Fantastic audio! I loved Avi Roque's narration. The perfect voice for Alex Easton. Very well done!

Full review:

In What Moves the Dead T. Kingfisher expertly reimagines Edgar Allan Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher. That fact alone sold me on this book, well that and the fact that T. Kingfisher is one of my favorite authors, but then this cover dropped. A masterpiece shall grace our shelves. Mine for sure because I've already pre-ordered a copy and you should too!

The year is 1890 and Alex Easton has just received word that their childhood friend, Madeline Usher, is on the brink of death. Thus, Easton heads off to the countryside to the Usher family estate to be with Madeline and perhaps provide some support to Madeline's brother, Roderick.

Arriving at the once lavish estate, Easton is shocked that the manor home has fallen into such a horrible state of disrepair. It's unnerving to say the least. Equally unnerving is the state in which Easton finds Madeline. They knew Madeline was quite ill, but her behavior belies any illness that Easton is aware of. Madeline's behavior, speech and appearance are bizarre. She's frightening to be around.

Denton, an American doctor and friend of Roderick Usher, is staying at the home as well while tending to Madeline. It's clear that Denton has no explanation for Madeline's mysterious illness. Additionally, Roderick Usher isn't quite himself either. He's not sleeping and claims to be hearing things in the walls of the home. Could he be succumbing to whatever has infected Madeline?

In addition to our main cast we also get some great side characters. Hob, Easton's trusty horse, was of course my favorite. No one writes animal companions quite like Kingfisher. She gives them such strong personalities, which for anyone who has an animal companion of their own will seem quite relatable.

Another favorite was the intelligent and plucky Miss Potter, a local woman who spends her time researching and painting specimens of fungi. Easton and Potter meet and develop a quick rapport. Easton ends up learning a lot about the local area, lore, flora and fauna from Miss Potter.

The classic gothic vibe of What Moves the Dead meshed so well with Kingfisher's fresh and witty humor. Picking up a new Kingfisher story is so comforting for me. It's like settling in for story time with a horror-loving friend. That's exactly the feeling I got from this one. It's eerie and sinister the entire way through, while also somehow managing to keep me laughing.

I loved going along with Easton on their investigation into the mystery surrounding the House of Usher. There is some truly horrifying imagery included that was so well done. I could picture, smell and taste the decay of this property. It definitely got under my skin.

Thank you so, so much to the publisher, Tor and Macmillan Audio, for providing me with a copies to read and review. As I mentioned earlier, this was absolutely one of my MOST ANTICIPATED releases of the year and it did not disappoint. Kingfisher is knocking them out of the park in 2022!!!

Poe meets Lovecraft.

Publisher's Blurb: When Alex Easton, a retired soldier, receives word that their childhood friend Madeline Usher is dying, they race to the ancestral home of the Ushers in the remote countryside of Ruritania.
What they find there is a nightmare of fungal growths and possessed wildlife, surrounding a dark, pulsing lake. Madeline sleepwalks and speaks in strange voices at night, and her brother Roderick is consumed with a mysterious malady of the nerves.
Aided by a redoubtable British mycologist and a baffled American doctor, Alex must unravel the secret of the House of Usher before it consumes them all.

I have been an Edgar Allen Poe fan since childhood and I love retellings of his stories. The Fall of the House of Usher was a Poe classic, I admit I had to read a few times to really appreciate, but appreciate it I did.

Here is a retelling that is from the same Century, with the same main characters, the famous House of Usher, and a huge dose of originality added to the spin.

The Author gave a twist on gender with the character Alex Easton. What made it mentionable was the fact that it took a minute to realize it and it was handled with so care and talent that it was quickly forgotten. As it should have been. The gender of a character in a story is not the most important characteristic and I feel making it not a big deal gave humanity to Easton.
I also enjoyed and appreciated the explanation of the local custom for gender to be irrelevant for the Sworn Soldiers and a detailed explanation of the type of pronouns used in Easton's homeland, the fictional European country called Gallacia.

I was completely enthralled by the gothic atmosphere and could not stop listening until I reached the conclusion. This story is creepy, scary, skin-crawling, and an A+ winner.

I enjoyed the audio version but the narrator took a little longer for me to get used to. Their reading was a little stiff and lacked emotion. I did overcome this and became emersed in the story enough that the narrator did not interfere with my enjoyment.

Thanks to @netgalley, Macmillian Audio, and T. Kingfisher for the opportunity to listen to this Audiobook in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion.

I love T. Kingfisher but this one wasn't my favorite. I think it is because The Fall of the House of Usher isn't my favorite of Poe's writing. I think if people enjoyed The Fall of the House of Usher, then they will probably love this. I absolutely loved the Narrator, they did an awesome job..

Thank you Netgalley and Macmillan Audio

T. Kingfisher's imagination continues to impress with this retelling of Edgar Allen Poe's short story, "The Fall of the House of Usher". In under 200 pages, she provides all of the creepy gothic horror I wanted with a bit more explanation than the original story gives, and I thoroughly enjoyed listening to it.

I loved the way Kingfisher played with gender in this story. Alex Easton is from a fictional European country called Gallacia, which has seven sets of pronouns that are fully explained. Not only does Alex uses the ka/kan pronouns given to Gallacia's sworn soldiers, but the Gallacian pronoun system comes into play in a really unique way later on in the story as well.

I also really liked that Kingfisher was able to weave humor through the story, despite it being a creepy gothic horror novella. I think the moments of humor were well placed and much needed. I also loved the way she built up the atmosphere of the story. I found myself engrossed in the mystery of that was happening with the Ushers and their house, even more so than in the original and I loved the ending.

As for the narration, Avi Roque is a new to me narrator, but I really enjoyed their performance and will be looking out for more of their work in the future.

Overall, I would highly recommend this novella!

Leave it to T. Kingfisher to take an Edgar Allen Poe tale and turn it on it's ear to something very different and somewhat twisted. What Moves the Dead is a strange retelling of Edgar Allen Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher. You do not need to have read The Fall of the House of Usher to enjoy what Kingfisher has decided to do with the story, it might even be more fun if you haven't.

The House of Usher is a semi-dilapidated Manor House tucked away in the country next to a lake. Alex Easton, a former solder in the Galatian army has come to the house after Madeline sent a letter stating she was in a sickly state and may die. When Easton shows up he finds both Madeline and her brother Roderick in states of distress, both looking sickly. Madeline sometimes goes catatonic for a time and sleepwalks talking to herself, while her brother Roderick hears every little noise and is skittish as mouse with a cat in the house. There is also an American doctor in the house, a friend of Roderick, come to see if he can help.

Alex learns right away that something is not right in the house of Usher. The lake glows at night, the surrounding hares are strange and don't act like normal rabbits, the fish in the lake have a wear white felt on them. Everything about the place is weird and after Madeline dies it seems her corpse cannot rest because Roderick hears it in the crypt. Is he mad or are the dead moving? Alex will find out the answer to this and much much more in this strange tale of an impoverished house the thing that haunts it.

I enjoyed this. I vaguely remember reading The House of Usher *cough* 30ish *cough* years ago when I went through a Poe phase. While I've forgotten most of the details of the story, I think this is a really interesting way to retell the happenings of that. There is some gender manipulation in this story as Alex Easton is a woman officer in the army instead of a man, which I usually think is fun to do in retellings. Definitely a semi creepy and interesting take on a classic.

Narration:
Avi Roque is a new to me narrator. They were a good choice for the feel of the story and performed it well all of the voices were easy to differentiate and they added to the mystery of the story with their portrayal of them. I was able to listen to this at my usual 1.5x speed.

Im giving this book at 3 star when in actuality it was a 4 star read. The narrator chosen for the audio version wasnt my favorite at all. I tolerated them because the story was fascinating. The story was a true gothic horror with a side of sci fi. At first I wasnt sure what was going on. Easton is a unique character that I grew to like and actually root for. T. Kingfisher did an excellent job of weaving a tale around a house, a hare and creepy lake.

This retelling of Poe’s House of Usher is told with a non-binary main character. Alex Easton is a retired lieutenant and receives a letter from a childhood friend asking for help. Upon arrival at the home of Madeline and her brother Roderick, Alex is surprised not only by the state of the home but of the Usher siblings. Both are incredibly frail and have aged incredibly. The area around the mansion is also unsettling. The lake has a thick film over it and the white hares around the area act very strange. Various characters are introduced that have information that help Alex discover the terrifying truth about the house and its inhabitants.

This was a creepy, atmospheric tale that does justice to Poe’s original story. The narrator was a bit off for me. She was a little staccato and lacked emotion. Regardless I enjoyed it.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced audio version in exchange for an honest review.

While I enjoyed the content of the story, the narrator was not as enjoyable. It didn't feel like as somber or creepy a voice as the story evoked.

What Moves the Dead is definitely interesting something different than my normal reads. I learned at the end that's it's a retelling of Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher. I made sure to read that really quick after finishing What Moves the Dead. I liked the characters well enough and the atmosphere. The author really set the tone for the story. I feel like everything else fell flat for me, though. I listened to the audio book and felt the narrator did a good job. The voices and accents were done well.

This was just the right amount of horror for me, wonderfully creepy and engrossing. I can be a real baby when it comes to horror, but while I found this spooky and a bit gross, it never made me too uneasy. If I hadn't read The House of Usher, the short story it's a retelling of, I might have had too much anxiety about how it would end to enjoy it. As it was it felt pitch perfect. I thought the adherence to and deviations from the original story were clever and captivating.

Scary stories on audio are such a treat and the narrator here was fantastic. The creepy elements, especially, were voiced just right to sent shivers down my spine. I love creepy reads in October and this would be such a great choice for that. Highly recommend!

Thank you NetGalley and publishers for providing me with this advance reader copy.

Description from NetGalley:
When Alex Easton, a retired soldier, receives word that their childhood friend Madeline Usher is dying, they race to the ancestral home of the Ushers in the remote countryside of Ruritania.

What they find there is a nightmare of fungal growths and possessed wildlife, surrounding a dark, pulsing lake. Madeline sleepwalks and speaks in strange voices at night, and her brother Roderick is consumed with a mysterious malady of the nerves.

Aided by a redoubtable British mycologist and a baffled American doctor, Alex must unravel the secret of the House of Usher before it consumes them all.

I love “The Fall of the House of Usher'' by Edgar Allen Poe, and I also love this retelling. Let’s start with the characters because they feel like real people. Their backgrounds and relationships are explained and used to good effect. The atmosphere is so creepy and aids the plot tremendously is the short span one has with the book. I do wish I had more, but the length is probably a good length for the plot and horror, not to mention it is a retelling of a short story. The cover is also stunning. Bravo to the artist!

This is a fantastic and horrifying retelling. 4.5/5

This book has to be the biggest disappointment of the year. The main thing I love about T. Kingfisher is the horror mixed with humor. This book had none of that. I also really love Poe and this was a poor imitation at best and a awful attempt to recreate the erieness of Poe's prose. Let's also point out that Mexican Gothic used the mushrooms and made it a lot more intriguing.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC! This is retelling of Edgar Allen Poe's disturbing work, The Fall of the House of Usher. This adds more twists and gruesome bits to Poe's story and makes for an enjoyable listen.

I started this audiobook in the morning, finished late at night, and now I want mushrooms on my pizza. Despite everything. It's a rush of horror, and Kingfisher gives you few breathers. Just punch after punch of the unsettling leading up to the nauseating and then to the terrifying.

And, somehow, in the middle of this, we're also fascinated with Kingfisher's take on gender. Kingfisher creates the kingdom of Gallacia, with seven sets of pronouns. Ones like we might expect, for men and women, but also pronouns for inanimate objects, children, God, and soldiers. Our protagonist being the last of these, uses the pronouns ka/kan, and has gained a degree of freedom and authority ka would not have normally enjoyed in ka's pre-military life.

The "final boss," shall we say. of this story was just mind-bending. It really encapsulated the horror of mushrooms: a kind of matter that is both and neither death and life, with powers we do not fully understand. It felt so BELIEVABLE. And it wasn't so much a sense of "ancient horror," but a horror of evolution. The appearance of the fungus reminded me a lot of the start of the C-19 pandemic: something we could vaguely theorize, but never react to properly, when it does appear.

What particularly struck me about this book was the descriptions of the hares. Every time a hare appears, prepare for your skin to crawl. Kingfisher took one of the more charming things in nature, and makes you want to shrink away. It's only text/audio, but she picked the exact WRONG things to happen, and it's brilliant.

T. Kingfisher is the only author who could make me read a horror novel, and I’m so here for it. I absolutely adore Kingfisher’s writing and this book was *chef’s kiss.* Have I read the original EAP story? No. Did I love this story? Yes. I honestly think that the top notch writing made the spooky-ooky parts so intriguing that I was just caught up in the story - the Drama. Just like our mc Alex Easton, I felt like I was old family friends with the Usher family and had spent time on their family estate. I loved that Easton had an interesting point of view and history, not to mention sassy commentary that served as a breath of fresh air amongst the serious, spooky background. I also feel just a bit smarter (?) because of the science that the story is centered around for different fungi and how it interacts with animal species. Obviously, this book takes on a fantastical, horror-based version, but still! I loved the way the fungi was described and the slow way we were introduced to the “there is something very wrong here” feeling. The audiobook was amazing and really added another layer to story!

I loved the audiobook!!

I made the mistake of not reading tge summary. Again. I almost DNF’d this! It’s not the usual amount of quirk I was used to with this author.

Then I realized. This is a retelling of Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher!

Great creepy gothic story no matter if you read the original or not. I’d compare the feel of the book to Frankenstein (not the monster the feel for the era of the book’s prose) and Mexican Gothic for the creepiness factor but maybe amped up a bit.

Old house, sick residents, medical professionals there to help … murder!

I’m listening to this again & have preordered the book.

I discovered that this book wasn't really for me a chapter or so in but I did finish it. It was good. Or rather, it wasn't a book I would normally seek out or prefer. It had very well developed characters and a very engaging story. I see many many people loving this book.
I think the narrator was perfect for this story. They were able to give each character their own unique voice.
Thank you for allowing me to experience this book. Who knows, you may be opening a new world for me..

Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced audiobook copy.

The is my first T. Kingfisher book. This book was very interesting and different from what I tend to read. Very atmospheric.

This is a retelling of Edgar Allen Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher. Honestly I've never read the original. I cannot compare the two and I feel like I may have enjoyed this more if I was more familiar with the original story.

It is a novella, clocking in at less than 200 pages (or 5 hours on audio). I started reading the physical and then was approved for the audio and finished it that way. The audio was okay. It just didn't add anything extra emotionally for me.

I will say this was really atmospheric. The setting was descriptive and parts of it were pretty creepy. While the explanations for everything were really interesting, the story just really didn't hook me and I can't put my finger on why that is. Maybe it was the short length or my lack of familiarity with the original story. I'm not really sure. This has gotten a lot of glowing reviews already so it may be a "me" issue and not the book itself.

Thank you to Netgalley, Tor Nightfire and Macmillan Audio for the advanced copies in exchange for an honest review!

5 stars!!! Spooky short tale with LGBTQ+ representation. Very Crimson Peaks/Mexican Gothic vibes, only where the story actually makes sense. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an AudioARC in exchange for an honest review.

What Moves The Dead has it all: excellent pace, likeable/relatable characters, plot with a bit of gore, and a stunning conclusion. I'm tiptoeing around some things as I want fellow readers to get the same experience I had watching the story unfold. There were touching moments, truly WTF moments, and shocking bits that were revealed at perfect points. I was a bit worried towards the back 25% of the novel that the ending may leave something to be desired, but my faith was granted with a literary blessing. The antagonist of the novel didn't get as much page time as I wish it had, but perhaps if it had the the ending would not have worked out the same way.

5 stars from this reviewer and a heavy recommendation for all horror/thriller lovers 12+. A fresh take on not quite zombie/not quite possession horror that will leave readers questioning "What Moves the Dead?"