What Moves the Dead
Ratings354
Average rating3.8
Now having to explain my thoughts for this book.
I mean I am not even sure how to discibe it. I can not say I loved it, but I also can. I loved the creepy horror vibes. It gave me the usual vibe in the storyline from the ‘elder' horror books. Not to say I have read tons but those I have read had a simmilar vibe. But not really also, it was deffintly moderised. So it felt actually both more and less sacry a the same time to read. I mean my mind was pulled into the story were I just felt engaged and wanted more. But I never had to stop caus the writing style was boring, something I often have to do with older books as the writing style is more dense often.
So I was way more pulled into the horror but also BECAUSE it is using easier words and is more moderised in the language it feels way easier to just brush it off and not ‘feel' it for real.
I mean I enjoyed the book and I was enterained ll the way. I could have it longer and maybe a little more complicated language.
But it was honestly pretty good
Creepy, uncomfy read in the best way. I wanted a fun little horror and got more than I anticipated, with a lovingly queer character and in some places a sad contemplation, alongside downright horrifying imagery. Imagining standing in a ring of undead hares watching you ‘kill' one of them is delightfully creepy, all my hair stood on end. Very good read!
Again, I'm not sure if I read the synopsis and then forgot it. It is entirely possible that I just saw [a:T. Kingfisher 7367300 T. Kingfisher https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1642281799p2/7367300.jpg] and added to my tbr.This weaves great thematic elements, emotional atmosphere, and social commentary (what it's like to be a woman, a soldier, of a particular class, nationality, etc.).
The beginning was slow, but I kept at it because so many people told me they enjoyed it. I'm glad I did. There weren't really any mysteries because it seemed obvious what was going on, which surprised me. The strength of the book is the creeping horror and the body horror. I did enjoy seeing them investigate what was going on and their discoveries. I'm glad I stuck with it and it was a good book to usher me into my 2024 reading goals of reading slower.
I went into this expecting a gothic body horror, and it wasn't at all gothic, and the body horror was extremely mild for the most part.
The main character was quite charming in a quippy Whedon-esque kinda way, but they, and all the other characters, react to the events unfolding around them with such a casual “huh, would ya look at that” kind of quality that makes it very difficult for me as a reader to feel very invested or horrified myself. And the twist on Poe's original is pretty much a foregone conclusion from the first chapter, really, and the ending was a bit too rushed and pat for my liking.
I would definitely read other books by this author because I think I could enjoy their writing with better-managed expectations or a different setting, but this didn't scratch the itch I wanted it to scratch (which is more on me, I guess).
7.5/10 I need to brew on this one. It's got some great moments and I'll be honest. I don't know the original story so maybe after some context I'll appreciate it more
Eh. I just reread Fall of the House of Usher earlier this month for Spooktober so I was really excited to dig into this one. A retelling of one of the most iconic horror stories of my childhood and by an author whose work I have been very much enjoying in the past couple years? Everything about this screamed a yes. Unfortunately, this fell a little bit flat for me, so this would be a 2.5/5. I felt like the whole plot reveal at the end was super obvious from as early as the 10-20% mark of the book, so I spent most of the book just waiting to see if I'm right or not, much to the detriment of the tension in the book. I will however say that the climax of the book was at least still well done and engaging enough.
Our story opens with our protagonist, Alex Easton, who is answering a letter from childhood friends, Madeline and Roderick Usher, stating that Madeline was in critical condition from a sudden mysterious illness. Along the way, Alex also meets a mysterious English mycologist, Eugenia Potter, as well as an American ex-medic soldier boarding with the Ushers, Denton.
The plot here only vaguely follows that of the Fall of the House of Usher and deviates from it more and more as the story goes on. A lot of things have been inserted into the story here, which I don't normally mind in retellings. I don't even mind if authors wanted to insert a new message, characters, or settings into their retellings of an iconic piece of work. What I did take issue with here is how random and meaningless the insertions seemed to be. A major new element here is the protagonist being from a fictional European country called Gallachia, in which apparently people who serve in the military are “gifted” with new gender-neutral pronouns, kan and ka, in order to distinguish themselves as a soldier. Alex being a sworn soldier uses those pronouns and it's used liberally in dialogue and narrative in the middle of English sentences: e.g. Alex checked kanself. Ka was bleeding. It just felt really really clunky and contrived. My bigger issue with this is that it never served any purpose in the story, not even to convey any sort of message, so I was really confused why this was even added in at all except maybe to chalk up diversity points.
Another more minor point is having Eugenia Potter as the aunt to Beatrix Potter, who is mentioned in a nudge nudge wink wink moment only once in the story. In the first place, I thought the presence of a mycologist, and a female one at that, self-admittedly rare as all hell in the time period, on the scene just seemed way too convenient as well. Then, we had another pointless reference that led nowhere, mentioned in my spoiler above.
As I mentioned, I pretty much guessed the whole mystery of this one from very early on in the book, not that the book was really trying to be subtle about it with the very first lines of the book opening with talk about fungi, and the actual book cover having so many mushrooms on it... it's not that hard to guess. This made the whole middle portion of the book feel a little draggy because - I feel like I already know what's going on, why can't the protagonist see what's super obvious in front of their eyes, can we get on with it already? It took away from the tension of the book, which is integral to creating horror.
I will give credit to the ending of the book which was still pretty engaging and still packed a few punches even though there wasn't a twist that surprised me. I had guessed it about the zombie fungus, but had imagined Madeline to be a complete puppet. Instead in the end it seemed like she retained some kind of consciousness of herself, even if it had been completely poisoned by that of the fungus. Or who knows, maybe it was the fungus itself pretending to be Madeline and talking to Alex? Also the part about Roderick having killed Madeline and thus her romping about with a broken neck was also a little bit of unexpected horror. Again though, didn't need Eugenia to come traipsing with her magnifying glass to tell me that those filaments are fungus... Would've also liked it if we had ended it with all of them getting infected rather than a deus ex machina element where we find out that they've actually not been drinking from the lake all along, and somehow sulphur was enough to kill all the fungus there. Just tied it up a bit too neatly imo.
Merged review:
Eh. I just reread Fall of the House of Usher earlier this month for Spooktober so I was really excited to dig into this one. A retelling of one of the most iconic horror stories of my childhood and by an author whose work I have been very much enjoying in the past couple years? Everything about this screamed a yes. Unfortunately, this fell a little bit flat for me, so this would be a 2.5/5. I felt like the whole plot reveal at the end was super obvious from as early as the 10-20% mark of the book, so I spent most of the book just waiting to see if I'm right or not, much to the detriment of the tension in the book. I will however say that the climax of the book was at least still well done and engaging enough.
Our story opens with our protagonist, Alex Easton, who is answering a letter from childhood friends, Madeline and Roderick Usher, stating that Madeline was in critical condition from a sudden mysterious illness. Along the way, Alex also meets a mysterious English mycologist, Eugenia Potter, as well as an American ex-medic soldier boarding with the Ushers, Denton.
The plot here only vaguely follows that of the Fall of the House of Usher and deviates from it more and more as the story goes on. A lot of things have been inserted into the story here, which I don't normally mind in retellings. I don't even mind if authors wanted to insert a new message, characters, or settings into their retellings of an iconic piece of work. What I did take issue with here is how random and meaningless the insertions seemed to be. A major new element here is the protagonist being from a fictional European country called Gallachia, in which apparently people who serve in the military are “gifted” with new gender-neutral pronouns, kan and ka, in order to distinguish themselves as a soldier. Alex being a sworn soldier uses those pronouns and it's used liberally in dialogue and narrative in the middle of English sentences: e.g. Alex checked kanself. Ka was bleeding. It just felt really really clunky and contrived. My bigger issue with this is that it never served any purpose in the story, not even to convey any sort of message, so I was really confused why this was even added in at all except maybe to chalk up diversity points.
Another more minor point is having Eugenia Potter as the aunt to Beatrix Potter, who is mentioned in a nudge nudge wink wink moment only once in the story. In the first place, I thought the presence of a mycologist, and a female one at that, self-admittedly rare as all hell in the time period, on the scene just seemed way too convenient as well. Then, we had another pointless reference that led nowhere, mentioned in my spoiler above.
As I mentioned, I pretty much guessed the whole mystery of this one from very early on in the book, not that the book was really trying to be subtle about it with the very first lines of the book opening with talk about fungi, and the actual book cover having so many mushrooms on it... it's not that hard to guess. This made the whole middle portion of the book feel a little draggy because - I feel like I already know what's going on, why can't the protagonist see what's super obvious in front of their eyes, can we get on with it already? It took away from the tension of the book, which is integral to creating horror.
I will give credit to the ending of the book which was still pretty engaging and still packed a few punches even though there wasn't a twist that surprised me. I had guessed it about the zombie fungus, but had imagined Madeline to be a complete puppet. Instead in the end it seemed like she retained some kind of consciousness of herself, even if it had been completely poisoned by that of the fungus. Or who knows, maybe it was the fungus itself pretending to be Madeline and talking to Alex? Also the part about Roderick having killed Madeline and thus her romping about with a broken neck was also a little bit of unexpected horror. Again though, didn't need Eugenia to come traipsing with her magnifying glass to tell me that those filaments are fungus... Would've also liked it if we had ended it with all of them getting infected rather than a deus ex machina element where we find out that they've actually not been drinking from the lake all along, and somehow sulphur was enough to kill all the fungus there. Just tied it up a bit too neatly imo.
A pleasure to read which is not always something I associate with horror. You feel a little sticky after though. It???s breezy to boot.
Merged review:
A pleasure to read which is not always something I associate with horror. You feel a little sticky after though. It???s breezy to boot.
I love a gothic horror story but I love a gothic horror story that includes fungi! This was my first time reading T. Kingfisher and this story felt like a wonderful introduction into her work. What Moves the Dead is creepy, funny, and an all-around beautiful. I love the way the author uses language to describe the manor, nature, and characters. My only criticism with the novella is that the ending felt a little bit rushed, given how short it is. Overall, I highly enjoyed this quick read and if you like anything gothic, I recommend it!
I honestly can't remember if I've read Fall of the House of Usher, but I'm totally going to add it to my list.
3.6 rounded down
I decided to rate this in comparison to the original short story, The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allen Poe, which is a four star short story for me.
I liked the expansion of the setting and the characters, and some of the plot changes.
One creepy scene, almost halfway in, will stick with me for a long time, more than anything in the short story. I wish there had been more of that in the second half.
I feel the ending was a real departure from the original, and while I like the change in some respects, I also feel that it was like removing the heart of The Fall of the House of Usher from the story.
Merged review:
3.6 rounded down
I decided to rate this in comparison to the original short story, The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allen Poe, which is a four star short story for me.
I liked the expansion of the setting and the characters, and some of the plot changes.
One creepy scene, almost halfway in, will stick with me for a long time, more than anything in the short story. I wish there had been more of that in the second half.
I feel the ending was a real departure from the original, and while I like the change in some respects, I also feel that it was like removing the heart of The Fall of the House of Usher from the story.
What a fucking excellent horror novel. I both enjoyed the story as well as the writing style and dialogue. I was looking for a good horror book since being disappointed by several other ‘horrors' in the past couple of months and fuck did I find it.
The characters were excellent and the story was great. It really unnerved me, which is exactly what I wanted. Miss Potter was definitely my favourite. I am definitely going to read more by Kingfisher, might be one of my new favourite authors if this keeps up.
some parts were creepy. moved very quickly. good Sunday afternoon read.
Merged review:
some parts were creepy. moved very quickly. good Sunday afternoon read.
I have mixed feelings about this one. It was sorta creepy, but not enough to prevent me from reading at night. It might have been better if I hadn't already read Mexican Gothic. It wasn't super long, which was nice, but I didn't really feel any attachment to the characters.
this is going to be so good for so many people but unfortunately it is not my vibe!
ZALIG! Echt tof gedaan.In theorie hou ik echt van het gothic genre, maar in de praktijk zijn er weinig boeken in dat genre waar ik echt van heb genoten. Meestal komt mijn ontgoocheling door het feit dat er zelden verklaringen worden gegeven aan de gebeurtenissen. Het genre is vaak vooral vibes, een gemoedsinstelling, een duistere toon, een dreigend gevoel. Daartegenover staat dan vaak ook dat niks echt een reden of ontstaansgeschiedenis heeft, maar er gewoon is, puur en alleen om dat gevoel te creëren.Als dit er bij jou ook voor zorgt dat je vaak op je honger blijft zitten bij een gothic roman, dan is dit boek echt wel het perfecte antwoord! Het is een hervertelling van Edgar Allan Poe's [b:The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Tales 32559 The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Tales Edgar Allan Poe https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1355276847l/32559.SY75.jpg 4035401], maar dan met een soort van uitleg voor die val van het huis.“No, you blithering idiot,” I growled, shaking his hand off. Damnable English language—more words than anybody can be expected to keep track of, and then they use the same one for about three different things. “I know she's dead! I'm telling you, her body's gone!”“She's not in the crypt. The slab is empty. We cannot habeas the corpus. Is any of this getting through?” (I was, perhaps, rather less reverent than the situation warranted, but it is a flaw of mine that I become sarcastic when I am frustrated.)Bovendien slaagt Kingfisher erin om haar verhaal zowel de dreiging en sfeer van een typische gothic roman mee te geven, terwijl het ook nog eens grappig is op een droge, gevatte manier. Aanrader!Merged review:ZALIG! Echt tof gedaan.In theorie hou ik echt van het gothic genre, maar in de praktijk zijn er weinig boeken in dat genre waar ik echt van heb genoten. Meestal komt mijn ontgoocheling door het feit dat er zelden verklaringen worden gegeven aan de gebeurtenissen. Het genre is vaak vooral vibes, een gemoedsinstelling, een duistere toon, een dreigend gevoel. Daartegenover staat dan vaak ook dat niks echt een reden of ontstaansgeschiedenis heeft, maar er gewoon is, puur en alleen om dat gevoel te creëren.Als dit er bij jou ook voor zorgt dat je vaak op je honger blijft zitten bij een gothic roman, dan is dit boek echt wel het perfecte antwoord! Het is een hervertelling van Edgar Allan Poe's [b:The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Tales 32559 The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Tales Edgar Allan Poe https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1355276847l/32559.SY75.jpg 4035401], maar dan met een soort van uitleg voor die val van het huis.“No, you blithering idiot,” I growled, shaking his hand off. Damnable English language—more words than anybody can be expected to keep track of, and then they use the same one for about three different things. “I know she's dead! I'm telling you, her body's gone!”“She's not in the crypt. The slab is empty. We cannot habeas the corpus. Is any of this getting through?” (I was, perhaps, rather less reverent than the situation warranted, but it is a flaw of mine that I become sarcastic when I am frustrated.)Bovendien slaagt Kingfisher erin om haar verhaal zowel de dreiging en sfeer van een typische gothic roman mee te geven, terwijl het ook nog eens grappig is op een droge, gevatte manier. Aanrader!
Full review to come. Much better reading experience the second time around. Helped by reading A Sorceress Comes to Call before this. Now I like Kingfisher's humour, when I read this originally I didn't get it
If you liked Mexican Gothic then you may like this too.
A slower burn horror, our veteran must face a horror that is numb to his weapons. A horror story with a mushroom infection that is making an impact to the wildlife around the house.
Merged review:
If you liked Mexican Gothic then you may like this too.
A slower burn horror, our veteran must face a horror that is numb to his weapons. A horror story with a mushroom infection that is making an impact to the wildlife around the house.
This is a no for me. I got more than half way through and nothing about the plot, characters, atmosphere or mystery kept me interested.
This was so creepy and atmospheric! I really liked it! I've seen a lot of thing comparing it to Mexican Gothic, which I can see. The creepy Victorian fungal horror stuff. However I do think that this book was a better length. This story really lent itself to a shorter page length in my opinion since it made the pace fast enough that I didn't get bored.
I had a slow start with this one but omg once I was into it it was amazing!
Merged review:
I had a slow start with this one but omg once I was into it it was amazing!
I've read a few T. Kingfisher books at this point and this one was just missing something for me. Missing some small magical piece that leaves me enthralled like the other works I've read so far have. Great atmosphere and concept with the mushrooms being tied in and the “adventuring” aspect.
I will however skip the rest of the books in this series.