Book Review: What Moves the Dead by T Kingfisher
Goodreads Description: When Alex Easton, a retired soldier, receives word that their childhood friend Madeline Usher is dying, they race to the ancestral home of the Ushers in the remote countryside of Ruravia.
What they find there is a nightmare of fungal growths and possessed wildlife, surrounding a dark, pulsing lake. Madeline sleepwalks and speaks in strange voices at night, and her brother Roderick is consumed with a mysterious malady of the nerves.
Aided by a redoubtable British mycologist and a baffled American doctor, Alex must unravel the secret of the House of Usher before it consumes them all.
My Review: What a creepy, atmospheric read! Kingfisher reimagines Edgar Allen Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher with a fantastical twist: the rotting house of Usher, both the building and the family itself, have been infested with a fungus that makes the dead walk. The thematic rotting of the Usher House is made literal through Kingfisher's fungi, which behaves similarly to the real family of cordyceps mushrooms that make zombies out of their living hosts. This omnipresent infestation creates a tense and claustrophobic atmosphere that is so tangible it's almost another character. Even before readers know exactly what it is, there's a sense that the characters are constantly being watched by a predator waiting for its moment to strike. What Moves the Dead follows Poe's original story quite faithfully, with the added elements only serving to flesh out (heh) the original story.
While Poe's story was not particularly queer, Kingfisher changes that up by playing with gender identity and neo-pronouns in her retelling. The novel features the made-up country of Gallacia, where gender and pronoun use differ from the rest of Europe. They draw from an expanded set of personal pronouns with individual pronouns for God, minors, and soldiers. The main character, Alex Easton, is also a transgender man or trans-masculine nonbinary, which was really cool to see representation-wise. Since Alex is a soldier, the book explores the 'soldier' gender category and how it manifests differently from masculinity. While the 'soldier' gender is presented as masculine, the way it is expressed is tied more closely to the role of a warrior than the typical 'male' role, i.e., more concerned with duty than domination. I really enjoyed how Kingfisher wove these ideas into the overall plot. While gender and pronoun use do have a role to play in the plot, it's not Alex's gender that comes under the microscope. It's refreshing to see gender feature as a main plot point without focusing on bigotry, coming out, or a crisis of identity.
All in all, this was such a delightful read. The writing was gorgeously haunting. Kingfisher's ability to blend modern slang with the formal language of Poe's era added a musicality to her text that made it a true joy to read. Plus, at less than 200 pages, this novella reads quick but leaves a lasting impression.
TL;DR: 5/5 stars. Freaky fungi, some queering of gender, and a whole lot of atmosphere.
