Preview
  • What Moves the Dead

  • By: T. Kingfisher
  • Narrated by: Avi Roque
  • Length: 5 hrs and 25 mins
  • 4.0 out of 5 stars (793 ratings)

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What Moves the Dead

By: T. Kingfisher
Narrated by: Avi Roque
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Publisher's summary

"The audiobook narrated by Avi Roque is delightful." - Buzzfeed

"Narrator Avi Roque delivers a perfectly paced performance in this concise audiobook...holding listeners hostage until the house reveals its terrifying secrets." -AudioFile Magazine

From T. Kingfisher, the award-winning author of
The Twisted Ones, comes What Moves the Dead, a gripping and atmospheric retelling of Edgar Allan Poe's classic "The Fall of the House of Usher."

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.

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Nightfire.

©2022 T. Kingfisher (P)2022 Macmillan Audio
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Featured Article: 15 Poignant and Postapocalyptic Listens for Fans of The Last of Us


Naughty Dog's postapocalyptic video game The Last of Us is a masterclass in storytelling. Celebrated for its complex ruminations on grief, morality, and redemption, this unique take on dystopia has maintained a steady fanbase since 2013. That following is set to grow following the debut of HBO's television adaptation—a breakout hit that sacrifices none of the emotional stakes or brilliant character work of its source material.

Editorial Review

How stories sustain the living dead
I’ve been asking: Do I love the gothic because I love audiobooks, or do I love audiobooks because I love gothic literature? This genre demands to be heard, as its booming claps of thunder and haunting organs creep from its pages to prey upon the darkest corners of our imaginations. So, when I learned that T. Kingfisher, author of such atmospheric works as The Hollow Places and The Twisted Ones, had plans to resurrect The Fall of the House of Usher in all its chilling glory, I knew I had to listen. This title adds unsettling depth to the ruins of Edgar Allan Poe’s original manor, reminding us in the process that so long as we keep their stories alive, the dead never have to die. — Haley H.

What listeners say about What Moves the Dead

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

A good story ruined by a bad narration.

The story is a interesting and well written and I have no complaints about it,except that it's a little predictable. The narration however ruined my enjoyment of it and if it had been a longer book I wouldn't have finished it. It starts out okay, but after a while I started noticing that the narrator kept putting the emphasis on the wrong words. Not just occasionally, but almost every sentence. It's as if they are reading the book for the very first time and have no idea what's going on, sentence to sentence. Towards the end I couldn't concentrate on the story at all and just kept trying to figure out where the emphasis should be and what the meaning of each line actually was, rather than what the narrator made it seem to be.

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Superb Horror Fairytale!!!

Original in every way. Great narrator. I found myself sitting in my car after I arrived at the store just so I could keep listening instead of running errands. I loved it.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A fulfilling twist on a classic tale

A scientific approach to a supernatural classic.
It left me satisfied with shivers down my spine.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

an easy listen

Stange and unusual a great retelling of a classic. I enjoyed the narrator and how the stroy was written great descriptions that had my imagination running.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Poor Narration

I'm a big T. Kingfisher fan and I loved the actual story. I downloaded it from Kindle because I could no longer stand to LISTEN to the narrator.

Instead of a performance, it sounded like someone doing an exercise for beginner elocution lessons.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Delightfully creepy

Engaging take on a classic tale. Echoes of Poe while remaining fresh and entertaining. Narrator was a perfect fit.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Very eerie.

This is the first time I’ve listened to an audiobook and thought to myself “there is no way I would have enjoyed this so much if I had read it myself.” Definitely worth it. I was genuinely terrified at times. Wanted to crawl out of my skin at others.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great Rendition

Horror isn't my usual genre, but this was very well done! I've never read The Fall of the House of Usher, but after looking at a summary, this seems to be a great expanded-upon rendition, and I like how Kingfisher brings a plausible explanation to the sickness. Overall a great, short read.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

The narrator is atrocious

I can’t really rate the story yet, I DNF’d this one because of the narrator. I’ll just buy the physical book and read that. I can’t get into the story because of the narration. The narrator has a gender ambiguous voice which is great for different characters but they way they over enunciate every single letter in a word to sound articulate only sounds pretentious and irritating. It’s also SO SLOW. They spend so much time trying to get every letter that had I finished, I would swear adds 45 mins to the length. Also, are there any contractions in this book??

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Cool story

a less intense Lovecraft style horror, also less racist.

apparently I need 5 more words to submit a review. That should do it.

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3 people found this helpful