What’s scarier: a plant that feeds on blood or one that reads your thoughts?
A plant that reads my thoughts would be far scarier.
I’ve read so many psychological and horror stories where the real terror comes from the mind—hidden fears, buried emotions, and twisted motives. A blood-feeding plant is terrifying, yes, but it’s visible danger. We can run, fight, or scream.
Name of Book: What Moves The Dead
Author: T Kingfisher
Publisher: Titan
Publication Date: 18 Oct 2022
No. of Pages: 178
Format: Digital
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 Ruritania.
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.
T. Kingfisher is the adult fiction pseudonym of Ursula Vernon, the multi-award-winning author of Digger and Dragonbreath. Perhaps best known for her children's fiction, she is an author and illustrator based in North Carolina who has been nominated for the Ursa Major Award, the Eisner Awards, and has won the Nebula Award for Best Short Story for "Jackalope Wives" in 2015 and the Hugo Award for Best Novelette for "the Tomato Thief" in 2017. Her debut adult horror novel, The Twisted Ones, won the 2020 Dragon Award for Best Horror Novel, and was followed by the critically acclaimed The Hollow Places.
My Opinion
What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher is a masterful blend of Lovecraftian dread and Poe-style gothic tension. The story wraps you in an eerie, unsettling atmosphere from the very beginning, making the setting feel alive and watching. As the first book in the Sworn Soldier Series, it does a brilliant job of pulling you into its dark world—I’ve already moved on to the second one. Some scenes are genuinely terrifying, especially the moments when Madeline Usher wanders through the house at night, appearing more like a ghost than a living person. The buildup to the final revelations is gripping, and the truth behind the horrors is truly chilling. While it may feel like a one-time read, it’s absolutely worth it for its captivating storyline, steady tension, and the way each character adds to the creeping sense of dread. A memorable and atmospheric gothic horror experience.
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