What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher

Reviewed by Ambrea

When Alex Easton receives the news their childhood friend Madeline is dying, they quickly race to the ancestral home of the Ushers to help care for her.  Madeline, however, isn’t merely “sickly.”  She’s pale and wan and positively skeletal.  Even worse, her brother, Roderick, is consumed by his own mysterious malady and appears to be losing his wits.  The ancient House of Usher, covered in mildew and mysterious mold, is practically falling down around them...and something dangerous lurks just beneath the surface of the lake.  In What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher, Edgar Allan Poe’s "Fall of the House of Usher" gets a makeover with new characters and fresh horrors.

When I first picked up Kingfisher’s short novel, I wasn’t anticipating a reboot of Poe’s classic horror story.  (As an English major and an avid reader, I’m almost ashamed to admit it took me a disproportionately long time to figure out this was actually a retelling.)  I’d really enjoyed the author’s previous work—particularly, Paladin’s Grace and Nettle and Bone—and I was captivated (and simultaneously grossed out) by the cover.  For me, these seemed like good enough reasons to pick up and give What Moves the Dead a shot. 

So, I snagged an audiobook copy from Tennessee READS and started to listen. 

Unfortunately, I wasn’t immediately hooked on the story.  I was intrigued by the descriptions—Alex, as a retired soldier, has a very interesting perspective on the world and all the horrors in it—and I liked the narrator, Avi Roque, pretty well; however, I wasn’t enthralled by the book at first.  For me, it took some time to really fall into the story, because, I suppose, it takes the author some time to properly build up the plot, cultivate the creepy atmosphere, and create a false breadcrumb trail for readers to follow.

The plot of What Moves the Dead is very twisty.  For much of the novel, I had plenty of suspicions—and plenty of questions—about what was happening, but, by the end of the story, I discovered I really had no clue.  Kingfisher wanders off the beaten path left behind by Poe.  Rather than sticking to the traditional ghost story I expected, she veers off into the weeds.  It’s still a horror novel—given what happens by the conclusion of the novel, I completely stand by that statement—but it’s not the horror story I expected, which, I think, was a good thing.

Kingfisher retells "Fall of the House of Usher", giving it a new twist I didn’t expect and fresh characters I truly enjoyed.  (I’m a big fan of Eugenia Potter, FYI.)  It’s not the best horror story I’ve ever read, but it does the genre justice and, more importantly, it’s a solid standalone novel to be enjoyed on a dark and stormy night—or a long evening folding laundry at the laundromat.