What Moves The Dead is a retelling of The Fall of the House of Usher. Set in the year 1890 in a rural English town, the story centers around a former soldier named Alex Easton. Easton who just learned that his childhood friend Madeline Usher is dying immediately goes to the Usher family home. As soon as Alex arrives he notices bizarre fungal growths on the Usher family’s property. Alex then meets an eclectic group of characters: Miss Porter who is a proper British lady that studies fungal growths, Denton an American doctor, and Madeline’s brother Rodrick who is afflicted with a bizarre nervous condition.

At less than 200 pages, What Moves The Dead is more of a novella but the shorter length didn’t deter me from loving this story any less. First off I loved the LGBTQA+ representation in this book and Kingfisher crafted a perfect version of Poe’s original unnamed Soldier in Alex Easton. It’s hard for an author to do a retelling for various reasons, especially on a widely loved tale as The Fall of the House of Usher but T Kingfisher did an amazing job here! Not only did she stay true to Poe’s original masterpiece but she actually enhanced the story.

What Moves The Dead is not only spine-tingling, atmospheric, and full of white-knuckled suspense, but at the heart of the story is mystery surrounded by a dilapidated gothic house.

Without spoiling anything for anyone, I will say that I will forever be scared of mushrooms after reading this one. I am a huge fan of the T Kingfisher’s prior novels The Hollow Places and The Twisted One's but What Moves The Dead solidified my admiration for the author's extraordinary writing.

I highly recommend this book for fans of Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher and horror readers looking for an entirely unique and perfectly creepy story.

A reimagining of The Fall of the House of Usher? SIGN ME UP. The story follows Alex Easton, a retired soldier who has received a mysterious letter from their childhood friend Madeline Usher who is dying. Easton rushes over to the Usher home, a ancestral home in the remote country side of Ruritania. Upon arrival Easton notices strange fungi surrounding the area and possessed wildlife as well as a dark pulsing lake. Things get stranger when Easton arrives at the home and he finds that Madeline has been sleepwalking and talking in strange voices at night while her brother Roderick is consumed with a mysterious malady of the nerves. Besides Easton there is a polite British mycologist he runs into and a baffled American Doctor also there. It is up to Easton and co to uncover what is truly happening in the House of Usher and what has consumed the people who live there. Filled with a slow building dread, great description of fungi that will have you shivering, and a just all around great retelling of the classic short story by Edgar Allan Poe!

*Thanks Netgalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge, Tor Nightfire for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

Kingfisher is a phenomenon. I am not usually a horror reader. I'm squeamish. I have nightmares. But, since discovering Kingfisher's books a year ago, I've been reading as many as I could. I do like historical fiction done well, and while she invents some countries in this story, the setting and details ring true and consistent. Alex Easton, retired sworn soldier, goes to a remote mansion to visit ka friends (in Gallacian, nongendered pronouns are used for soldiers), siblings Madeline and Roderick Usher. Madeline is exceedingly ill with a strange ailment and seems to be swiftly fading away. James Denton, an American doctor is also visiting the dank, moldering manse that sits on the edge of a tarn. Alex, fearing some of Maddy's frailty may be the lack of meat goes hunting and discovers the strange hares, abundant on the mushroom strewn terrain, do not die when shot. Miss Potter, an artist and mycologist (not THAT Miss Potter, rather her aunt) sheds light on the local fungi. Enthralling and so very creepy, this is great horror story inspired by Poe's "Fall of the House of Usher" looks like it will be in my top ten for 2022. One of the things I love about Kingfisher is that she can write grotesque horror with a total absence of malevolence.

"What Moves the Dead" is an eerie retelling of Edgar Allen Poe's classic, "The House of Usher". A novella, "What Moves the Dead" doesn't fall victim to slow-pacing, instead jumping straight into the "oh no" and "wtf is happening" right off the bat. While its central conceit is not particularly innovative (evil fungus; this isn't a spoiler if you look at the cover or read the summary), the story itself is beautifully told, and incredibly eerie. I particularly enjoyed how this novella took place in a world so similar to - but not quite - our own. Recommended to anyone who likes a good retelling in the lines of Caitlin Starling or indeed T. Kingfisher's other longer horror novels.

A horrifying premise with a great sense of place, and writing authentic to the time period. Great gothic horror.

Really well done. A retelling of The Fall of the House of Usher, with fun genderplay that seems irrelevant until suddenly it's relevant. Well done. 4.5 stars.

This story was so creepy and unsettling and I loved every bit of it. T Kingfisher is fast becoming a staple in horror fiction! Can't wait to read more from this author.

I loved this atmospheric horror novella. Playing off the story of The Fall of the House of Usher, but heightening it was brilliant. This was a quick, but impactful read with gorgeous imagery of nature, the human body and architecture. This is my favorite by T. Kingfisher that I have read yet. :D

T Kingfisher has a way with characters that, no matter the time period or genre she's writing in, it creates an unputdownable book. This one was no different. It's delightfully creepy in that particular gothic way, and Easton was a phenomenal main character to pull us through the story. I heartily enjoyed.

Maybe not a retelling of Poe’s <I>The Fall of the House of Usher</I> so much as a fleshing out and expanding

I really enjoyed this. It did have a lot of similarities to <I>Mexican Gothic</I>, but the author acknowledges that in the notes (“Oh my God, what can I <I>possibly</I> do with fungus in a collapsing gothic house that Moreno-Garcia didn’t do ten times better?”). The whole thing was atmospheric with great characters (Beatrix Potter’s aunt is a novice mycologist railing against the patriarchy!), and it was fun in a horrific way.

Easton, a retired soldier, visits an old friend when they receive a letter that his sister is dying. They immediately sense that something is very, very wrong with the house. The whole story takes place over just a few days and all on or near the grounds of the very creepy house and Easton is a great main character: introspective and witty and observant.

<I>I received this book from Tor and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.</I>

"What Moves the Dead" is a reimagining of "The Fall of the House of Usher" -- something that I have never read -- but you don't need to have read "Usher" to follow the story. (I would imagine that having read "Usher" gives "Moves" different layers, though.)

T. Kingfisher is one of my absolute must read authors, and usually one of my comfort reads as well (Except for the horror. No rereading those, they're amazing and well-written, just...no.) "Moves" is more unsettling than horrific, it's creepy and atmospheric and very very good. Short, tightly written and a horse that is a horse and not a thinly disguised human.

Another definite recommendation!

T. Kingfisher's "What Moves the Dead" is a retelling of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher". I've never read Poe's original short story (I certainly will be reading it after this!), but you don't need to have read it to appreciate the genius of this retelling. Here's what you need to know about the story before we proceed to the review: Alex Easton is a retired soldier who gets a message that a close friend of theirs is dying. He travels to the House of Usher, which is where the story opens. This place is not as it seems. It feels sinister and otherworldly, and something is VERY wrong with his friends, the Ushers. What follows are an eerie series of events.

In the same (brilliant) vein as Silvia Moreno Garcia's "Mexican Gothic", "What Moves the Dead" makes us fear the unseen and question our own views of reality. Kingfisher's fungus is almost alien—and that's all I'll say about that for fear of accidentally giving away spoilers. When I picked up this book, all I needed to know was that it was a narrative exploring the possible horrors of fungus. Though, I think what truly sold me while I was reading it were the characters—especially Easton. (Easton's actual pronoun is not "they", but I'll leave that for you to discover because it is a really interesting part of the world building!) Eastin is very funny and so fully formed. I could listen to them for 800 pages! Even the House of Usher is a character itself. A place shrouded in darkness and a place where it seems dreams (and other things) go to die. Needless to say I really enjoyed T. Kingfisher's voice and her pacing and her imagery. This was my first of her works, but it won't be my last! If you like Mexican gothic, or slow, creeping horror stories (which won't give you nightmares, but will leave you wanting a long cold shower), this book is for you.

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Macmillan Forge/ Tor for an advanced copy of this science fictional take on a classic tale.

A soldier is called to a home by a lake by a childhood companion who is ill and possibly dying. The house is in disrepair as is the brother who make up the only remaining members of the family. The soldier's friend is sick, with a white pallor, who walks at night, speaking in some tongue that is both old and unknown. Soon there is a death, but the dead refuse to die. A familiar tale told anew by T. Kingfisher in What Moves the Dead, a retelling of Edgar Allan Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher.

Alex Easton, a retired soldier and one not to believe in ghosts, or frankly after the wars he has fought in not much of anything. Alex has come to the small European country of Ruritania to see both Madeline and old friend from childhood who is very sick, and Roderick her brother and soldier- at- arms with Alex at one point. The house is dilapidated, reeking of mold, water, worms and age. A Doctor, an American who had served in one of that country's many wars is present and says that Madeline is sick, but from what no one knows and that moving her would be just as much a death sentence. The lake outside is odd, glowing at night with odd lights, and strange things floating in it, and the fish seems inedible. Around the lake the local fauna have been acting odd too, taking on strange movements and steps, with a loss of their fear of humans. At one point Madeline had fallen in the water, and the lake seemed unwilling to let her go, as if something was in the lake, controlling it.

What a fun book. Everything is familiar and yet wonderfully different and new. Alex Easton is a fantastic and interesting character with a deep past and an intriguing culture, one that I want to know more about. The Ushers are more victims, and not much is given to them. The American is pleasingly American, asking dumb questions, not sure of the the answers yet brave anyway. The big surprise is a Ms. Potter who has come to this region for the mushrooms, and seems to have a good idea and plan for what is happening in the area. The story is clear, good and ratchets the tension nicely, keeping the reader on their toes, and adding quite a lot to the story. Really a very good retelling.

I'm not a fan of regurgitating someone else's story, but this one was quite good. What was added made sense, and gives a different view of the story, and introduced a love of interesting ideas to expand on the short story. Very well done. Recommended for readers of Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno- Garcia's Mexican Gothic, The Album of Dr. Moreau and Frankissstein by Jenette Winterson.

Oh this was fun! To wrap up April, I read this one. I had so much fun putting this mystery together and honestly was shocked at the twists! I really do t have much to say about this one tbh. 😅

I recommend this quick and haunting read!

Thank you NetGalley and Tor/Forge for an eARC!

What Moves the Dead by T Kingfisher releases July 12, 2022!

Firstly, I must say that I have no familiarity with the source material that Kingfisher derived inspiration from. So take my review with that in mind. I enjoyed the narrator. The horror aspects were well done and very spooky. Other than that, the most I can say is that this book was fine. It was an easy way to spend an afternoon.

So, I’ll admit to you that I’m a little more of a ‘Things Go Boom!’ kind of reader. I like my books fast and hard and edgy.

What Moves the Dead is a slower, more atmospheric read – and, yet, I really liked it! While you don’t need awareness of Poe’s original tale to enjoy this, but fans of the original will love this homage. Kingfisher manages to evoke a real feeling of dread, grief and madness throughout the piece.

While I wasn’t surprised at the reason behind everything, I still found myself engaged – there are some truly creepy scenes here!

If you do prefer fast-moving books, you may find the pacing a bit slow for you, but the sharp writing and some truly horrific scenes should please any reader with a taste for the dark side of things.

• ARC via Publisher

A swift and compelling re-telling of THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER, one that doesn't really try to change too much or do anything else besides, well, do a retelling of USHER. There are mushrooms, there are strange miasmas, there's a fire and a ghost and all that you'd expect. A great afternoon's read.

"Sometimes it's hard to know if someone is insulting you or just an American." I absolutely adore T. Kingfisher. Honestly, there is no one else on earth who makes me laugh just two seconds after making me cringe in fear. Masterful. Here we are treated to a retelling (sortof) of The Fall of the House of Usher. As it had been, idk- MANY years since I read that, I quick went back and reread the source material. You don't have to. Kingfisher takes the bones of that tale and breaks them open to show you what is on the inside. As usual we have an animal sidekick who basically steals the show (and nothing bad happens to Hob!) but we also have Angus, the manservant, and Mrs. Potter, grandmother to the famed Beatrix, in for some fun and fungus facts. I loved every minute of this short novel. It was gothic and gross and wonderful. Consider this genius piece of wisdom, "It is very unpleasant to sit down to a meal when you are trying to determine which one of your breakfast companions is a murderer." Thank you to Netgalley for early access to this gem. Now off to read Nettle & Bone!

This book was absolutely fantastic. I've already added it to our list for order this year and will recommend it to students.

This well written re-telling of the Edgar Allan Poe classic is well worth a read. Fast paced and suspenseful with enough original ideas sprinkled in to keep it interesting even if you are familiar with the original story. I devoured this book in a very short space of time, I would highly recommend it.