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A review by powerpuffgoat
What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher
2.0
I really had high hopes for this book (which is on me). I had no idea that this was a retelling of The Fall of The House of Usher (which is also on me), but I love mycology fiction, weird gothic settings, and the one other book of T. kingfisher's that I have read.
I was disappointed, firstly, in the fact it was based on Poe's short story, especially in such a blatant way. I'm not some purist who thinks this story is untouchable, but I didn't feel like this take added anything special. In my opinion, this would have been a better stand-alone novella.
Secondly, the characters seemed very boxy, like they each had to act in accordance with their prototype. I wonder if T. kingfisher wasn't used to writing for adults yet at that point?
The main character, in particular, just didn't land with me. Ordinarily I would love a book about a maybe non-binary 19th century soldier who is tired of war... But Alex Easton came out quite boring, and not particularly bright. I didn't like the narrative voice, and found the frequent repetition annoying.
The fungus component was okay, I guess, if largely underwhelming. Again, the idea of sentient fungus is interesting, but it wasn't written well. I also can't help but think that the author didn't research how plausible this could be. She decided on fungus, then wrote the story without much thought.
In the same vein, the resolution appeared to be conveniently simple, and mostly skipped. For all the tedious narration this short novella put me through, it resolved very quickly.
And lastly, I found the language of this book quite grating. Again, I don't know if T. kingfisher put much thought in what people spoke like at the time, but with the addition of a fictional country, I guess it is easy to justify any turn of phrase (like Christ's blood repeating 467 times).
The whole pronoun thing was disappointing too. I appreciate the idea behind it, because I speak multiple languages, some of which diviate in structure (pronouns and gendered nouns, in particular) from English. However, the way it happened in this book felt poorly executed. Firstly, the author comes up with extra pronouns for kids and warriors, but they are used and structured exactly the same as English third person pronouns with no deviation elsewhere. Secondly, it feels hamfisted because the whole narration is in English, and going our of your way to sprinkle them in, while also reminded the reader what that pronoun represents... Not to mention, the words the author selected for these foreign pronouns included "van", "tan", and "than", all of which already double as English words. When you use them in an English sentence, it just isn't great. I ended up replacing these words in my head with "it" and "they" to help me make sense, and even then, I couldn't help but notice in some places the pronoun was in the wrong place.
Overall, it was quite a laborious reading experience for such a promising subject and such a short book.
I was disappointed, firstly, in the fact it was based on Poe's short story, especially in such a blatant way. I'm not some purist who thinks this story is untouchable, but I didn't feel like this take added anything special. In my opinion, this would have been a better stand-alone novella.
Secondly, the characters seemed very boxy, like they each had to act in accordance with their prototype. I wonder if T. kingfisher wasn't used to writing for adults yet at that point?
The main character, in particular, just didn't land with me. Ordinarily I would love a book about a maybe non-binary 19th century soldier who is tired of war... But Alex Easton came out quite boring, and not particularly bright. I didn't like the narrative voice, and found the frequent repetition annoying.
The fungus component was okay, I guess, if largely underwhelming. Again, the idea of sentient fungus is interesting, but it wasn't written well. I also can't help but think that the author didn't research how plausible this could be. She decided on fungus, then wrote the story without much thought.
In the same vein, the resolution appeared to be conveniently simple, and mostly skipped. For all the tedious narration this short novella put me through, it resolved very quickly.
And lastly, I found the language of this book quite grating. Again, I don't know if T. kingfisher put much thought in what people spoke like at the time, but with the addition of a fictional country, I guess it is easy to justify any turn of phrase (like Christ's blood repeating 467 times).
The whole pronoun thing was disappointing too. I appreciate the idea behind it, because I speak multiple languages, some of which diviate in structure (pronouns and gendered nouns, in particular) from English. However, the way it happened in this book felt poorly executed. Firstly, the author comes up with extra pronouns for kids and warriors, but they are used and structured exactly the same as English third person pronouns with no deviation elsewhere. Secondly, it feels hamfisted because the whole narration is in English, and going our of your way to sprinkle them in, while also reminded the reader what that pronoun represents... Not to mention, the words the author selected for these foreign pronouns included "van", "tan", and "than", all of which already double as English words. When you use them in an English sentence, it just isn't great. I ended up replacing these words in my head with "it" and "they" to help me make sense, and even then, I couldn't help but notice in some places the pronoun was in the wrong place.
Overall, it was quite a laborious reading experience for such a promising subject and such a short book.