I received this book for free from Reviewer Purchase in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

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.

Short and Sweet Review

The Fall is a retelling of The Fall of the House of Usher. Our main character and the only POV we get is from Madeline. When we meet Madeline she’s in a coffin and she was put there by her twin brother Roderick. The story is told through short non-chronological chapters to take us through the history of the family and the house and how Madeline ended up where she is.

I thought the book was okay, I did enjoy the short chapters but the jumping around to different time periods made the story hard to follow. Madeline has the curse and the house wants her and she’s basically stuck there. Her brother Roderick is almost her only confidant but he’s able to get away and go to boarding school. Madeline is often visited and watched by doctors because she’s going to go mad soon. Honestly the source material from Poe is great and I think Griffin would have had a good retelling if there wasn’t so much jumping around. We see Madeline when she’s 9, 15, 17 and probably some other ages that I’m forgetting. I think it would have been helpful if she reflected on those times but if the book just stayed in the present time.

Overall, this book has a haunting vibe and it’s perfect for spooky season. I do think this book will be hit or miss depending on who’s reading it, for me it was a miss.