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Queer Fantasy :: Sci-Fi Romance
What Moves the Dead
T. Kingfisher
Horror, Novella (2022)
…as well as…
“The Fall of the House of Usher”
Edgar Allen Poe
Horror, Short Story (1839)
From Goodreads:
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.
This is a novella that is very vocally a reinterpretation of the Poe short story, “The Fall of the House of Usher.” It had been long enough since I read the story, that I really barely remembered it, so I was in a prime position to see how well it played as a standalone divorced from its source reference. Then I reread the inspiring story again right afterward in my fancy Poe collection.
It’s very a competently constructed eco/body horror. Not super high tension, but a very sort of creeping, under the skin feeling. The book itself is pretty predictable even if you aren’t familiar with the original story, but that’s not neccesarily a knock on the book. The book sort of expects you to already be familiar with its story.
Where the original story doesn’t have a specific answer as to why the residents of this house are ill, this novella creates a discreet concrete cause. To avoid spoilers, it’s a specific ecological thing that is causing the problems in this house. Part of the horror of the original story, though, is that you don’t actually know what’s happening, just that stuff is going existentially awry. That’s a really common theme in Poe’s work: “Is this real or did I imagine it?”
What Moves the Dead makes all that more concrete and provides additional context. So does that framework add to the story?
Eh?
I think that’s really going to depend on your personal relationship and experience with horror. If you’ve consumed a lot of body horror, this is going to feel like a more lukewarm take on the concept. If you’re new to body horror or more on the squeamish side, it’s a great introduction to that very special form of discomfort that body horror can give you without being especially gory. It’s a really great book for that niche of reader.
In conversation with the original short story, it becomes a discussion on the sort of thematic identity of a story. So when the transformative drops one of the major style elements of the source (in this case the unknowability of the “disease” at the core of the story) it has to replace it with something equally interesting. For me I’m back at “eh” but for someone else the fungal aspect could be perfect.
Basically, do mushrooms squick you out the right amount?
Angels Before Man
Rafael Nicolas
Fantasy, Religious Transformative, Queer (2022)
From Storygraph:
A Queer Retelling of Satan’s Fall
In an eternal paradise, the most beautiful angel, Lucifer, struggles with shame, identity, and timidity, with little more than the desire to worship his creator.It isn’t until the strongest angel, Michael, comes into his life that Lucifer learns to love himself. Along the way, their friendship begins to bloom into something else. Maybe the first romance in the history of everything.
But this God is a jealous one, and maybe paradise is not paradise.
Imagine you have two beings that don’t have any of the biological drivers that we would most commonly assume lead to feelings of lust finding themselves in something that resembles romance. People who only understand the concept of friendship falling into something that looks like love. This is, eventually, Lucifer and Michael.
Before that, though, we have this young Lucifer who is born to be beautiful. Born to worship. Yet when he does that thing and he does that thing well, he’s told he’s too much. He’s too aware of his beauty and needs to humble himself. Imagine the desperate, angry frustration that would grow from that.
Then we place the Judeo-Christian god as an abusive, authoritian father-figure who’s equal parts terrifying and sympathetic, the only being of His kind in all of creation, creating playthings to bend and kneel.
This book is a slowburn in the truest sense and the prose can lean a little purple, but it’s so melodic and compelling that you’re pulled just right through page by page. What you end up with is this fabulous story that maintains who Lucifer is as a character in terms of his relationship with “sin,” but shows the path to that breaking point, leaving a grim sympathy behind.
Absolutley wonderful read, particularly for the queer exvangelical.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin
Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird, Tom Waltz
Science Fiction, Graphic Novel (2022)
From Storygraph:
What terrible events destroyed his family and left New York a crumbling, post-apocalyptic nightmare? All will be revealed in this climactic Turtle tale that sees longtime friends becoming enemies and new allies emerging in the most unexpected places. Can the surviving Turtle triumph?
Collects the complete five-issue miniseries in a new graphic novel, an adventure as fulfilling for longtime Turtles fans as it is accessible for readers just discovering the heroes in a half shell.
This book made me so mad because how dare they (complimentary).
If you’re not already a TMNT fan, this isn’t going to hit as hard because it requires a little pre-attachment to the characters and knowledge of their story and history. It’s still a great story you’d probably enjoy, just not quite the same compared to a fan.
If you’re already a fan…prepare yourself…It’s gonna hurt a little.
Comic Round Up
1st Issue in July
Fantastic Four (Marvel)
This reset from Ryan North is starting STRONG. I’m already pre-devastated for where this story is going to go. It’s a particularly effective look at how these characters problem solve in terms of using science and the natural world to their advantage and the trust they have in the material world.
Franklin Richards-Son of A Genius (Marvel)
If you see this at your LCS, it’s really cute! I got it on a whim, and it’s a collection of Franklin stories from the early 2000s Power Pack run. Just a fun little book!
Ghost Pepper (Image)
This starts setting up a very interesting world with a strong mecha-religious overtone. I don’t actually know what’s about to happen, but the introduction of our three main characters was strong and vigorous. A really great first showing.
Deadpools and Wolverines (Marvel)
This started really fun! I’ll admit, though, I forgot to add the second one to my pull list, so I missed getting it from the shop. It’s only going to be three issues, though, so this might just end up being a trade wait. Because it’s fun, but I can wait.
Through the First Arc
Deadpool/Wolverine (Marvel)
This story is going in such a weird direction, that I don’t know how to feel anymore. It’s this continuously escalating action movie. Here’s this! Then this! Ahhh!!
Still one of my favorite pulls each month, but now might be the time to do a direct reread to make sure I don’t drop any story threads.
Assorted Crisis Events (Image)
As an anthology series, we’re not really looking at arcs. However, we’re a few issues into what is turning out to be an incredible collection of stories about what happens when time breaks. This most recent issue is starting to feel like they’re going to start connecting some things up, and I’m really excited.
Back Catalog
Because I’m reading two books with Laura Kinney in the, I decided to dig more into her other appearances. This brought me through the early 2003 Nyx and the two X-23 mini series in that order as recommended by a reading order guide. Then moving on to All New X-Men
Nyx is such an excellent grim exploration of teen mutantdom, that’s it’s genuinely annoying it has so many teenage girl panty shots. And making Laura a prostitute is…a choice… It’s realistic in the sense that a young woman with no home would absolutely turn to sex work to survive, but it feels more exploitative than deconstructive. A little 3edgy5 me, which is very of the time.
The X-23 minis were absolutely excellent, and make Nyx feel weirder in comparison. The way I’m understanding the story, Target X happens chronologically before Nyx. At the end of Target X, though, she finds Logan. She knows about the school. Why go back to the street after that? What is she thinking? I accidentally skipped the issues of Uncanny X-Men where the gang finds her in New York, so maybe that helps, but I feel like I’m left with this narrative gap.
I’ll see if there’s a good flashback as I continue to read through her because I do really enjoy her as a character.
Need to go back an rewatch her appearances in X-Men Evolution then compare.
Pixels and Pins Studio 