What Moves the Dead – T. Kingfisher

Expectation: A queer retelling of Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Fall of House of Usher.”

Reality: Shortcomings of the gothic horror genre aside (for this reader anyway), there was nothing “moving” about this uninspired novella.

My Take:

When a book doesn’t work for me, I’m quick to own the aspects that simply weren’t to my tastes, so let’s get those out of the way. 

First, I don’t particularly care for gothic horror and should avoid it moving forward. Even my “favorite” novel in the genre, Daphne du Maurier’s seminal work “Rebecca,” left me somewhat disappointed.

Second, I generally avoid retellings or re-imaginings because they strike me as lazy and unoriginal. The only reason I opted to give a chance to “What Moves the Dead,” T. Kingfisher’s revisioning of Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher,” was its quasi-queer sensibilities and that it helped earn a badge for my library’s annual reading challenge. 

While acknowledging my literary biases, I went into the story with an open mind and still found myself disappointed in the end. Genre aside, this is a dreadfully boring and hollow novella. 

Having not read the source material, I can’t compare the two, but I can tell you that only one aspect of the story really worked — the scientific exploration of the ghastly hares — but everything else tanked. Hard.

The characters are two-dimensional, even our nonbinary protagonist Alex Easton who is only given two chapters of interesting backstory. The dialogue veers too much into modern sensibilities for a story set in 1890. The suspense/horror is tame, largely because Kingfisher either gives it too much room to breathe (creaks in the hall, mysterious lights — boring!) or not enough (necropsies, zombies — cool!). 

Had it not been for a solid audiobook, narrated by Avi Roque, I probably would’ve given up on the story despite its slim length. Roque, a nonbinary and transmasculine performer, embodied Easton perfectly, but they rounded out the cast with dynamic takes on each individual character, having fun with accents and gender norms. They paired the stodginess and manners of the era with the edge that seemed to be missing in Kingfisher’s writing.

Rating (story): 2/5 stars

Rating (narration): 3/5 stars

Format: Audiobook (library loan)

Dates read: September 3, 2023

Multi-tasking: Good to go. I cleaned and organized my basement while listening, but I don’t think this story is generally worth the time.