The Fall

Presenting The Fall by Bethany Griffin.

Here is the summary of the book:

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.

Bethany Griffin had done it again. After her stint with 'Masque of the Red Death', "The Fall" is another retelling of Edgar Allen Poe's famous "The Fall of the House of Usher". And brilliantly done too. Since I have not read the Poe original, so The Fall confused me at first but gradually I got the hang of things and was visibly intrigues by Griffin's haunting retelling of another classic.

The house of Usher is in one word haunted. Its haunting and it is haunted. With its malicious presence and its thralling powers the house keeps a tight leash on its residents. It is a cursed line, the Usher family. They don't live long. They can never leave the property and are slave to the enticement of the House. Madeline and her twin Roderick are the last of the Usher line and they do everything they can to be free. 

The mother favored the brother and the father favored the girl in his moments of lucidity. The brother got carted off to the boarding school but the sister was left behind. The brother then leaned towards logic and reason to explain the malady that affected the family. And Madeline who was firm believer choose to hear the House. Soon, Roderick's visits grew shorter and shorter and Madeline became a favorite to the House. At first she thought the haunted House only wanted to protect its residents but later came to realize the infernal malicious desires of the House and tried out ways to be free before it got her too.

Told primarily from Madeline Usher's perspective with a few in between voice of another relative named Lisbeth Usher. Short chapters ranging between ages 9 to 19 of Madeline. Bethany Griffin's flowing and fitting words bringing this haunting tale to existence. This is Madeline's struggle to freedom, to keep her sanity intact as she searches for ways to defeat the House, to escape the Doctors who do nothing but poke and prod and draw blood. The Fall chronicalizes not just her life but all of her inner-most thoughts and her insecurities. The effects of the House that creep upon her when she least expects it. At the end of the day though, she is the big sister and even if she envies the freedom afforded to her brother all she wants is to protect her brother.

Griffin's description of the House was just bone chilling. Riddled with twists and turns and creepiness. Every chapter produced new hair raising scenarios. Creeping us readers, showing us just how far the House would go beyond its limits just to get what it wants. You must have seen how I have been writing about the haunted House with a capital "H" instead of a small one because the place exerted its own presence throughout the book and the narrative is enough to pin-point just how important it is...... even if it creeped us into the next century. Marvelous job Bethany Griffin. *shivers*

"A hauntingly eerie tale of a cursed House and how the last Ushers defended themselves"

Genre :      Young Adult, Paranormal, Horror, Retelling, Gothic, Thriller

Publisher: Greenwillow Books

Release Date: 7th October, 2014

My Copy: publisher & edelweiss

Rate:              4/5 (Really Liked It)

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