“I don’t read horror books!” I cried as we drove away from Barnes & Noble, a new book in my hand.

Years ago, I started to read a spooky story set in Ireland with a full cast of eerie characters and spirits and a lone woman. It gave me nightmares. I stopped reading it. Since then, I have refused to read anything that may disrupt a peaceful night’s rest (No Stephen King for this girl). Apparently that was until I fell in love with a beautifully bizarre cover sitting on the counter of the bookstore’s Cafe. I looked no further than the cover and decided for $5, I must have this book.

My copy of T Kingfisher’s What Moves the Dead has a captivating hare, and red and coral mushroom-flower growths all around it (actually coming out of it, but I didn’t catch that at first). With my almond milk Hot Cinnamon Tea Latte and the beautiful bizarre book in hand, I left the store a happy camper.

Until I read the back.

HORROR? I bought a horror book. Not only that, but it’s based on Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, The Fall of the House of Usher!? I didn’t remember that particular Poe story, but I did remember how I felt when my high school English teacher was shoving the gothic story-teller down our throats. There’s no Poe on my TBR list.

At the risk of nightmares, I decided to test the waters of this novella.

And I was swept in. Drawn in. Not like the haunted lush hills of Ireland. But the grey, the uncertainty, the mushrooms; Kingfisher teased my curiosity from start to finish.

Decrepit buildings, concerned friends, The crumbling of a provincial family, questions of hauntings and life after death, hares that stare, a sickly death in the tarn, risk of infection (or was it possession?).

After being captivated by the entirety of the 158 page book, I had no choice but to read the inspiration of it all.

Poe wrote in the style of his day which is so far removed from the common style of today. I struggled to stay with him through his rambling sentences and extremely long descriptions of setting. Kingfisher honored the Poe-etic style; flavoring her version of the story with it like honey in a mug of hot tea… it was there, but didn’t overpower it. She captured Poe’s essence, but added more humanity to the story, more character building (and characters actually). She elaborated and thickened the plot where I felt Poe had missed the mark.

Is that sacrilegious to say the prolific master of the macabre missed the mark in one of his own creations? I don’t know! But I do know that T Kingfisher added great depth, like quicksand, that pulled me in whereas the Poe version was like a parched mouth chewing on white bread.

For me, Poe will remain on the shelf, whereas I predict this will not be my last T Kingfisher read.