What Moves the Dead
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4.2 • 240 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
An Instant USA Today & Indie Bestseller
A Barnes & Noble Book of the Year Finalist
A Goodreads Best Horror Choice Award Nominee
A gripping and atmospheric reimagining of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” from Hugo, Locus, & Nebula award-winning author T. Kingfisher
*A very special hardcover edition, featuring foil stamp on the casing and custom endpapers illustrated by the author.*
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.
Also by T. Kingfisher
What Feasts at Night
A House with Good Bones
Nettle & Bone
Thornhedge
A Sorceress Comes to Call
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Something is rotten in the European countryside, but this is no ordinary decay in T. Kingfisher’s imaginative retelling of an Edgar Allan Poe gothic horror classic. Retired lieutenant Alex Easton rides to the decrepit house of Usher after receiving a letter that the formerly great family’s only remaining siblings have taken strangely ill. Meeting eccentric English mycologist Eugenia Potter and brash American doctor James Denton, Alex arrives to find Roderick Usher in a manic state, too paranoid to sleep, and his wispy sister, Madeline, deathly ill. Much like Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Mexican Gothic, T. Kingfisher makes everything—from the wildlife, water, and fungus to the mansion itself—seem possessed by something otherworldly. If you love the ominous dread of classic gothic horror mixed with a touch of postmodern absurdity, What Moves the Dead will move you.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Hugo and Nebula Award winner Kingfisher (The Hollow Places) returns to the horror genre with this powerful, fast-paced retelling of Edgar Allen Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher." As a child, Alex Easton, who uses the pronouns ka and kan, befriended twins Roderick and Madeline Usher and went on to serve with Roderick in the recent war. Now Madeline writes to tell Alex that she's ill and Roderick believes she is dying, and Alex must come at once to their family home in remote Ruravia. There, Alex finds a moldering mansion full of fungal rot and strangeness and two Ushers who are terribly, irreversibly changed. Alex must unravel the dark secret that is consuming the house of Usher—before it consumes Alex as well. Kingfisher adds wonderful dimension and tangibility to the classic Poe story, filling it in with standout character work and scenic descriptions that linger on the palate, while fleshing out the original plot with elements as plausible as they are chilling. It's thoroughly creepy and utterly enjoyable. (Jul.)
Customer Reviews
Short, Sweet, and Interesting
This book made me look at my fish tank with a little bit of concern. It was a slow build up but stayed interesting. Satisfying ending.
I would revisit at a later date for a reread.
Fantastic read
What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher reinforced my distrust of mushrooms.
Ok, so I don’t like mushrooms. I avoid anything that has mushrooms like a vampire avoids a tanning bed. I pick them out of every dish like I’m dodging those people selling wireless service at Walmart, which, thanks to this novella, now feels like solid survival prep. Because What Moves the Dead confirmed everything I suspected: fungus is the villain, and it’s winning.
This gothic, dread-soaked reimagining of The Fall of the House of Usher takes Poe’s original unease and repackages it with sinister bunnies, decaying mansions, and fungal horror that creeps under your skin, through your bloodstream, and straight into your nightmares. But the genius? It’s also funny. Dry, sharp, character-driven dark humor that never undercuts the horror… it enhances it.
Lieutenant Alex Easton is one of the most original narrators I’ve read in ages. Nonbinary, exhausted, and armed with sarcasm, tinnitus, and PTSD, they arrive at the Usher estate only to find their old friend dying, the house rotting, and the local hares… behaving badly. As in, unnaturally still, unblinking, and possibly hosting a fungus hive mind kind of badly. Now I look at my own bunnies… yes, Death Star Ninja Killer (I refuse to call him Toodles), Sonny, and Stormy, with a new level of suspicion. If they start sitting in perfect silence and staring at the me, I’m out.
T. Kingfisher doesn’t just write horror, she engineers it. Every detail feels deliberate. The fungus isn’t just creepy, it’s plausible. The characters aren’t just quirky, they feel lived-in. And the dread isn’t just unsettling, it’s… moist. (Sorry. There’s no un-gross word for this vibe.)
If you want to be surprised by something short, smart, gorgeously written, and deeply disturbing, this is it. Five stars. A ton of possessed bunnies. One haunted sibling. And a very strong case for burning your mushroom cookbook.
Amazing
Great book!
Amazing book with a unique origin from Edgar Allen Poe, combined with a thrilling hint of scary science