What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher – Review

Published: July 12, 2022

Publisher: Tor Nightfire

Series: N/A

Genre: Horror

Pages: 176 (Hardcover)

My Rating:  4.5/5.0

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis:
From the award-winning author of The Twisted Ones comes a gripping and atmospheric retelling of Edgar Allan Poe’s classic “The Fall of the House of Usher.”

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.

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I’ve been wanting to check out T. Kingfisher’s horror works for a few years now. What Moves the Dead seemed like the perfect place to start since it is not only based on The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allen Poe, but it’s also a novella. So essentially, I really couldn’t have been given a better jumping off point as I love Poe’s works and novellas don’t require the same commitment as a full length novel.

Let me tell you folks, this book was creepy as hell. The main character Alex Easton is a retired soldier, who grew up with the Usher siblings and served with Roderick Usher during a recent war. The story begins with Alex journeying to the Usher house, fearful that their childhood friend may already have passed by the time they arrive. Madeleine still lives, however she is a ghost of herself, pale and thin, and speaking in a strange childlike voice unlike her own. Roderick is riddled with anxiety, whispering that he can hear things. Seemingly the only sane person is an American doctor Roderick brought in to help, but he proclaims to only be a battlefield surgeon and not an expert in maladies of the mind. As the days pass, Usher house only grows stranger and peculiar lights can be seen in the murky mountain lake nearby. Worst of all are the rabbits, which are unafraid of humans and often move with a jarring, dragging gait. 

This book creeped me out so badly I had to stop reading well before bed just so I could shake the memory of it before I went to sleep. To be fair, I had also gotten to possibly the creepiest part of the book and decided that was plenty of chilling creepiness for the evening. I loved it and picked it up immediately after getting home from work the next day so I could find out what was going on! The book is filled with hints of what is truly causing Madeleine Usher’s illness and it wasn’t at all difficult to figure out well before it’s revealed (heck, the cover gives it away). That didn’t bother me in the least because the knowing made it even more suspenseful as I watched the characters bumble about cluelessly and I wondered how contagious it was and how easily it could spread. 

What Moves the Dead was awesome and I can officially say that I’ll be checking out T. Kingfisher’s other horror novels in the near future. I loved the build up of dread, a particularly horrifying scene in the family crypt, and the ending was very well wrapped up. This was a great retelling and honestly, now I’m on the lookout for more Poe retellings by other authors! This author writes incredible characters, and though this was a petite lil book Alex had a well-fleshed out background and the side characters were given enough detail to make them more than one dimensional. I’m rather fond of the mycologist and the shoutout to Beatrix Potter! If you’ve been curious about T. Kingfisher’s horror works, I would definitely recommend this as a starting point!