[Review] What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher
Oct. 26th, 2025 01:19 am
Title: What Moves the Dead
Author: T. Kingfisher
Genre: horror
[Posting a lil early as I'll be out of town, hope that's okay!]
I'd been wanting to read What Moves the Dead for some time, having heard 1) that it was a retelling of Fall of the House of Usher and 2) it had a nonbinary protag, but kept backburnering it. Then my book club ended up reading Poe's House of Usher this month and I followed that up with watching The Bloodhound, a modern adaptation of the short story (it's REALLY BAD, would not recommend), so I decided this would be the month to (finally!) read it. It also shoehorns nicely with the horror theme I'd been going for with my reviews for this event :)
What Moves is indeed a retelling of Usher, but in the place of Poe's nameless narrator is veteran soldier Alex Easton, a character entirely of Kingfisher's creation, who comes hand-in-hand with a fictional European country and language to round out their background. Easton journeys to the Usher estate upon hearing that their childhood friend Madeline is gravely ill, only to encounter a house oppressive in its decay, with grounds populated by disturbingly strange wildlife. Easton finds that it's not just Madeline who has fallen ill; her brother Roderick too suffers from what seems some unknown malady that fills him with a debilitating fear.
Kingfisher sticks fairly close to the original story, but puts her own disquieting spin on the events which nonetheless manage to feel very much within the spirit of the original. Having reread the original recently I was struck with how much time Poe spends just describing the house and the tarn; building up the atmosphere. I very much appreciated Kingfisher playing to this (every mention of the tarn right there at the start had me cheering like a sportsball fan) and building off of it. I personally caught on to where Kingfisher was going very early, but as it was right up my alley, I had an absolute blast reading anyway.
(Also, side note to say that this book is aesthetically VERY NICE. The cover rocks, the end paper illustrations are gorgeous (and spooky!), and even the house detail beneath the dust jacket is a real nice touch. A++ on book design alone.)
What Moves is a quick read, easily managed in one sitting, that expands on the source material without being a simple retread. I also really enjoyed all the characters, even Madeline and Roderick (and the gross old house and the grosser tarn). Easton makes for a great protagonist, and the country of Gallacia is also fairly interesting, especially as its culture and language are described in contrast with the rest of Europe/America—-I also just personally enjoyed that this was not a modern retelling, that Kingfisher works Gallacia into the broader history and time period of the original House of Usher.
What Moves maintains a nicely creepy atmosphere throughout, and while I wouldn't consider it outright scary, it's a fun read, especially if you're looking for a quick, not-too-spooky book to finish off spooky month.
Review: Library Exension app
Oct. 26th, 2025 09:25 amIt searches by title rather than ISBN so it picks up physical, ebook and audiobook editions of the title you're looking at. And links you straight to the page to borrow.

It currently has the catalogue of over 5000 libraries, including catalogues of subscription services like Kobo Plus, Scribd and Everand. And if they don't have your local library you can ask and they'll try to add it.
Unfortunately it works on desktop browsers. And the title search does occasionally give you a random title and not the one you're looking at. But overall 9/10 will make my TBR list groan until it dies no regrets
Book Review: Ikigai
Oct. 25th, 2025 05:50 pmAuthor: Yukari Mitsuhashi
First Published: In Great Britain by Kyle Books, an Imprint of Octopus Publishing Group LtD, 2018
"The Japanese word ikigai is formed of two Japanese characters, or kanji: 'iki' [生き], meaning life, and 'gai' [甲斐], meaning value or worth. Ikigai, then, is the value of life, or happiness in life. Put simply, it's the reason you get up in the morning." - That's the summary on the back of the book.
This is a quick and thoughtful read. I'm a distractable person with a wandering mind, and it still only took me about an hour to reread this cover to cover. Here are some thoughts.
Call it morbid curiosity or a guilty pleasure, but I read self-help books sometimes, including bad ones. It's a good idea to take life advice books with a grain of salt, and perhaps Ikigai is no different. Even so, I like this book. Nothing felt out of place or without meaning. There are no religious undertones that I noticed, nor does the author have the attitude that your purpose in life is to make money. She does her best to show the reader what the "value of life" means to her, and the anecdotes she used from others are brief, but effective.
I think perhaps my favorite thing the author said was toward the end, on page 89: "I think having ikigai ensures that I will never be bored until the day I die. Maybe that's happiness. You keep chasing your ikigai and one day you just die." This made me think of hobbies we passionately engage with and why we have them. If I had to call anything my ikigai, it would probably be writing fanfiction.
A book like this has its place if you need a quick boost, or moment to think deeply about what you love and why it gets you out of bed in the morning. It doesn't have to be a job or family, though it can be those things. It just has to be true, and yours. Reading this feels meditative, in a way.
Saturday 25 October 2025
Oct. 25th, 2025 05:45 pmEditor's note: Because of the high posting volume and the quantity of information linked in each newsletter,
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Database maintenance
Oct. 25th, 2025 08:42 amGood morning, afternoon, and evening!
We're doing some database and other light server maintenance this weekend (upgrading the version of MySQL we use in particular, but also probably doing some CDN work.)
I expect all of this to be pretty invisible except for some small "couple of minute" blips as we switch between machines, but there's a chance you will notice something untoward. I'll keep an eye on comments as per usual.
Ta for now!
Books Received, October 18 — October 24
Oct. 25th, 2025 09:20 am
Eight works new to me. Three fantasies, two horror, two SF, and one hard-to-classify RPG. One of the SF books is pretty horrory, so maybe that should be three fantasies, three horror, one SF, and one hard-to-classify RPG.
Books Received, October 18 — October 24
Which of these look interesting?
Abyss by Nicholas Binge (May 2026)
5 (11.6%)
Testimony of Mute Things by Lois McMaster Bujold (October 2025)
24 (55.8%)
Morsel by Carter Keane (April 2026)
3 (7.0%)
The Cove by Claire Rose (May 2026)
5 (11.6%)
Outgunned by Riccardo “Rico” Sirignano & Simone Formicola, with art by Daniela Giubellini (December 2024)
4 (9.3%)
And Side by Side They Wander by Molly Tanzer (May 2026)
16 (37.2%)
Lightning Runes by Harry Turtledove (March 2026)
8 (18.6%)
A Long and Speaking Silence by Nghi Vo (May 2026)
21 (48.8%)
Some other option (see comments)
0 (0.0%)
Cats!
33 (76.7%)
Rec [fic]: The Paradise Complex by unwillingadventurer
Oct. 25th, 2025 02:34 pmCreator:
Rating: General
Word Count/Length/Size: 13,231 words
Creator's Summary: Sometimes paradise isn't all it's cracked up to be.
Characters/Pairings: Ian Chesterton/Barbara Wright First Doctor, Susan Foreman
Warnings/Notes: None
Reasons for reccing: It's an interesting mystery, where the four of them turn up somewhere with multiple Ians and Barbaras and everything named after future companions. And it's told from Barbara's perspective in the future as she's telling their son, John.
Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12506300
Fannish Stuff
Oct. 24th, 2025 10:10 pmWe'll see how it goes?
I've gotta admit, one of the biggest things that annoys me about Critical Role is their refusal to add content warnings of any type even now that they're prerecording. It made sense when they were properly airing live prior to 2020, because that just wasn't possible, but now? It would help a lot of people to at least have an option to know in advance that an episode was going to include common triggers. They gave warnings for the Divergence miniseries, so it's definitely possible for them to do. They just don't do it most of the time.
Let's see...
I finally managed to get my Yuletide sign-up done earlier this afternoon. It took a lot longer than I was expecting, but I got it in a few hours before the deadline so that I still had time to go back and make a few small edits before they closed. So that's a relief at least. I'm having a few regrets about not trimming down my list of offers a bit more than I did, but that happens every year, so it's not exactly something new.
The Dragon Age Reverse Bang's deadline is Sunday, so my artist and I are both hurrying to get everything finished. My brain's a bit mush right now despite me napping after work, because A. I slept like crap and B. I think that I might be coming down with something, so I think that I'm going to go to bed in a bit so that I can plan on getting up early and curling up with my laptop to spend tomorrow writing until I get this ever-growing monster of a fic done.
Exit Sigil
Oct. 24th, 2025 08:51 pm
We have made the difficult decision to end development on Sigil. T
Dear Yuletide Writer(s),
Oct. 24th, 2025 12:44 pmMy AO3 account is
First of all, relax! I'm far from being picky, and I can pretty much guarantee that I'll love whatever you decide to write me. These are nothing but guidelines for you to take to heart or ignore to your heart's content. Also, hey! You're writing me fic! In a tiny(ish) fandom that I adore! That's automatically a good reason for me to love you, no matter what. So, please, keep that in mind. Trust me, you can pretty much do no wrong. ♥
That said, I thought that I'd elaborate a bit on my eight requests in case, like me, you're the type of person who likes to have something to work with. If you're not that type of person, it's totally fine with me if you skip over anything/everything that I've included in this letter. Feel free to use and/or ignore as much of this as you want.
( General Likes/Dislikes )
( Gargoyles (Cartoon) )
( Home Alone (Movies) )
( Hornblower (TV) )
( Peacemakers (2003) )
( Stealing Fire - Jo Graham )
( Titanic (1997) )
( The Wild Robot (2024) )
( The Witch Wolf (Webcomic) )
No matter what, please don't stress out about writing for me. I'll love whatever you give me, so don't worry. Write what makes you happy, and I can guarantee that I'll be happy in return.
Death in the Cards by Mia P. Manansala
Oct. 24th, 2025 08:57 am
High school student and semi-professional tarot card reader Danika Dizon assists her PI mother to look for a missing person... a teen who vanished after Danika gave her a tarot card reading.
Death in the Cards by Mia P. Manansala
Critical Role
Oct. 23rd, 2025 11:55 pm( Rambling under the cut. )
ETA: In retrospect, I was definitely having a mild panic attack for a while there, so I've apparently found a fun new trigger. A friend is sending me some very specific spoilers and timestamps about last night's episode, so I'm going to try it again when I can go in prepared. It's not as bad as it initially seemed, but the way it was handled was definitely... not great.
Holy Monkey Bladders! It's Monkey Island™.
Oct. 23rd, 2025 11:10 amThursday 23rd October 2025
Oct. 23rd, 2025 07:04 pmEditor's Note: If your item was not linked, it's because the header lacked the information that we like to give our readers. Please at least give the title, rating, and pairing or characters, and please include the header in the storypost itself, not just in the linking post. Spoiler warnings are also greatly appreciated. Thank you!
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Blogtor Who's video of the day for yesterday was a clip from 1968's "The Dominators"
Blogtor Who's video of the day for today is a clip of Ncuti Gatwa and Varada Sethu on Radio 1
Nicholas Whyte reviews the Bernice Summerfield novel "Mean Streets"
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Bundle of Holding: Nightmares Underneath (from 2023)
Oct. 23rd, 2025 11:41 am
The August 2023 Nightmares Underneath Bundle featuring The Nightmares Underneath, the old-school horror-fantasy tabletop roleplaying game from Chthonstone Games.
Bundle of Holding: Nightmares Underneath (from 2023)
Girl in the Creek by Wendy N. Wagner
Oct. 23rd, 2025 08:51 am
Faraday, Oregon, seems to have a missing persons problem. Its problem is much worse.
Girl in the Creek by Wendy N. Wagner



