The Fall

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."

What secrets are buried within the walls of a house that refuses to die?

• Edgar Allan Poe Retelling: A haunting reimagining of a timeless classic that gives a powerful, tragic voice to one of literature’s most doomed heroines.
• Atmospheric and Moody: Explore the decaying, sentient halls of the House of Usher, a place that breathes, whispers, and will do anything to keep its secrets—and its children.
• Dark Sibling Story: A twisted twin bond between Madeline and Roderick, who put her in a coffin but is also the one person she is desperate to save.
• Claustrophobic Suspense: Begin the story with Madeline waking up in a coffin, fighting for air and answers in a relentless, tension-filled narrative.
• Unreliable Narrator: Told from Madeline’s point of view, where the line between madness and the house’s influence blurs with every chapter.

Madeline Usher is doomed.

The House of Usher lives and breathes around Madeline. 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. And no one can help them.

Yet 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.

“An engrossing, creepy tale . . . Those who are already familiar with [Poe’s 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)

“The disjointed timeline and chapter lengths track along with Madeline’s level of lucidity . . . making her overall narration fascinatingly untrustworthy. . . . An exquisitely wrought gothic tale for a stormy night.” - Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

“Griffin excels at depicting chilly Victorian decay in a way that makes real the dour Usher curse.” - Booklist

“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)