What Moves the Dead
Ratings281
Average rating3.8
I love a gothic horror story but I love a gothic horror story that includes fungi! This was my first time reading T. Kingfisher and this story felt like a wonderful introduction into her work. What Moves the Dead is creepy, funny, and an all-around beautiful. I love the way the author uses language to describe the manor, nature, and characters. My only criticism with the novella is that the ending felt a little bit rushed, given how short it is. Overall, I highly enjoyed this quick read and if you like anything gothic, I recommend it!
I honestly can't remember if I've read Fall of the House of Usher, but I'm totally going to add it to my list.
I liked this, but it didn't quite pull me in. I felt like it was presented as a mystery, but also made it immediately obvious what the “secret” was. Like, if you look at the cover, you know exactly what's going on.
I liked the idea of a social group that gets their own pronouns, but I felt like there was a lot of tell-don't-show surrounding it that took up too much of this short tale.
I loved the characters of Alex, Miss Potter, Angus, and Denton, so that carried me along, and I like the idea of fleshing out The Fall of the House of Usher. It certainly had atmosphere, and there were some very creepy moments.
What a fucking excellent horror novel. I both enjoyed the story as well as the writing style and dialogue. I was looking for a good horror book since being disappointed by several other ‘horrors' in the past couple of months and fuck did I find it.
The characters were excellent and the story was great. It really unnerved me, which is exactly what I wanted. Miss Potter was definitely my favourite. I am definitely going to read more by Kingfisher, might be one of my new favourite authors if this keeps up.
Writing is very good, entertaining and builds a spooky, creepy atmosphere. The main character was interesting but a little underdeveloped. I love the overall gothic tones of this novella and I don't think it was a bad take on Poe's “Fall of the house of Usher.” However the ending was lackluster and a bit rushed. I felt let down to go through all that awesome ambiance and gothic feel to have a flat, boring ending that literally wrapped itself up in a few scenes. I did enjoy the story but the ending definitely knocked off a few stars for me.
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Writing is very good, entertaining and builds a spooky, creepy atmosphere. The main character was interesting but a little underdeveloped. I love the overall gothic tones of this novella and I don't think it was a bad take on Poe's “Fall of the house of Usher.” However the ending was lackluster and a bit rushed. I felt let down to go through all that awesome ambiance and gothic feel to have a flat, boring ending that literally wrapped itself up in a few scenes. I did enjoy the story but the ending definitely knocked off a few stars for me.
read for strangeathon 2022: strange cover
sigh
this book was just fine. this is a retelling of the fall of the house of usher and i love poe so much so despite not loving t. kingfisher's other work i still wanted to try it out. while i did enjoy some things about this like the incorporation of a non-binary character, especially in a historical setting and the atmosphere, this book didn't work for me.
the writing i think was my main problem. this book was really written like it was a classic and i couldn't stand it. if i wanted classic writing i would read a classic. i don't mind historical but this was too much for me personally but others may not mind it. i also didn't care for the plot a lot but the fungus twist was done in a semi-interesting way because it went more scientific. i read mexican gothic and didn't love it either so maybe i don't like this twist but i didn't mind it in this book. it just wasn't my favorite. i felt like this meandered a lot and i was bored most of the time.
as i said the atmosphere was fantastic though and it's genuinely what kept me reading and prevented me from dnfing this. i love poe so much but somethin about this just didn't hit for me. i don't really like haunted house stories either and even the original house of usher isn't my favorite so that could be potentially why as well.
thank you to tor nightfire, t. kingfisher, and netgalley for an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review
Eh. I just reread Fall of the House of Usher earlier this month for Spooktober so I was really excited to dig into this one. A retelling of one of the most iconic horror stories of my childhood and by an author whose work I have been very much enjoying in the past couple years? Everything about this screamed a yes. Unfortunately, this fell a little bit flat for me, so this would be a 2.5/5. I felt like the whole plot reveal at the end was super obvious from as early as the 10-20% mark of the book, so I spent most of the book just waiting to see if I'm right or not, much to the detriment of the tension in the book. I will however say that the climax of the book was at least still well done and engaging enough.
Our story opens with our protagonist, Alex Easton, who is answering a letter from childhood friends, Madeline and Roderick Usher, stating that Madeline was in critical condition from a sudden mysterious illness. Along the way, Alex also meets a mysterious English mycologist, Eugenia Potter, as well as an American ex-medic soldier boarding with the Ushers, Denton.
The plot here only vaguely follows that of the Fall of the House of Usher and deviates from it more and more as the story goes on. A lot of things have been inserted into the story here, which I don't normally mind in retellings. I don't even mind if authors wanted to insert a new message, characters, or settings into their retellings of an iconic piece of work. What I did take issue with here is how random and meaningless the insertions seemed to be. A major new element here is the protagonist being from a fictional European country called Gallachia, in which apparently people who serve in the military are “gifted” with new gender-neutral pronouns, kan and ka, in order to distinguish themselves as a soldier. Alex being a sworn soldier uses those pronouns and it's used liberally in dialogue and narrative in the middle of English sentences: e.g. Alex checked kanself. Ka was bleeding. It just felt really really clunky and contrived. My bigger issue with this is that it never served any purpose in the story, not even to convey any sort of message, so I was really confused why this was even added in at all except maybe to chalk up diversity points.
Another more minor point is having Eugenia Potter as the aunt to Beatrix Potter, who is mentioned in a nudge nudge wink wink moment only once in the story. In the first place, I thought the presence of a mycologist, and a female one at that, self-admittedly rare as all hell in the time period, on the scene just seemed way too convenient as well. Then, we had another pointless reference that led nowhere, mentioned in my spoiler above.
As I mentioned, I pretty much guessed the whole mystery of this one from very early on in the book, not that the book was really trying to be subtle about it with the very first lines of the book opening with talk about fungi, and the actual book cover having so many mushrooms on it... it's not that hard to guess. This made the whole middle portion of the book feel a little draggy because - I feel like I already know what's going on, why can't the protagonist see what's super obvious in front of their eyes, can we get on with it already? It took away from the tension of the book, which is integral to creating horror.
I will give credit to the ending of the book which was still pretty engaging and still packed a few punches even though there wasn't a twist that surprised me. I had guessed it about the zombie fungus, but had imagined Madeline to be a complete puppet. Instead in the end it seemed like she retained some kind of consciousness of herself, even if it had been completely poisoned by that of the fungus. Or who knows, maybe it was the fungus itself pretending to be Madeline and talking to Alex? Also the part about Roderick having killed Madeline and thus her romping about with a broken neck was also a little bit of unexpected horror. Again though, didn't need Eugenia to come traipsing with her magnifying glass to tell me that those filaments are fungus... Would've also liked it if we had ended it with all of them getting infected rather than a deus ex machina element where we find out that they've actually not been drinking from the lake all along, and somehow sulphur was enough to kill all the fungus there. Just tied it up a bit too neatly imo.
Merged review:
Eh. I just reread Fall of the House of Usher earlier this month for Spooktober so I was really excited to dig into this one. A retelling of one of the most iconic horror stories of my childhood and by an author whose work I have been very much enjoying in the past couple years? Everything about this screamed a yes. Unfortunately, this fell a little bit flat for me, so this would be a 2.5/5. I felt like the whole plot reveal at the end was super obvious from as early as the 10-20% mark of the book, so I spent most of the book just waiting to see if I'm right or not, much to the detriment of the tension in the book. I will however say that the climax of the book was at least still well done and engaging enough.
Our story opens with our protagonist, Alex Easton, who is answering a letter from childhood friends, Madeline and Roderick Usher, stating that Madeline was in critical condition from a sudden mysterious illness. Along the way, Alex also meets a mysterious English mycologist, Eugenia Potter, as well as an American ex-medic soldier boarding with the Ushers, Denton.
The plot here only vaguely follows that of the Fall of the House of Usher and deviates from it more and more as the story goes on. A lot of things have been inserted into the story here, which I don't normally mind in retellings. I don't even mind if authors wanted to insert a new message, characters, or settings into their retellings of an iconic piece of work. What I did take issue with here is how random and meaningless the insertions seemed to be. A major new element here is the protagonist being from a fictional European country called Gallachia, in which apparently people who serve in the military are “gifted” with new gender-neutral pronouns, kan and ka, in order to distinguish themselves as a soldier. Alex being a sworn soldier uses those pronouns and it's used liberally in dialogue and narrative in the middle of English sentences: e.g. Alex checked kanself. Ka was bleeding. It just felt really really clunky and contrived. My bigger issue with this is that it never served any purpose in the story, not even to convey any sort of message, so I was really confused why this was even added in at all except maybe to chalk up diversity points.
Another more minor point is having Eugenia Potter as the aunt to Beatrix Potter, who is mentioned in a nudge nudge wink wink moment only once in the story. In the first place, I thought the presence of a mycologist, and a female one at that, self-admittedly rare as all hell in the time period, on the scene just seemed way too convenient as well. Then, we had another pointless reference that led nowhere, mentioned in my spoiler above.
As I mentioned, I pretty much guessed the whole mystery of this one from very early on in the book, not that the book was really trying to be subtle about it with the very first lines of the book opening with talk about fungi, and the actual book cover having so many mushrooms on it... it's not that hard to guess. This made the whole middle portion of the book feel a little draggy because - I feel like I already know what's going on, why can't the protagonist see what's super obvious in front of their eyes, can we get on with it already? It took away from the tension of the book, which is integral to creating horror.
I will give credit to the ending of the book which was still pretty engaging and still packed a few punches even though there wasn't a twist that surprised me. I had guessed it about the zombie fungus, but had imagined Madeline to be a complete puppet. Instead in the end it seemed like she retained some kind of consciousness of herself, even if it had been completely poisoned by that of the fungus. Or who knows, maybe it was the fungus itself pretending to be Madeline and talking to Alex? Also the part about Roderick having killed Madeline and thus her romping about with a broken neck was also a little bit of unexpected horror. Again though, didn't need Eugenia to come traipsing with her magnifying glass to tell me that those filaments are fungus... Would've also liked it if we had ended it with all of them getting infected rather than a deus ex machina element where we find out that they've actually not been drinking from the lake all along, and somehow sulphur was enough to kill all the fungus there. Just tied it up a bit too neatly imo.
A pleasure to read which is not always something I associate with horror. You feel a little sticky after though. It???s breezy to boot.
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A pleasure to read which is not always something I associate with horror. You feel a little sticky after though. It???s breezy to boot.
Creepy, uncomfy read in the best way. I wanted a fun little horror and got more than I anticipated, with a lovingly queer character and in some places a sad contemplation, alongside downright horrifying imagery. Imagining standing in a ring of undead hares watching you ‘kill' one of them is delightfully creepy, all my hair stood on end. Very good read!
Crippling, gothic and interesting. Found it fascinating and the tension was perfect, slowly figuring it out and never feeling like it treated you like a dumb reader. Loved the characters and the level of creepiness.
3.6 rounded down
I decided to rate this in comparison to the original short story, The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allen Poe, which is a four star short story for me.
I liked the expansion of the setting and the characters, and some of the plot changes.
One creepy scene, almost halfway in, will stick with me for a long time, more than anything in the short story. I wish there had been more of that in the second half.
I feel the ending was a real departure from the original, and while I like the change in some respects, I also feel that it was like removing the heart of The Fall of the House of Usher from the story.
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3.6 rounded down
I decided to rate this in comparison to the original short story, The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allen Poe, which is a four star short story for me.
I liked the expansion of the setting and the characters, and some of the plot changes.
One creepy scene, almost halfway in, will stick with me for a long time, more than anything in the short story. I wish there had been more of that in the second half.
I feel the ending was a real departure from the original, and while I like the change in some respects, I also feel that it was like removing the heart of The Fall of the House of Usher from the story.
I've read a few T. Kingfisher books at this point and this one was just missing something for me. Missing some small magical piece that leaves me enthralled like the other works I've read so far have. Great atmosphere and concept with the mushrooms being tied in and the “adventuring” aspect.
I will however skip the rest of the books in this series.
ZALIG! Echt tof gedaan.In theorie hou ik echt van het gothic genre, maar in de praktijk zijn er weinig boeken in dat genre waar ik echt van heb genoten. Meestal komt mijn ontgoocheling door het feit dat er zelden verklaringen worden gegeven aan de gebeurtenissen. Het genre is vaak vooral vibes, een gemoedsinstelling, een duistere toon, een dreigend gevoel. Daartegenover staat dan vaak ook dat niks echt een reden of ontstaansgeschiedenis heeft, maar er gewoon is, puur en alleen om dat gevoel te creëren.Als dit er bij jou ook voor zorgt dat je vaak op je honger blijft zitten bij een gothic roman, dan is dit boek echt wel het perfecte antwoord! Het is een hervertelling van Edgar Allan Poe's [b:The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Tales 32559 The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Tales Edgar Allan Poe https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1355276847l/32559.SY75.jpg 4035401], maar dan met een soort van uitleg voor die val van het huis.“No, you blithering idiot,” I growled, shaking his hand off. 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 know she's dead! I'm telling you, her body's gone!”“She's not in the crypt. The slab is empty. We cannot habeas the corpus. Is any of this getting through?” (I was, perhaps, rather less reverent than the situation warranted, but it is a flaw of mine that I become sarcastic when I am frustrated.)Bovendien slaagt Kingfisher erin om haar verhaal zowel de dreiging en sfeer van een typische gothic roman mee te geven, terwijl het ook nog eens grappig is op een droge, gevatte manier. Aanrader!Merged review:ZALIG! Echt tof gedaan.In theorie hou ik echt van het gothic genre, maar in de praktijk zijn er weinig boeken in dat genre waar ik echt van heb genoten. Meestal komt mijn ontgoocheling door het feit dat er zelden verklaringen worden gegeven aan de gebeurtenissen. Het genre is vaak vooral vibes, een gemoedsinstelling, een duistere toon, een dreigend gevoel. Daartegenover staat dan vaak ook dat niks echt een reden of ontstaansgeschiedenis heeft, maar er gewoon is, puur en alleen om dat gevoel te creëren.Als dit er bij jou ook voor zorgt dat je vaak op je honger blijft zitten bij een gothic roman, dan is dit boek echt wel het perfecte antwoord! Het is een hervertelling van Edgar Allan Poe's [b:The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Tales 32559 The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Tales Edgar Allan Poe https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1355276847l/32559.SY75.jpg 4035401], maar dan met een soort van uitleg voor die val van het huis.“No, you blithering idiot,” I growled, shaking his hand off. 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 know she's dead! I'm telling you, her body's gone!”“She's not in the crypt. The slab is empty. We cannot habeas the corpus. Is any of this getting through?” (I was, perhaps, rather less reverent than the situation warranted, but it is a flaw of mine that I become sarcastic when I am frustrated.)Bovendien slaagt Kingfisher erin om haar verhaal zowel de dreiging en sfeer van een typische gothic roman mee te geven, terwijl het ook nog eens grappig is op een droge, gevatte manier. Aanrader!
This was so much fun. My husband and I read it (aloud) together and we enjoyed every page. Creepy, murky, funny, and emotional. Such a great retelling of Poe's classic...which, I will admit, is foggy in my memory, but still present. I need to reread it.
The cover art and concepts were beautiful and compelling. The rest..
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The cover art and concepts were beautiful and compelling. The rest..
This is my kind of writing and story!!! Loved it, so weird, such a vibe, just
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This is my kind of writing and story!!! Loved it, so weird, such a vibe, just
took me me a bit to get into it but after chapter 5 i was so captivated i read it all in one seating! need more horror books that have the wit and lovingly crafted characters this book has!! miss potter i love you sm
Rating: 3 leaves out of 5Characters: 3/5 Cover: 4/5Story: 2.5/5Writing: 2.5/5Genre: Retelling/Horror/MysteryType: AudiobookWorth?: EhHated Disliked Liked Loved FavoritedWant to thank Netgalley and publishers for giving me the chance to listen to this book. I was excited to see this was up for request and instantly hit the button. I have had it on my TBR. It started out pretty great but went kind down hill. I don't know why T. thought it would be best to tell us over and over and over again about something we got the first freaking time. The story was good but could have been done so much better. Sometimes the OG should just be left alone.Merged review:Rating: 3 leaves out of 5Characters: 3/5 Cover: 4/5Story: 2.5/5Writing: 2.5/5Genre: Retelling/Horror/MysteryType: AudiobookWorth?: EhHated Disliked Liked Loved FavoritedWant to thank Netgalley and publishers for giving me the chance to listen to this book. I was excited to see this was up for request and instantly hit the button. I have had it on my TBR. It started out pretty great but went kind down hill. I don't know why T. thought it would be best to tell us over and over and over again about something we got the first freaking time. The story was good but could have been done so much better. Sometimes the OG should just be left alone.
I had a slow start with this one but omg once I was into it it was amazing!
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I had a slow start with this one but omg once I was into it it was amazing!
Note to self: if a book has a ton of hype, please look up how many GR top reviews are 5-star and paid.
This book sincerely sucked. Bad. My 2-star review is super generous.
- was it original? No. It was a retelling of Poe that did absolutely nothing to add to the original. However, it did take away immensely.
- world building? There was a weird attempt to invent a fictional country and language... Unnecessarily boring and ended up going nowhere.
- humor? Fell flat in all attempts
- suspense? None at all
- atmosphere? Absolutely none
- characters? Couldn't care less about a single one
- horror? Still a no
There were glimpses of the author being an ok writer as far as dialogue and lexicon, but overall this book frickin sucks and y'all that gave it rave reviews should be ashamed of yourselves.