Synopses & Reviews
Madeline Usher has been buried alive. The doomed heroine comes to the fore in this eerie reimagining of Edgar Allan Poe's classic short story "The Fall of the House of Usher." Gothic, moody, and suspenseful from beginning to end,
The Fall is literary horror for fans of
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children and
Asylum.
Madeline awakes in a coffin. And she was put there by her own twin brother. But how did it come to this? In short, non-chronological chapters, Bethany Griffin masterfully spins a haunting and powerful tale of this tragic heroine and the curse on the Usher family. The house itself is alive, and it will never let Madeline escape, driving her to madness just as it has all of her ancestors. But she won't let it have her brother, Roderick. She'll do everything in her power to save him—and try to save herself—even if it means bringing the house down around them.
With a sinister, gothic atmosphere and relentless tension to rival Poe himself, Bethany Griffin creates a house of horrors and introduces a whole new point of view on a timeless classic. Kirkus Reviews praised it in a starred review as "A standout take on the classic haunted-house tale replete with surprises around every shadowy corner."
Review
“Readers will be swept away immediately . . .. A standout take on the classic haunted-house tale replete with surprises around every shadowy corner.” Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Review
“An engrossing, creepy tale . . . Those who are already familiar with [Poes short story] will enjoy this different point of view and ending. . . .The updated, supernatural spin will have savvy and reluctant readers hooked. An interesting addition to the ‘twisted tales genre.” School Library Journal (starred review)
Review
“Griffin excels at depicting chilly Victorian decay in a way that makes real the dour Usher curse.” Booklist
Review
“The disjointed timeline and chapter lengths track along with Madelines level of lucidity . . . making her overall narration fascinatingly untrustworthy. . . . An exquisitely wrought gothic tale for a stormy night.” Bulletin of the Center for Children & #8217;s Books
Synopsis
Madeline Usher is doomed.
The House of Usher lives and breathes around her. For generations, it has sent every Usher spiraling into madness. It claimed her mother and her father. Now it wants Madeline and her twin brother.
No one can help them. But no one, no other Usher in the generations of their haunted family, has known the house the way Madeline does.
She may finally be the one who can destroy it all.
Until she wakes up in a coffin.
About the Author
Bethany Griffinis the author of
Masque of the Red Death. She's also a high school English teacher who prides herself on attracting creative misfits. And she's always admired Edgar Allan Poe. By reimagining his classic short story into a two-book saga, she says, "I wanted to add the things I most love to the dark, stifling atmosphere that Poe had created. I wanted to write a much longer story, complete with conspiracies and subplots, and add fascinating characters."
Bethany Griffin lives with her family in Kentucky.