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A review by tashasbooks
What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
4.5
What Moves the Dead was a super interesting retelling of The Fall of The House of Usher by Edgar Allen Poe.
Alex Easton is a retired soldier that gets a strange letter from a childhood friend imploring him to come to her manor due to her falling ill. Alex journeys to the small town to find that everything is a bit strange and both Madeline Usher and her brother, Roderick, are suffering from a strange illness. The wildlife doesn't seem to act normal and there are fungal growths everywhere. Alex must get to the bottom of all this strangeness in order to help both the Ushers with the help of a doctor and fungal expert.
I haven't read the short story before, so I wasn't familiar with the background and inspiration behind the story. You definitely feel an eerie and strange atmosphere and Alex himself is very wary of everything happening in the town. The hares that don't run from people and the lake that seems to glow at night definitely hike up the intensity. It's a fast moving book considering it is only a novella, but I do feel like there was sufficient world-building and we do learn a lot about Alex through their interactions.
The explanation behind the fungal growth and the overall description of everything happening really added to the spooky atmosphere. It definitely matches the setting of gothic horror but also including fungus haha. The cast was great and has that humor and camaraderie that T. Kingfisher is always really good at writing in her horror novels. The only reason this isn't rated higher is just because I wish we got more! I wanted more development character wise and getting to know them all which is always hard with a novella.
Alex Easton is a retired soldier that gets a strange letter from a childhood friend imploring him to come to her manor due to her falling ill. Alex journeys to the small town to find that everything is a bit strange and both Madeline Usher and her brother, Roderick, are suffering from a strange illness. The wildlife doesn't seem to act normal and there are fungal growths everywhere. Alex must get to the bottom of all this strangeness in order to help both the Ushers with the help of a doctor and fungal expert.
I haven't read the short story before, so I wasn't familiar with the background and inspiration behind the story. You definitely feel an eerie and strange atmosphere and Alex himself is very wary of everything happening in the town. The hares that don't run from people and the lake that seems to glow at night definitely hike up the intensity. It's a fast moving book considering it is only a novella, but I do feel like there was sufficient world-building and we do learn a lot about Alex through their interactions.
The explanation behind the fungal growth and the overall description of everything happening really added to the spooky atmosphere. It definitely matches the setting of gothic horror but also including fungus haha. The cast was great and has that humor and camaraderie that T. Kingfisher is always really good at writing in her horror novels. The only reason this isn't rated higher is just because I wish we got more! I wanted more development character wise and getting to know them all which is always hard with a novella.