Member Review
Review by
Lucia P, Media/Journalist
A magnificently queer reimagining of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall Of The House Of Usher,” What Moves The Dead features all the key elements of the original source material: The two remaining Ushers, Roderick and Madeline; the house, formerly grand but now falling into decay; the illness, the death, and the mystery surrounding them both; the tarn, and its inexplicable nighttime glow; and, of course, the mushrooms.
Oh, the mushrooms.
But Kingfisher takes all of these elements and spins them out, pulling and twisting the threads — the mycelia, if you will — to create something new, exploring different themes
This one is not just about the way a family can destroy itself, but also about the way inherited secrets can fester, and grow, and become one’s undoing — but also about how we don’t have to let those secrets take us down with them, and what we can DO about them instead.
What Moves The Dead is, dare I say, hopeful — something Poe, although many things, never, ever is.
Also, I would like to petition to make "mushroom horror" a thing. Between What Moves The Dead and Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Mexican Gothic, it has become very, very clear that fungus is HORRIFYING.
Oh, the mushrooms.
But Kingfisher takes all of these elements and spins them out, pulling and twisting the threads — the mycelia, if you will — to create something new, exploring different themes
This one is not just about the way a family can destroy itself, but also about the way inherited secrets can fester, and grow, and become one’s undoing — but also about how we don’t have to let those secrets take us down with them, and what we can DO about them instead.
What Moves The Dead is, dare I say, hopeful — something Poe, although many things, never, ever is.
Also, I would like to petition to make "mushroom horror" a thing. Between What Moves The Dead and Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Mexican Gothic, it has become very, very clear that fungus is HORRIFYING.
*This page contains affiliate links, so we may earn a small commission when you make a purchase through links on our site at no additional cost to you.
