T. Kingfisher

From T. Kingfisher, the award-winning author of The Twisted Ones, comes What Moves the Dead, a gripping and atmospheric retelling of Edgar Allan Poe's classic "The Fall of the House of Usher." *A very special hardcover edition, featuring foil stamp on the casing and custom endpapers illustrated by the author.* 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. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

What Moves the Dead

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.

J Nieto

The dead may walk, but I will not walk among them.

A Frenchwoman once told me that I had no poetry in my soul. I recited a dirty limerick to her, and she threw a lemon at my head. Paris is a marvelous city.

Every Gallacian soldier I know carries at least one bottle of livrit with kan. It reminds us that we are part of a great and glorious tradition of people doing gallant things in the service of a country that can't find its arse with both hands and a map.

It was fun. People get hung up on happiness and joy, but fun will take you at least as far and it's generally cheaper to obtain.

I am living for the American slander in this book 💀

It must have been terribly galling to be barred from an organization merely because one lacked the proper genitals, when disreputable Americans were allowed to join and write about underwater mushrooms.

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

I am never sure what to think of Americans. Their brashness can be charming, but just when I decide that I rather like them, I meet one that I wish would go back to America, and then perhaps keep going off the far edge, into the sea.

Relatable. As someone who’s worked with fungi, same…

Perhaps it would not have been so unsettling if the mushrooms had not looked so much like flesh. The caps were clammy, swollen beige, puffed up against the dark-red gills. They grew out of the gaps in the stones of the tarn like tumors growing from diseased skin. I had a strong urge to step back from them, and an even stronger urge to poke them with a stick.

Emiley Jones

Angus drew himself up to his full height, which wasn't much, and full dignity, which was considerable. “‘Tis not my place to speak on the habits of witches.

the dead may walk, but i will not walk among them.

“are they all like this?" i asked, gazing up at the bookshelves with their burden of rotting words.

I don't know how long we sat there after that, drinking our courage. Too long probably. But sooner or later you have to act or resign yourself to not acting at all. 

People get hung up on happiness and joy, but fun will take you at least as far, and it's generally cheaper to obtain.

Nganh

The mushroom's gills were the deep-red color of severed muscle, the almost-violet shade that contrasts so dreadfully with the pale pink of viscera. I had seen it any number of times in dead deer and dying soldiers, but it startled me to see it here. Perhaps it would not have been so unsettling if the mush- rooms had not looked so much like flesh. The caps were clammy, swollen beige, puffed up against the dark-red gills.

Alex Easton may be one of my very favorite protagonists, in horror and otherwise. 

Caroline Clutterbuck Kapulkin

I don’t know how long we sat there after that, drinking our courage. Too long, probably. But sooner or later you have to act or resign yourself to not acting at all.

Designing a vodka-like drink made from lichen. Does this world building have a purpose to the story? Probably not, but it’s a damned delight. 

The resulting drink starts starts syrupy, ends bitter, and burns all the way down. No one actually likes it, but it is traditionally made by widows as a means of supporting themselves, so everyone drinks it because you can't let little old ladies starve to death when they could be climhing mountains and scraping lichen off rocks instead.

Kingfisher infuses such an incredible sense of foreboding in her writing… And Easton is the perfect protagonist to investigate.

l have, as I have told you, reader, the psychic sensitivities of mud. It did not occur to me that I might be hallucinating, or that I might be seeing a ghost. Someone was walking through the halls at night and that someone must be real and alive.

"Sorry, boy,” I said. "I’m not good company today."

Hob's ears were the equine equivalent of a shrug. Horses don't understand a lot about the world, but I have found that they sometimes understand particular humans terrifyingly well. Mules understand a lot more about the world, but less about humans—or possibly they just don't care what humans think. I’d buy either explanation, really.

Kingfisher is a master of the opening sentence.

The mushroom's gills were the deep-red color of severed muscle, the almost-violet shade that contrasts so dreadfully with the pale pink of viscera. I had seen it any number of times in dead deer and dying soldiers, but it startled me to see it here.

The war had been hard on my feet and my knees and my faith in humanity. 

"Is it?" He turned away. "I hear the woodworms gnawing in the beams," he muttered. "Would to God that they would gnaw a little faster."

The war is the backdrop to most of my dreams. The house I grew up in, my grandmother's cottage, and the war, as if it was a place that I lived. I can't even say they're all nightmares. Sometimes it's just where the dream is happening.

Granted, the plants all looked dead or dying. Granted, the windows of the house stared down like eye sockets in a row of skulls, yes, but so what? Actual rows of skulls wouldn't affect me so strongly. I knew a collector in Paris ... well, never mind the details. He was the gentlest of souls, though he did collect rather odd things. But he used to put festive hats on his skulls depending on the season, and they all looked rather jolly.

It is a cliche to say that a building's windows look like eyes because humans will find faces in anything and of course the windows would be the eyes. The house of Usher had dozens of eyes, so either it was a great many faces lined up together or it was the face of some creature belonging to a different order of life—a spider, perhaps, with rows of eyes along its head.

Grows more unnerving the longer you read. Ending makes you reevaluate every previous scene.

Charlie Winchester 

buny

Short and sweet. Feels kinda slow at first but the moment it picks up !!!!!!! I've never read the original by Edgar Allan Poe so I was pleasantly surprised by the horror in this (even though I wasn't particularly scared for even a sec aside from that one bit of Alex finding Maddy sleepwalking the second time) and found the entire concept of the fungus to be SO cool and felt on the edge of my seat w barely contained curiosity and wonder bc. So badass!!!!!! So cool!!!!!!!! 

The ambiance is so important to me when I'm reading my silly lil horror or mysteries so the dark gothic house of the Ushers, the sinister tarn; the sense of something terrible lurking beneath it, and the strange happenings with the gloominess had me by the throat. I'm so glad I read this in October bc reading this in ANY other month would be a great disservice to the way it's supposed to be read. All of that paired with Alex, our main character, with their sense of humor that just pertained to me so well (at times sarcastic, at times to make others feel better) was a delightful treat! The note on how it ended was also just perfect so I really have nothing to complain about for once. Safe to say, I'll be looking forward to reading more T. Kingfisher in the future 🫡💝

Finally something that hits the right spot for me !!!

Sarah Sammis

T. Kingfisher who lives on a large expanse of land, who loves to garden, but also has a healthy respect for the untamed landscape, is extremely skilled at creating visuals that will stick with a reader, and burrow into their very psyche. If those details happen to be something that the reader is somewhat squicked by, they will be in for an uncomfortable, lasting, but oddly, satisfying read. What Moves the Dead was one of those books, much more so than almost any other book I've read by this author.

http://pussreboots.com/blog/2022/comm...

Privileged	Home	Cornfield	0066FF

britt

i choose the perfect day to read this because it is indeed a dark and stormy night and i got creeped the fuck out at some point when i had to let my dog outside. this was amazing and i am begging that it get turns into a movie adaptation.

Eerie and enticing. I always love retellings of classic stories, and this was dark and gothic while also drawing you in. 

Erin Goss

“The dead may walk, but I will not walk among them.”

---------------------------------

Fungi are so cool and weird and terrifying, man. Their little mushroom hats. The way they are neither plant nor animal. The crazy way they can communicate and affect the life around them. Just amazing. And I am realizing that I have become quite a fan of the “fungi horror” genre (don’t laugh, it is totally a thing that exists).

So, it is no wonder that I have thoroughly enjoyed What Moves The Dead, where the fascinating world of mushrooms meets one of Edgar Allan Poe’s most memorable stories. It is a perfect Gothic read, brimming with a gloomy atmosphere, strange characters, and ominous signs, all with an original and humorous modern twist to it.

A great read, a gorgeous cover, and all the Gothic vibes my soul craves at this time of year. 10/10

the fall of the house of usher retellings will always get me

envie,

I LOVED THIS SO MUCH!!!! Seriously, everything from the cover, to the premise, to the atmospheric dark writing of T. Kingfisher, the fantastically lovable narrator that is Alex Easton, down right to the author’s note. I might come back to write a longer review, but for now just know that I loved it all!

Rien

Ok, this book genuinely creeped the hell out of me and made me consciously breathe while reading. If you're interested in cordyceps fungus or the likes then read this lol

I really enjoyed this one! It was definitely spooky and perfect for the season, and I liked how it was short to help me feel productive during my reading slump🥲. The concept was perfectly unsettling and macabre in the way only an 1800s Poe inspired story could be. 

Emily O'Masters

I read this for my book club. It was really well paced and a fun read. It reminded me a lot of Mexican Gothic. 

Bethany Jenkins

Kat Albanese

Kelsey Munson

A summary: 

Person goes to friends house. 
There is a suspicious lake nearby.
“Zombie” hares appear. 
Shit goes bump in the night.
And the culprit turned out to be a pretty fun guy. 

Spoiler: (It was fungi. It was fungi all along)

The end 

8/10 Quick fun read that makes me want to stare at rabbits more frequently than I used to. Just in case.

Jemima Scott

Lara Engle

As a teacher who reads "The Fall of the House of Usher" with my students yearly, I had high expectations for this reimagining. I love the language, description, and all around gothicness of the original and this version held up well on those fronts. The characterization in this version is more rounded out in many ways. I found the narrator particularly delightful with their dry wit. As the story advanced, the tension and creep factor built steadily, as they should, and some parts were straight horrifying. The conclusion was a little anticlimactic, but the rest was so good that I'll forgive it.

Briar's Reviews

I love intertext, and especially intertext that takes a story and makes it horror. After an English literature class in university introducing me to the magic of retelling a classic story and making it more terrifying, this is my favourite niche. What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher is peek horror intertext, which means I LOVED IT.

What is this book? A spooky retelling of a classic Edgar Allan Poe tale (The Fall of the House of Usher). A retired soldier is called to a childhood friend's house now that she is dying. What he finds there is unsettling - two ill friends, spooky voices at night, horrifying hares, and fungi that are nightmare fuel. He needs to help his friends and perhaps save the community as a whole.

My notes?
1. The cover is creepy and I LOVE IT.
2. This is a great retelling that takes enough of the original but puts a nice spin on it so you aren't having the same story told all over again with just a new author.
3. Creepy hares being possessed and spooky was not what I was expecting despite the cover, but it was much welcomed.
4. I knew something was off with the illness, but shockingly I did not put one and two together. T. Kingfisher tricked me. 
5. Why is it always some random old friend who comes to a big fancy mansion to find something creepy? This specific story gets me every time.
6. There's a horse! He is safe and well, but he is a highlight of this story.
7. Mrs. Potter is my fave character next to the horse and creepy hares.

Give me more books like this pronto! 

Five out of five stars!

love an adaption, and i deeply enjoyed this gothic edgar allan poe exploration into the fall of the house of usher. 4 stars bc it was an awkward length and the pacing was kinda strange 

Clara Gauthier

kingfisher has a captivating writing style, and the story was paced very well for something so short. it was creepy, intriguing, and hard to put down; i finished it all in one sitting. my one critique is that the ending unfortunately felt a bit abrupt.

hannie

Entertaining although predictable. A mild horror but still a quick easy read. 

Jessica Van Wart

Fun, quick read. Obsessed with the lead narrator and will be diving more into T Kingfishers other books. 

Jacque

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.

Complicated feelings. Interesting take on the classic tale but overall didn’t grip me like I thought it would. Also might be biased because I listened to the audiobook and did NOT vibe with the narration (sorry 😩)

Bowie 

Athena

I never read Poe’s story but this made me wanna read it. It was really interesting and entertaining. It’s a good book to read if you just want a short story.

“House of Usher”, but with “The Last of Us” energy.

I read this in about 4 hours (audiobook at 1.5 speed). Highly recommend the audiobook. The trans rep and non-binary pronouns feel both clever and natural. And the supporting characters are so charming.

TW: brief transphobia (more ignorant than malicious, IMHO), horror elements including body horror, animal death

Liz Griffin

“House of Usher”, but with “The Last of Us” energy.

I read this in about 4 hours (audiobook at 1.5 speed). Highly recommend the audiobook. The trans rep and non-binary pronouns feel both clever and natural. And the supporting characters are so charming.

TW: brief transphobia (more ignorant than malicious, IMHO), horror elements including body horror, animal death

fungi horror does something to me . so good

What Moves the Dead

Reviews

Highlights