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aishitaru 's review for:
What Moves the Dead
by T. Kingfisher
What Moves the Dead is a gothic horror retelling of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher,” this novella stands firmly on its own with eerie brilliance and a fresh, modern voice. It was unsettling, immersive, and laced with slow creeping dread. The pacing is almost perfect, with tension that builds steadily through eerie details and clever foreshadowing.
The protagonist, a sharp-witted female soldier, brings a refreshing perspective. Her subtle commentary and occasional, well-placed personal insights give the story emotional weight while also emphasizing the horror of her surroundings. Her character challenges social conventions without the narrative ever feeling preachy especially with the interactions between Ms. Potter and Easton.
While the dry sarcasm adds some levity, it sometimes feels overdone. The ending, too, feels a little too neat—lacking the urgency or chaos that the story seemed to be heading toward. I had hoped the antagonist had put up more of a fight rather than to simply claim “a peace existence (though they had claimed the life of someone already and had wrecked the local ecosystem).
Still, this is a chilling, memorable read with atmosphere to spare. But man reanimated corpses definitely weren’t on my 2025 bingo card
The protagonist, a sharp-witted female soldier, brings a refreshing perspective. Her subtle commentary and occasional, well-placed personal insights give the story emotional weight while also emphasizing the horror of her surroundings. Her character challenges social conventions without the narrative ever feeling preachy especially with the interactions between Ms. Potter and Easton.
While the dry sarcasm adds some levity, it sometimes feels overdone. The ending, too, feels a little too neat—lacking the urgency or chaos that the story seemed to be heading toward. I had hoped the antagonist had put up more of a fight rather than to simply claim “a peace existence (though they had claimed the life of someone already and had wrecked the local ecosystem).
Still, this is a chilling, memorable read with atmosphere to spare. But man reanimated corpses definitely weren’t on my 2025 bingo card