Content levels
Trigger warnings
Positive tags
Protagonist archetypes
Tropes
Synopsis
An Instant USA Today & Indie Bestseller A Barnes & Noble Book of the Year Finalist A Goodreads Best Horror Choice Award Nominee A gripping and atmospheric reimagining of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” from Hugo, Locus, & Nebula award-winning author T. Kingfisher *A very special hardcover edition, featuring foil stamp on the casing and custom endpapers illustrated by the author.* 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. Also by T. Kingfisher What Feasts at Night A House with Good Bones Nettle & Bone Thornhedge A Sorceress Comes to Call At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Is What Moves the Dead appropriate for my child?
Suitable for most readers 16 and up.
A creeping horror novella featuring body horror through fungal growth, possession, mysterious illness, and psychological dread. Contains disturbing imagery of decay and nature corrupted, but violence is atmospheric rather than explicit.
What to know going in
This book has moderate violence, no sexual content, and mild language. Content notes include death, grief, and body horror (see the full list above).
Who'll love this
Teens who love atmospheric horror with creeping dread and mysteries that slowly reveal themselves will be captivated by this gothic nightmare.