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.
-From Goodreads.com
Review: Bethany Griffin has impressed me once again. I loved her books Masque of the Red Death and Dance of the Red Death (inspired by the Edgar Allan Poe story "The Masque of the Red Death") and I looked forward to reading another Poe-inspired book of hers. Going into this book, I had high expectations, and it exceeded them.
The chapters in this book are very short, and are one-scene snapshots of the main character's life. This makes the book a very quick read, and kept me saying to myself, "Just one more chapter and then I'll go to bed." I really enjoyed how the story was laid out through skipping around in time. I felt that the format really worked for this book, and it helped build the story and the suspense.
The plot itself is very close to "The Fall of the House of Usher," while also building upon that story, so as to not be a copy of the original work. I was really glad that it stayed true to Poe's story, and it was more like an expansion of the story (in an extended universe way). I was definitely impressed by this execution. It kept me hooked the whole way through, even though I already knew what ultimately happens in "The Fall of the House of Usher."
Overall, I loved this book. I can honestly say that I have no complaints and cannot think of one thing I would change about it.
