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What Moves the Dead - March 2025 Book Club Reading

Falselogic

Falselogic

Lapsed Threadcromancer
(they/them)
According to Wikipedia "What Moves the Dead" is a 2022 horror novella by Ursula Vernon, writing under the pen name T. Kingfisher. It is based on the short story "The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allan Poe." The novella won the 2023 Locus Award for Best Horror Novel and was nominated for the 2023 Hugo Award for Best Novella. A sequel, What Feasts at Night, was published in 2024.

Ursula Vernon is an American freelance writer, artist and illustrator. She has won numerous awards for her work in various mediums, including Hugo Awards for her graphic novel Digger, fantasy novel Nettle & Bone, and fantasy novella Thornhedge, the Nebula Award for her short story "Jackalope Wives", and Mythopoeic Awards for adult and children's literature. Vernon's books for children include Hamster Princess and Dragonbreath. Under the name T. Kingfisher, she is also the author of books for older audiences. She writes short fiction under both names.
 
This was one of my selections. I had no real reasoning behind it, other than that when I was telling my partner I needed a fourth pick for my recommendations she told me I'd probably like this book.

I ended up reading the author's most recent book A Sorceress Comes to Call right around the same time and enjoyed it, so I'm optimistic for this one.
 
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Ooh, I enjoy T. Kingfisher's writing. I haven't yet had the chance to read a lot of her books, but The Twisted Ones was a really good modern scary fairytale, as was Nettle & Bone. Looking forward to What Moves the Dead!
 
On hold at the library and hope to start soon! Looks like the only other thing I've read by this author is A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking which was fun.
 
On hold at the library but it'll likely be a few months... But this way I don't have to take a break from my long fantasy novel for a third time and can actually finish it before reading something else. So uh, I'll be back here in like, May or June or something!
 
I finished this last night. It was a quick read, breezy while also being gothic... Appropriately, horrifying at the end. I thought the language and gender aspects were interesting but they felt sort of kludged into the story. Like the author had a few separate ideas and decided to make a single story out of them and they didn't all quite fit together. I do love how they adapted Poe's story, updating it, adding some new aspects to the horror and subverting the ending.
 
In a bit of fortuitous timing, I just found out that the ebook is free with Prime right now! I just picked it up but haven't gotten around to it since I'm finishing my other book first.
 
I read this over Wednesday - Friday last week. Enjoyed it, but I want to read the original and see how they compare against each other. I don't think I've actually read it before, or if I have it was long enough ago that I've forgotten everything.
 
I also liked it! Very nice mix of classic horror with a modern sensibility. The book was a creepy read, but luckily it didn't overstay its welcome, either. I'm definitely up for more Alex Easton.
 
Started this today, got to Chapter 6 and am enjoying it immensely. Based on the title, the hares and all the mushroom fungi stuff I'm assuming this is going to be another Cordyceps-style zombie thing but I'm very much along for the ride, and also curious if that's a little too obvious and it'll be something else.

It's vaguely familiar so I'll want to read Fall of the House of Usher when done to see the differences and see if I have in fact read it before and forgot.
 
Finished, yes I had read the short story before, not long after finishing another novel that is a homage to this story, Mexican Gothic. I really recommend that novel. I actually thought we read Mexican Gothic for TT book club but maybe not, huh.

Anyway, I really liked this reimagining, and the pacing is just perfect. Adding in a relative of Beatrix Potter is a little silly but also campy fun and hey BP was a mycologist herself so why not?
 
Violentvixen said:
Started this today, got to Chapter 6 and am enjoying it immensely. Based on the title, the hares and all the mushroom fungi stuff I'm assuming this is going to be another Cordyceps-style zombie thing but I'm very much along for the ride, and also curious if that's a little too obvious and it'll be something else.
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I'm about at the same place as this and have also come to the same conclusion, but we'll see if she can introduce some twists and turns and stick the landing!
 
I was glad that it didn't turn out to be that sort of thing. Or at least was something more than just mindless zombies... And something creepier to me.
 
Falselogic said:
I was glad that it didn't turn out to be that sort of thing. Or at least was something more than just mindless zombies... And something creepier to me.
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It's still 90% Cordyceps, but using the pronoun "va" to add a slightly different relationship and sprinkling in a bit more intelligence does add an extra 10% of twist to the ending. Also just for some awareness, slime molds can solve mazes and hyphal fungus networks have shown decision making so that's why I'm not finding it that much more complex than real fungus.
 
Violentvixen said:
It's still 90% Cordyceps, but using the pronoun "va" to add a slightly different relationship and sprinkling in a bit more intelligence does add an extra 10% of twist to the ending. Also just for some awareness, slime molds can solve mazes and hyphal fungus networks have shown decision making so that's why I'm not finding it that much more complex than real fungus.
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It learned complex language and the sense of self and the other! That seems a little more complicated than maze solving.
 
I think one factor that adds to the creepiness is that the level of scientific knowledge available is just so lacking. The doctor is, understandably, more or less useless at anything, given that he's primarily a battlefield surgeon. Ms. Potter has some insights on how fungi might work, but we are left guessing at many pertinent details such as how does the fungal infection spread to humans.
 
I've finally started to figure out my province's digital library system, so I put a hold on this. But the wait time is estimated at 6 weeks, so I may be a little late to the discussion (unless the people ahead of me are fast readers).
 
MCBanjoMike said:
I've finally started to figure out my province's digital library system, so I put a hold on this. But the wait time is estimated at 6 weeks, so I may be a little late to the discussion (unless the people ahead of me are fast readers).
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Good news! It's a short read!
 
And finished! The sentience of the lake fungus was an interesting enough twist on it, I suppose, and the idea that Maddy (or it) wanted not just to spread (maybe?) but also keep learning gave it an extra factor of creepiness.

I think the neopronouns were kind of distracting, especially because they didn't really have anything to do with the story. Like Kingfisher had come up with this idea and felt like using it, and was also writing this at the same time. The one time they matter at all was when Maddy (or "Maddy") uses the pronoun for children for the fungus, but that could have easily been conveyed with standard language as well. I'm all for playing with pronouns and gender and stuff when it's done well, like in Ancillary Justice or something, but here I didn't really feel like it contributed anything.

But overall, it was competently written and I'm interested in checking out more of Kingfisher's stuff, but perhaps not this one's sequel.
 
I felt the same way! And tried to say it in my blurb but you explained it better. It feels tacked on and not really part of the setting or story so much. And it only ever pays off for a single scene. And if I think about how it would be without it, I don't feel like anything would be lost.
 
Yeah, I had similar thoughts about the pronouns -- I thought the idea of soldiers taking a nonbinary pronoun was interesting on its own, as it has a lot of implications about how a society views its soldiers/army in general*, but it didn't really feel like it added anything to the story. And like Paul said, it could've been conveyed with language we already have. But at the end of the day, it didn't really get in the way of anything either, so I'm just kinda shrugging about it.

*I think I'd like to see this as a more fleshed-out idea in another book.
 
lincolnic said:
*I think I'd like to see this as a more fleshed-out idea in another book.
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Yeah agreed.

The pronouns were fine for me, just felt like a modern "oh this book only has men, if I retell it without adding more diversity I'll get in trouble on the internet" thing. Awkward but she did her best to make it work. I do feel like it affected more than one scene with all the discussion of what a Sworn Soldier is and how sexist it could be.

What I found more thrown in was the "I'm Beatrix Potter's aunt!" thing. Just... why? You can't just add in a female mycologist, it's only believable if she's related to someone famous from that time who also was one? I really liked the character but that weird throwaway bit was totally unnecessary and jarring to me.

Also could be related to the fact that I read Scary Stories for Young Foxes recently, which also has a weird Beatrix Potter bit. Maybe there's something going on with her pop-culture wise in the past few years I'm not aware of but it seems odd.
 
Violentvixen said:
What I found more thrown in was the "I'm Beatrix Potter's aunt!" thing. Just... why? You can't just add in a female mycologist, it's only believable if she's related to someone famous from that time who also was one? I really liked the character but that weird throwaway bit was totally unnecessary and jarring to me.
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This also felt weird to me! I kinda wrote it off as an expression of fandom and moved on.

Anyway, I was telling my girlfriend tonight how the book seems to have gone over relatively well with folks here (which she was glad about) and we got to talking about the pronoun thing, and she informed me that 1) this book has a sequel and 2) that sequel goes a bit deeper into the Sworn Soldier thing. I'll probably read it at some point in the near future.
 
Yeah, the pronoun stuff took me out of it a bit. I thought it was a solid read. She really stuck the landing with that climax. Of the three I've read of hers so far (Hollow Places and A Sorceress Comes to Call), this one had the best climax I thought. That being said, don't know if I'll read the next book in the series
 
Yeah, I think it speaks to the book's strength that even with the stuff that we all blinked at, it's still a very enjoyable read.
 
My hold at the library finally came due and I just finished this book last night! So, better late than never, hopefully? I generally thought it was quite good - the prose was great, the dialogue witty, the characters well-drawn and the atmosphere a great mixture of gloomy and creepy. I didn't love the use of invented pronouns at the end of the story, but I thought it worked well enough for discussions of the main character and their (kan?) profession. I must have glossed over the mycologist's family connection, because that bit didn't stand out to me at all. Overall, a short and sweet horror story that didn't overstay its welcome, but managed to paint a pretty vivid picture despite the low page count. I'm definitely interested in checking out some more writing from this author down the line.
 
Yeah, if you dont know who Beatrix Potter the connection is completely hidden. Which is okay. Just a nice little easter egg.

Oh, I read the sequel to this. It was good too. Quick, breezy, with most of the same characters. The premise is more supernatural than science fiction but that is okay.
 
Falselogic said:
Yeah, if you dont know who Beatrix Potter the connection is completely hidden. Which is okay. Just a nice little easter egg.

Oh, I read the sequel to this. It was good too. Quick, breezy, with most of the same characters. The premise is more supernatural than science fiction but that is okay.
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Oh yeah, I also read the sequel! I did enjoy it, though not quite as much as the first book.

MCBanjoMike said:
I'm definitely interested in checking out some more writing from this author down the line.
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I also read and would recommend her latest book (as of last year), A Sorceress Comes to Call. It's a different flavor of horror from the Sworn Soldier books, and it has a lot of endearing characters.
 
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