What Moves the Dead

read for strangeathon 2022: strange cover

sigh

this book was just fine. this is a retelling of the fall of the house of usher and i love poe so much so despite not loving t. kingfisher's other work i still wanted to try it out. while i did enjoy some things about this like the incorporation of a non-binary character, especially in a historical setting and the atmosphere, this book didn't work for me.

the writing i think was my main problem. this book was really written like it was a classic and i couldn't stand it. if i wanted classic writing i would read a classic. i don't mind historical but this was too much for me personally but others may not mind it. i also didn't care for the plot a lot but the fungus twist was done in a semi-interesting way because it went more scientific. i read mexican gothic and didn't love it either so maybe i don't like this twist but i didn't mind it in this book. it just wasn't my favorite. i felt like this meandered a lot and i was bored most of the time.

as i said the atmosphere was fantastic though and it's genuinely what kept me reading and prevented me from dnfing this. i love poe so much but somethin about this just didn't hit for me. i don't really like haunted house stories either and even the original house of usher isn't my favorite so that could be potentially why as well.

thank you to tor nightfire, t. kingfisher, and netgalley for an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review