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A review by incipientdreamer
What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher
4.0
4.5 stars
I loved this so much! The writing was atmospheric and I was sucked into the story from the very first page. I'm a big fan of Poe, but I have to say I liked Kingfisher's retelling of The Fall of the House of Usher a lot more! Usher isn't even my favorite Poe story, but I just sped through this novella. This book had the perfect amount of humor and dread to make me finish it in one sitting. The mc was a delight to read. I loved how the author added the mc's fictional country and explained the pronoun system through that. It was very refreshing for historical fiction. It does have many similarities to [b:Mexican Gothic|53152636|Mexican Gothic|Silvia Moreno-Garcia|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1607462569l/53152636._SY75_.jpg|73647361] and the author does acknowledge that in the Author's Note at the end. I do think that I might have liked What Moves the Dead a bit more than Mexican Gothic. Might be because the plot and prose and characterization were a lot better overall. This was also definitely a lot more scarier than Mexican Gothic. The horror element was very vivid here, and I was a bit stressed out by all the spooky shit happening, especially the zombie bunnies! I can see this becoming a Hugo shortlist next year.
I loved this so much! The writing was atmospheric and I was sucked into the story from the very first page. I'm a big fan of Poe, but I have to say I liked Kingfisher's retelling of The Fall of the House of Usher a lot more! Usher isn't even my favorite Poe story, but I just sped through this novella. This book had the perfect amount of humor and dread to make me finish it in one sitting. The mc was a delight to read. I loved how the author added the mc's fictional country and explained the pronoun system through that. It was very refreshing for historical fiction. It does have many similarities to [b:Mexican Gothic|53152636|Mexican Gothic|Silvia Moreno-Garcia|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1607462569l/53152636._SY75_.jpg|73647361] and the author does acknowledge that in the Author's Note at the end. I do think that I might have liked What Moves the Dead a bit more than Mexican Gothic. Might be because the plot and prose and characterization were a lot better overall. This was also definitely a lot more scarier than Mexican Gothic. The horror element was very vivid here, and I was a bit stressed out by all the spooky shit happening, especially the zombie bunnies! I can see this becoming a Hugo shortlist next year.