Synopsis: When military veteran Alex Easton receives a letter from long-time friend Madeline Usher, she travels to England to visit the crumbling Usher estate. When Alex arrives she finds Madeline and Roderick Usher on the brink of death. Assisted by an American soldier and an English mycologist, the group must discover the source of the Usher’s ills and put a stop to it before the last of the family perishes. 

My Thoughts: What Moves the Dead is billed as a reimagining of The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allen Poe. I would describe it, instead, as an expanding of the story. What Moves the Dead dives deeper into the things that are only touched on in Poe’s story and allows the characters to become more vivid. 

I enjoyed reading this book, and at less than 200 pages I managed to finish it in a day. The story moved along quickly and remained mysterious and atmospheric the whole time. The characters seemed to only have one “thing” to make them unique but those things were enough to keep each character entertaining. However, the author chose to implement a new pronoun structure in this story that led to confusion while reading. I had to reference the passage that acted as an info dump on the new pronouns to understand the future story. 

Overall, I liked this book and plan to read the sequel. However, it didn’t wow me enough to shout its praise from the rooftops.