Release Date: July 12th, 2022

Genre(s): Adult Ficiton, Horror, Retelling

Publisher: Tor Nightfire

Pages: 176

Rating:⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to Tor Nightfire and Netgalley for providing me with an advanced finished copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Synopsis

From the award-winning author of The Twisted Ones comes a gripping and atmospheric retelling of Edgar Allan Poe’s classic “The Fall of the House of Usher.”

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.

Review

There’s definitely elements of What Moves the Dead that took me out of my comfort zone (as intended). But for the most part, this book checked off all the boxes for me. Retelling? Check. Gothic horror? Check. Mushrooms? And yes, I said mushrooms – check! 

I have to admit, for a novella, this was a bit slow-going for me at first (as gothic novels usually are), but things really began to pick up for me as the story continued. I especially loved the intense imagery that Kingfisher’s writing conveys – not just in visuals themselves, but also with sound. The main character’s tinnitus and even the subtle sounds in otherwise quiet areas really added to the suspense that I felt throughout. 

And now, I’ll explain the mushrooms thing – I really loved Mexican Gothic. And mushrooms are an integral part of the story in that novel. So seeing this element in another story was really interesting – and as I learned from the author’s note, Mexican Gothic inspired the author to experiment with fungi as a part of the plot, which I thought was really cool. This is also a Poe retelling, and I found it to be an excellent balance between exploring the unknowns without making things too questionable. 

If you love gothic horror (especially the classics) and books like Mexican Gothic, I highly recommend What Moves the Dead. I’m always amazed to see how much emotion (and in this case, suspense) writers can evoke in readers in such few words.

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