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From the award-winning author of The Twisted Ones comes 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 Ruravia. 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.
As someone who doesn't read horror with anxiety, I shouldn't have started reading this in the dark at 2am... but I did, so now I have the light on. 🥲
I'm ashamed to admit that, despite having an English degree, I've never read Fall of the House of Usher, so I haven't been able to compare WMTD to it directly. I know the plot, but I'm curious to see how the mushrooms play into things. I'm enjoying it so far, including the Kingfisher's imitation of the OG gothic style, but I'm not sure what to make of the whole thing just yet.