What Moves The Dead Published by Tor Books, Tor Nightfire on July 2022
Genres: Adult Fiction
Pages: 176
Format: eBook
Source: Publisher
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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.
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.
I didn’t know I needed a retelling of The Fall of the House of Usher, but wow. I guess I did!
Kingfisher does everything right in this retelling. The dark thick tone of the book really calls to the original story, the house and setting becoming a menacing and mysterious villain long before the narrator sees his old friends and the physical tolls that they have been through.
There’s wonderful detail in this story. I love how the house, the fungus and the lake are described. I could easily see the poison running through the land and the disease eating at the house and its inhabitants. There’s a lot of depth in this retelling and I enjoyed this expanded story.
I was getting seriously annoyed with the main characters! Why can’t they leave? Don’t they realize something sinister is going on? I was invested in these characters and really wanted them to get out!
That said, the ending is perfect. I don’t want to give it away, but it ended just the way it should have. I think fans of the original will be very pleased with this retelling and new fans of Kingfisher will find a new favorite author.
Kimberly majored in Songwriting and currently works full time in the music industry. When she's not listening to music, knitting or writing, you can find her outside reading her favorite genres: Young Adult, Adult Fiction, Mystery, and Romance.
