What Moves the Dead
An Instant USA Today & Indie Bestseller
A Barnes & Noble Book of the Year Finalist
A Goodreads Best Horror Choice Award Nominee
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Community Reviews
I cross post my reviews from my insta, sorry. It's a little lazy, I know.
https://instagram.com/winteregress
What Moves The Dead by T. Kingfisher
@redwombatstudio
I read this as one of my October spooky but not too spooky reads, and it ended up being a one day read for me.
Both Sarah (@madtownurban ) and Hilary (@wildprairiebyhilary) said I’d love this book, so I didn’t really have any doubts. But I was amazed at how much I love it. Like I really really loved it. I had heard that it was a retelling of “The Fall of the house of Usher”. But I don’t think calling it a “retelling” does it justice. I love Poe. And anytime I hear that someone is doing a new take on his works, in any media, I start out as skeptical. Curious, but skeptical. But what T. Kingfisher has done with this story is just amazing. A re-envisioning maybe? But that’s not entirely right either. The heart of the story, the feel of the story, is still there.
Did you read those “illustrated Classic” books in the 80s? Reading this novel gave me that same feeling that I remember from all those years ago when I first read “Tales of Mystery and Terror” (the Children's illustrated edition :) ) The ticking heart is still there in this story, but T. Kingfisher expands it, deepens it, without washing away that “Poe feeling”. I don’t know if I can think of any other author who has been this successful at it. And at the same time Kingfisher creates a world for this story to live in. I said it back in Nettle and Bone, and I’ll say it again here, I LOVE the way this author builds worlds. Her imagination, like an enchantment, sweeps my mind away into the worlds she builds. The “Sworn”!? Just by imagining them into existence she has created a world I want to return to.
I think I’m entering my T Kingfisher era. I’m not ready to leave my Sarah J Maas era though. Do you think I can balance both at the same time? Or am I courting some tangled insanity of spicy romance and monstrous imagination? Is this how people end up playing “smash or pass” with their Monstrous Manuals?
https://instagram.com/winteregress
What Moves The Dead by T. Kingfisher
@redwombatstudio
I read this as one of my October spooky but not too spooky reads, and it ended up being a one day read for me.
Both Sarah (@madtownurban ) and Hilary (@wildprairiebyhilary) said I’d love this book, so I didn’t really have any doubts. But I was amazed at how much I love it. Like I really really loved it. I had heard that it was a retelling of “The Fall of the house of Usher”. But I don’t think calling it a “retelling” does it justice. I love Poe. And anytime I hear that someone is doing a new take on his works, in any media, I start out as skeptical. Curious, but skeptical. But what T. Kingfisher has done with this story is just amazing. A re-envisioning maybe? But that’s not entirely right either. The heart of the story, the feel of the story, is still there.
Did you read those “illustrated Classic” books in the 80s? Reading this novel gave me that same feeling that I remember from all those years ago when I first read “Tales of Mystery and Terror” (the Children's illustrated edition :) ) The ticking heart is still there in this story, but T. Kingfisher expands it, deepens it, without washing away that “Poe feeling”. I don’t know if I can think of any other author who has been this successful at it. And at the same time Kingfisher creates a world for this story to live in. I said it back in Nettle and Bone, and I’ll say it again here, I LOVE the way this author builds worlds. Her imagination, like an enchantment, sweeps my mind away into the worlds she builds. The “Sworn”!? Just by imagining them into existence she has created a world I want to return to.
I think I’m entering my T Kingfisher era. I’m not ready to leave my Sarah J Maas era though. Do you think I can balance both at the same time? Or am I courting some tangled insanity of spicy romance and monstrous imagination? Is this how people end up playing “smash or pass” with their Monstrous Manuals?
Another weird one from T Kingfisher BUT I AM HERE FOR IT. A short read but a super weird and fun one. It's been a while since I've read a good creepy Gothic fiction. This is a much better homage to Fall of the House of Usher than *another* recent gothic fiction I read. 4.5 stars but GR doesn't allow them. Please read this book!
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