Book Review | What Moves the Dead

When Alex Easton receives word that their childhood friend Madeline Usher, is dying, they race to the Usher's ancestral home in the remote countryside of Ruritania.

However, to their horror, there they find that fungal growths have overtaken the home.

Aided by a mycologist and a baffled doctor, Alex must unravel the secret of the House of Usher before it consumes them all.

What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher is an eco-horror retelling of The Fall of the House of Usher that gave me a lot of mixed feelings.

Upfront, I’ve got to say I was not a fan of roughly the first half of the book. The narrator's ramblings and long tangents bog down the plot and made for a slow start.

On top of that, the constant dripping British sarcasm removed any sense of urgency. Maybe it was supposed to add personality to the story, but given the circumstantiates of Alex trying to save their childhood friend, it felt tonally off to me.

It takes 40% of the novella for me to actually start to feel a sense of eeriness and foreboding. Around that mark we start diving deeper into Alex’s character (like their PTSD as an ex-soldier or their feelings about Madeline). Those parts were great, and I wished that had been woven in earlier on!

Honestly, this book had so much potential an eco gothic, but the story lacked focus and its artistic direction actively undermined its horror elements.

Thank you, NetGalley and Tor Nightfire, for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Book Details:

Publication Date : July 12, 2022

Publisher : Tor Nightfire

IBSN: 1250830753

Pages : 176

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