What Moves the Dead

I love a gothic horror story but I love a gothic horror story that includes fungi! This was my first time reading T. Kingfisher and this story felt like a wonderful introduction into her work. What Moves the Dead is creepy, funny, and an all-around beautiful. I love the way the author uses language to describe the manor, nature, and characters. My only criticism with the novella is that the ending felt a little bit rushed, given how short it is. Overall, I highly enjoyed this quick read and if you like anything gothic, I recommend it!
I honestly can't remember if I've read Fall of the House of Usher, but I'm totally going to add it to my list. 

I liked this, but it didn't quite pull me in. I felt like it was presented as a mystery, but also made it immediately obvious what the “secret” was. Like, if you look at the cover, you know exactly what's going on.

I liked the idea of a social group that gets their own pronouns, but I felt like there was a lot of tell-don't-show surrounding it that took up too much of this short tale.

I loved the characters of Alex, Miss Potter, Angus, and Denton, so that carried me along, and I like the idea of fleshing out The Fall of the House of Usher. It certainly had atmosphere, and there were some very creepy moments.

The beginning was slow, but I kept at it because so many people told me they enjoyed it. I'm glad I did. There weren't really any mysteries because it seemed obvious what was going on, which surprised me. The strength of the book is the creeping horror and the body horror. I did enjoy seeing them investigate what was going on and their discoveries. I'm glad I stuck with it and it was a good book to usher me into my 2024 reading goals of reading slower.