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  • What Moves the Dead

  • Written by: T. Kingfisher
  • Narrated by: Avi Roque
  • Length: 5 hrs and 25 mins
  • 3.8 out of 5 stars (31 ratings)

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What Moves the Dead

Written by: T. Kingfisher
Narrated by: Avi Roque
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Publisher's Summary

Long-listed, Barnes and Noble Best New Books of the Year, 2022

Long-listed, Library Journal Best Books of the Year, 2022

"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

What listeners say about What Moves the Dead

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

The narrator is TERRIBLE.

I have an hour left, and I’m tempted to go out and buy the physical book so I don’t have to keep listening. The story is great, and I can usually push through with a narrator I don’t like, but this one is ruining an otherwise good book.

I thought the way that the narrator was reading was a stylistic choice, but I don’t think it is. They pause between words that shouldn’t have commas between them, and put inflections on the wrong word in a sentence. I think they do the character’s voice well, but I can’t stand having to think back on sentences and repeat them in my head to make it sound right.

It’s an Edgar Allen’s Poe retelling, and from what I can tell, it’s supposed to be poetic and lyrical. The narrator’s reading is anything but.

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1 person found this helpful

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

Great spine chilling story!

I'll be honest,for the first few chapters I was finding it slow and hard to follow. However, as it kept going on I found myself absolutely enthralled. I can't remember the last time a story actually made me sit on the edge of my seat, and keep me up long past my usual bedtime despite my early waking hours. The constant mystery and thrilling sense of the Ushers unusual slow demise was gripping.
Starting off, I wasn't a huge fan of how the narrator was...narrating. After a while though, he grew on me and was a welcomed voice. Especially as Mrs. Potter.

Great story, and great narration! 9/10!

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

as always brilliant

as stated before always brilliant and always entertaining. T kingfisher has done it again.

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

So brilliantly spooky

I Love this! I loved the Narrators voice but it felt more like reading and I would have liked a bit more nuance and performance for the story. The story is so creepy and such a good hommage/retelling of The Fall of the House of Usher.

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

Good Story, Disappointing Narration

I'm a big T. Kingfisher fan and loved their other works. I thought this book was well written with Kingfisher's unique and whimsical take on horror that I love. However, I found that the narrator's tendency to read with a choppy, lilting gait, and frequent over pronunciation took me out of the story to the point of distraction.

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2 people found this helpful

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

Weird tone

Couldn’t get into this with all the switching accents and the weird tone- almost jovial at times when it felt inappropriate.

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