I feel like I would have enjoyed this book more if I'd read the short story it's a retelling of first. I'm not familiar with Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher", but I assume I would have a lot more to say on this book's quality as an adaptation if I was. Still, it held its own as a novella, and I enjoyed it a lot nonetheless.

Going into it blind, on recommendation of a friend, I was delighted to discover the narrator of the audiobook was Avi Roque, also the VA of Raine Whispers in "The Owl House". Nonbinary talent reading a book with a nonbinary protagonist? Sign me up! 

The story itself was well written, and hooked me from the start. I can see the inspiration drawn from Poe, the prose wasn't overly descriptive, and if anything, that made the visceral horror elements shine through much more. 

The lore of the world, which featured a made-up country with different pronouns to English (so that the nonbinary character, a soldier, which use different pronouns to civilians by custom, had a whole legal reason to be nonbinary, I guess???) and customs similar to Slavic and Jewish ones, confused me, because apart from its inclusion - the rest of the world was the same as ours. I'm not sure how I feel about coming up with a whole nation to justify having a nonbinary character in a book, but I did otherwise enjoy the characterization of Easton. Also - no rushed romance for the protag! Hell yeah! 

All in all, a super enjoyable read, though I can't comment on its quality as a retelling.