Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Review: The Fall by Bethany Griffin

Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Pages: 420
Received: Received a copy from HarperCollins Canada in exchange for an honest review

Release Date: October 7, 2014
Buy From Chapters.ca / Buy From BookDepository.com

Goodreads Synopsis:

Madeline Usher is doomed.

She has spent her life fighting fate, and she thought she was succeeding. Until she woke up in a coffin.

Ushers die young. Ushers are cursed. Ushers can never leave their house, a house that haunts and is haunted, a house that almost seems to have a mind of its own. Madeline’s life—revealed through short bursts of memory—has hinged around her desperate plan to escape, to save herself and her brother. Her only chance lies in destroying the house.

In the end, can Madeline keep her own sanity and bring the house down? The Fall is a literary psychological thriller, reimagining Edgar Allan Poe’s classic The Fall of the House of Usher.

My Review:

Bethany Griffin knows how to write a creepy book and her readers are always ready for something to come jumping out. I haven't read much of Edgar Allan Poe's work, but I know of this story and I think Griffin did an amazing job re-imagining it for a younger generation. This book was hard to put down as I got to know more about Madeline and her interesting predicament.

The cover of this book really portrays the idea of the book perfectly, it is so creepy and you can see how there is something wrong with Madeline. This is definitely a creepy book, and I really loved seeing Madeline's relationships with everyone and how they affect her life. Madeline is determined to do what she can to save herself and her brother, she must bring down the house somehow.

The one thing that was really confusing about this book was how the story follows Madeline around, yet the way it is written is in a non-linear way. We see Madeline at many different ages but the story jumps around a lot so that you can truly understand how everything has changed for Madeline and her brother. I really enjoyed the relationship between Madeline and her brother and you see how as these two grow up they drift apart in ways, especially when her brother leaves, he starts to see things differently.

I found myself getting creeped out many times while reading this and I loved every minute of it because even though parts made me want to stop reading I just couldn't. Bethany Griffin does a great job bringing these old stories to life for new readers and will hopefully get them into reading the originals as well. I hope Bethany keeps up with these stories!

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