What Moves the Dead
| Industrial Age |
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 What Moves the DeadKingfisher, T.
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American History > Industrial Age > LGBTQ+
A gripping and atmospheric reimagining of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” from Hugo, Locus, & Nebula award-winning author T. Kingfisher
When Alex Easton, a retired soldier, receives word that their childhood friend Madeline Usher is dying, they race to the ancestral home of the Ushers in the remote countryside of Ruritania.
What they find there is a nightmare of fungal growths and possessed wildlife, surrounding a dark, pulsing lake. Madeline sleepwalks and speaks in strange voices at night, and her brother Roderick is consumed with a mysterious malady of the nerves.
Aided by a redoubtable British mycologist and a baffled American doctor, Alex must unravel the secret of the House of Usher before it consumes them all.
Emily's Review
Being a fan of Edgar Allan Poe, I was excited to finally pick up this retelling of The Fall of the House of Usher. If you have read that short story, then you might think you know what to expect of the plot. And the bones of the story are absolutely there. But T. Kingfisher adds so much dimension to the story - I thoroughly enjoyed her reimagining! But if you've never read Poe, I think you can still enjoy this story. But if you wanted to read it first, The Fall of the House of Usher is short. Which I think is why this novella worked so well for me. The source material was a short story, so even though this book is just over 150 pages, it feels fully fleshed out.
Who knew that "sporror" (spore-horror) would become a new favorite subgenre for me? I have always found fungi fascinating, and the author's transformation of them into something terrifying in this story was so much fun. I loved the Victorian setting - it isn't England, but it feels like it could be. This book is full of delicious gothic atmosphere.
Be warned, there is some rather disturbing body horror in this story, so if that's not your thing, you may not enjoy this book. But I found it to be an excellent, albeit unsettling, time!
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