What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher
⭐⭐⭐⭐½ WHAT MOVES THE DEAD — A Delightfully Rotting Nightmare
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars ⭐
My oh my. What a book. 😳🪦
Going into WHAT MOVES THE DEAD, I was skeptical. I’d previously read A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher and… yeah, that one did not work for me. It was weird in a way that just didn’t click. But here’s the thing — this book is also weird as hell, and yet I loved it. Which really proves that I cannot, in fact, define why some books work for me and others absolutely do not.
This novella is short, but it is dense — packed with atmosphere, dread, decay, and creeping unease. The eerie, claustrophobic Gothic horror vibes seep off the page, and I genuinely felt chills crawling up my spine more than once. And I don’t scare easily. 🫠
Also: fungus horror? YES PLEASE. 🍄
⚠️ Content & Trigger Warnings
Read with care if you’re sensitive to:
Death
Suicide
Body horror
Fungal / parasitic infection
Mental illness & isolation
Graphic decay
Animal harm
🕯️ Spoiler Warning 🕯️
🚨 FULL SPOILERS AHEAD — INCLUDING THE ENDING 🚨
If you want to go in blind, stop here and come back later.
📖 Book Overview
What Moves the Dead (2022) is a Gothic horror novella by T. Kingfisher (the adult-horror pen name of Ursula Vernon). It is a retelling of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher — though I’ll be honest, I’ve never read Poe’s original, so I can’t compare them. As a standalone story, however, this one absolutely works.
The novel blends classic Gothic horror, biological science fiction, and psychological dread, all told through the eyes of a nonbinary protagonist, Alex Easton, who uses the neopronouns ka/kan. The story explores isolation, rot (literal and metaphorical), and the terrifying possibility of non-human sentient life quietly taking over.
Fun fact: Kingfisher won the 2023 Locus Award for Best Horror Novel for this book — and honestly, that checks out.
🏚️ Full Plot Summary (With Spoilers)
Alex Easton travels to the remote, decaying estate of the Usher family in Ruravia after receiving word that kan childhood friend Madeline Usher is gravely ill. On the journey, Easton encounters Eugenia Potter, a blunt and brilliant mycologist, who warns kan about strange mushrooms growing in the area — mushrooms that emit a horrifying stench when disturbed. 🚩
From the moment Easton arrives, the Usher house feels wrong. The structure is rotting, the nearby tarn feels ominous, and unsettling hares roam the land — hares that move incorrectly, stare too long, and seem… aware.
Madeline’s condition is disturbing. She’s deathly pale, extremely thin, and covered in fine white hairs. Her twin brother Roderick Usher is similarly frail and nervous. Another guest, James Denton, an American military doctor, suspects hysteria and catalepsy but cannot explain what’s truly happening. He urges the Ushers to leave the house — they refuse.
Strange events escalate quickly. Madeline sleepwalks. The tarn glows at night. Fish pulled from the water are filled with slimy fungal matter. Dead animals don’t stay dead. 😬
Eventually, Easton discovers that Madeline died weeks ago — and that her death was not natural. Roderick, panicked and unstable, killed her during one of her episodes. Denton helped cover it up, believing Roderick wouldn’t survive much longer anyway.
But death is not the end here.
Miss Potter confirms that the white hairs found on Madeline’s body are fungal hyphae. Autopsies of the hares reveal their bodies are filled entirely with fungus — yet they still move, crawl, and stare. One severed hare head continues to move after being chopped off. 🔪🍄
Madeline returns.
She is no longer human — she is a host, animated by an intelligent fungal organism that has lived in the tarn for generations. The fungus seeks to reproduce through human hosts, and Madeline wants Easton to be next.
Easton refuses.
In the final act, Roderick locks himself inside the house with Madeline and burns it to the ground, choosing death over becoming another vessel. Easton and Denton stand watch as the house collapses, finally silencing the horror within.
Days later, sulfur is used to kill the fungal organism in the tarn. A local man agrees to guard the area and burn any animals that approach. The threat appears contained — but the lingering question remains:
Was it truly destroyed… or merely sleeping? 👀
🧠 What Worked So Well
Immaculate creepy atmosphere 🖤
Short but dense storytelling — no wasted space
Scientifically grounded mycology (as much as horror allows)
Unsettling body horror without being gratuitous
A unique, unforgettable take on fungal horror
This book proves that less is more. It doesn’t rely on jump scares — it relies on dread.
⭐ Final Thoughts
WHAT MOVES THE DEAD is grotesque, eerie, intelligent horror that crawls under your skin and stays there. It’s weird. It’s fungal. It’s decaying. And somehow, it’s beautiful in the most disturbing way.
I may not love everything T. Kingfisher writes — but this one? Absolutely worth it.
🪦🍄 Final Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
📚 If You Liked This, Try These Next
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher
Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer
The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones
The Death of Jane Lawrence by Caitlin Starling
If creepy houses, biological horror, and slow-burn dread are your thing — welcome home. 😈
Comments
Post a Comment