What Moves The Dead by T. Kingfisher (2022)

What Moves The Dead by T. Kingfisher (2022)

A retelling of Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher.

Laura’s Rating: 1/5 Stars

Plot: Alex Easton visits a childhood friend, Madeline Usher, after receiving a letter that she is dying. At the House of Usher, Alex discovers a grotesque overgrowth of fungus, mold, and decay among the crumbling Usher estate.

Analysis:I didn’t enjoy this book. The mushroom/fungus focused horror didn’t really do much for me and reminded me of Mexican Gothic (which is not a positive). Honestly, I was bored and uninterested most of the time.

The book focuses so much on the narrator, including their fictional country of origin and the country’s gender roles and military customs, which didn’t have any real impact on the story. It was boring and really distracted from the Ushers and their cursed estate. 

Also, for a retelling of The Fall of the House of Usher, this book is more than 4 times the length with barely a fraction of the impact of the original story. This book made my bottom 5 that I read last year, so I’d recommend skipping it.