What Moves the Dead

I believe Edgar Allan Poe’s stories are ripe for retelling. Poe was constrained by his own aesthetics (he was not fond of longer works), so his short fiction always hinted at larger worlds just beyond the page.

T. Kingfisher gives us one such world behind The Fall of the House of Usher and fills out the story of haunted siblings Roderick and Madeline Usher. I love that Kingfisher, like Poe, knows the names of flowers and fauna, and her book is saturated with trees, flowers, rabbits, and, oh yes, mushrooms. I hunt for mushrooms myself, so I loved this particular… show more.

I should have known what was coming with this book, but I didn’t. I was so enraptured by the characters, and so intrigued by the mystery, that I was taken completely by surprise by the ending, and it’s rare that this happens.

This book is a powerful retelling with a small cast full of characters I could relate to: the eccentric fungus expert, the panicking doctor, and the suffering soldier who just wants to help.

And, of course, any book around death immediately captures my interest!

I’ve grown tired of retellings. So, when I picked up this gothic reimagining of The Fall of the House of Usher, I expected the same unsatisfied letdown when I turned to the first page.

Instead, I was sucked straight into the protagonist’s point of view, delightfully shuddering at the grotesque imagery of wildlife puppeteered by an ecological nightmare and how the shift in language can allow for other non-human sentient creatures to communicate with us.

My burnout on story retellings lifted, reminding me that an old tale can still hold surprises and about the importance of stories handed down, re-molded,… show more.

Many of us have already heard – or heard of – Edgar Allen Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher, but this gothic post-war retelling is uniquely Kingfisher's.

I picked it up at a convention as part of a giveaway bag, and it was such a delightful surprise; I hadn't read Kingfisher before. The author's character, place, and object descriptions are visceral and creepy and immersed me deep in the tale, even as they creeped me out.

Despite its relatively short length, I felt like I got to know and admire (or fear) everyone in the story. Now… show more.

This slow-burn, creeping suspicion horror was so atmospheric that the growing dread kind of snuck up on me. I love a retelling and who doesn’t love Poe?

The voice in this story was really clear and the characters quickly felt real (especially Hob, the horse - I am a sucker for a well-written equine companion!). I blew through this book in only a few sessions, which for me is unheard of. But I had to keep turning pages well into the night, even as the details made my skin itch. I’ll never look at mushrooms the same way again.

What Moves the Dead has all of the gothic atmosphere without any of the jump scares.

Kingfisher retells Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher with a few fresh twists. There is a family curse, a mysterious fatal illness, and plenty of bumps in the night. The result is a story that might give you goosebumps, but no nightmares.

T. Kingfisher has one of the most unique and compelling literary voices I’ve read, so I was delighted when I discovered she’d penned a retelling of Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher.

Full of zombie-like hares and an extremely disturbing fungus, Kingfisher combines horror with dry humor to create a novella that is utterly unique and impossible to put down.

This reimagining of The Fall of the House of Usher is an environmental gothic horror that’s somehow whimsical and deeply sinister all at once. Alex, a retired soldier and our protagonist, is a fantastic (and charming) narrator. Not to mention the book is filled with some exceptional descriptions of upsetting fungi and great conlang content regarding gender-neutral pronouns.