrote in, but this story also has a super interesting narrator who we get to learn a lot more about. I enjoyed the unique perspective that the narrator brought, and the other characters were fun and interesting too. The story had just the right amount of eerie horror to get your creeped out without giving nightmares.
I will definitely be checking out other things written by T. Kingfisher!

I finished this book at around four am and man there were some parts that gave me almost an anxiety attack! A good one, though.

What Moves the Dead is a retelling of the Poe's classic The Fall of The House of Usher that seeks to give a more thorough explanation of why the Ushers are acting the way they do, drawing knowledge from mycology and adding another layer to the moldy essence of the original. Is it full of suspense? No, the reader can deduce the answer for the creepy behavior almost right from the beginning, but it kept me entertained and engaged with the character's own discovery.

It's a very good retelling, with an introduction and discussion of gender roles and identities that were not present in Poe's tale. The narrator is non-binary, and there is frequent use of non-binary pronouns that are shown to stem from an historical past of a fictionalized Gallicia. Overall, very cool indeed!

Also, the cover is to die for. Highly recommend for a summer horror reading!

Thank you Netgalley and Tor Nightfire for sending me a digital ARC of this book in return for my honest thoughts and opinions.

CHECK - a retelling of Poe's gothic classic The Fall of the House of Usher
CHECK - there's a fungus among us... I am a really fun gal after all
CHECK - nontraditional women's roles and gender exploration
CHECK - an ode to Beatrix Potter
CHECK - an author's acknowledgement to her classic and modern horror influences (Yes, Silvia Moreno-Garcia is brilliant!) and, well, horror girl power!

I just love T. Kingfisher's writing (I discovered her books browsing the local Halloween reads table at a little indie bookstore in Asheville, NC in 2019 just before the pandemic took over our lives), and What Moves the Dead definitely did not disappoint. The cool retelling set in the 1890s melds the classic Poe story of a crumbling gothic manor and it's inhabitants with an interesting take on fungal infection and what would have been medically and scientifically known at the time. The most interesting aspect, IMO, is the narrator Lieutenant Alex Easton and the Gallatian construct of gender and pronouns... something you just have to read to appreciate! Easton would make an interesting recurring character for future stories or a series should the author choose to go that route... I would love to hear more of Easton's backstory and ongoing adventures!

Thank you much to Tor Nightfire and #NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

I now have 2 T Kingfisher books under my reading belt, and I think that's enough to make the decision that I'm just not a fan. This book was fine, though nothing too special, for me.

This was a really short read, and it honestly felt like not much was happening for the first half, which is a bit rough when it's so short. There was some really interesting stuff about pronouns, though again, it felt like the book was too short to get into them adequately.

I liked the idea of the fungus, sort of a cordyceps type thing. I am eternally fascinated by cordyceps, so I did really like that aspect of the book.

Overall, this book was fine, just not really my thing.

Tor Nightfire allowed me to read this one early, and it's only further cemented my interest in Kingfisher.

It (surprisingly) takes a certain kind of creepiness to really get under my skin, and this novella does it well. Just the descriptions of the rabbits alone (not really a spoiler - they appear early, and look at that gorgeous cover) were enough to create vivid scenes in my mind.

Kingfisher is skilled with blending horror and humor:

"They both had large, liquid eyes, the sort that are called doe-like by poets, although those poets have mostly never hunted deer, because neither of the Ushers had giant elliptical pupils and they both had perfectly serviceable whites."

"Sometimes it's hard to know if someone is insulting or just an American."

There were a couple of clunky plot transitions here... for a significant one, something happens and the narrator/protagonist just instantly questions whether the event actually happened in the way it was presented to them. They are a military person and have already seen a couple of creepy things happen around the Usher estate but I certainly didn't feel that those elements were enough to justify the instantaneous suspicions. I imagine this has something to do with this story being a novella and the need to keep things moving.

I'm not sure that it makes any sense to wish this had been longer - for a retelling of The House of Usher and already (I believe) being longer than the original, and also for nicely containing the plot - but I wonder if a longer story might have better smoothed out those transitions and also allowed for deeper character development. There was also an alternate social-gender-neutral-situation going on, which I appreciated, but it was also confusing and distracting; something else that might have been better sorted with more depth/time for it.

And yet here we are, still with four stars! It's easy to detail things that didn't work for me, while for the rest simply saying "this was fun". But it is, and a joy to read. Dark and claustrophobic, yet also witty and novel. I enjoyed it quite a bit, and will absolutely continue building my devotion to Kingfisher.

I received a copy of this book for review from NetGalley. I requested this book because I love T.Kingfisher's writing, and then remembered about five minutes later that I don't do well with horror. I am a fully grown, sensible adult, so I made sure to read this in broad daylight with other people around, which was a good choice.
This book is not what I was expecting, in terms of classic horror. It was less about jump scares, and more about moments of sheer wrongness that will live with you after the book is over. The writing is great, there are clever moments of humor, and Alex Easton is a great character, but I will not be able to look at the rabbits in my yard the same way again.

And all three were super duper queer. What Moves the Dead is a retelling of a Edgar Allen Poe story set in a mythical European country that was used in a lot of nineteenth century literature, and has a very similar vibe to Mexican Gothic (the books were written around the same time, but separately).