Night of the Living Lepus

I feel, more than anything, pretty disappointed by this. I'd heard a lot of really good things, and the myriad 5 star reviews had me extremely excited for a retelling of "Fall of the House of Usher" but with fungus zombies. It's a brilliant concept to breathe life into an old classic that, I believe, can benefit from a modern update.

But.... I have issues with this update. Namely, I am just plum not a fan of the author's voice. I found it to be simplistic, unfocused, and often tonally inconsistent with the terror unfolding in the story. I was speaking with my boyfriend about it and he asked "So, it read a bit like a Tumblr or Wattpad fic?" And by God, he was right. I know some folks love Kingfisher's style, but I do not think it is for me.

Other smaller gripes include

• How did the maid, Madeline, and Roderick all get infected in the first place? This is never fully explained and I would have liked to know.

• We spend precious little time with the fully reanimated fungus controlled Madeline. She was by far and away the most interesting aspect of the story and she's left locked in a room after one chapter.

• The story wrapped up VERY quickly and the climax, Madeline in the bedroom, felt underwhelming to me.

• What about the rest of the infected hares?

I just have an overall sense of disappointment with this book. I feel like it could have been something more.