The Fall’s main plot consists of the main characters and siblings, Madeline and Roderick Usher, which live in a haunted home and whose bloodline and family are eternally cursed. One day, Madeline is set in an immediate panic since she can’t escape her waking bed which is an enclosed coffin. After being buried alive, she must find a way, with her brother, to escape the walls of the coffin and ultimately the house before it traps her indefinitely.
The weak aspects of this novel are that it lacks a progressive plot, has too many chapters, and didn’t live up to its placement as a thriller/horror book. Despite The Fall being originally based on a short story of 36 pages in length, the plot was kept largely unchanged but the number of pages jumped to 420. Resulting in a diluted storyline that seemed to drag on indefinitely even after spending a significant amount of time with the literature. With a staggering 147 total chapters, every few chapters representing a year in the life of Madeline, I would’ve expected The Fall to flaunt a rapid sense of progression with vivid detail throughout each chapter. But that was the opposite of what actually happened. As expected, most of the chapters were 2-3 pages in length but they were all titled, “Madeline is eighteen,” “Madeline is nineteen” and the repetition went farther than the titles. Some chapters consecutively shared the same titles making the book confusing to navigate on top of the fact that on occasion the years were listed out of order. The material of the chapters seemed too similar and not significant enough to warrant its own section since all of them were all dedicated to attempting to deepen the meaning of some curse set on Madeline followed by a predictable and equally vague ending. To me, a single chapter should bring a finite amount of progression and leave you wanting to move forward, but this novel didn’t have that quality. But I do have to applaud the author for making a bold choice on how to format this book.
Looking over some of the positives, The Fall had a fair amount of vivid imagery that set a clear and imaginable setting while reading through the story. It also incorporated unique and equally immersive gothic-esque language throughout Madeline’s diary sections which were very fitting with the overall theme of the novel. This text acted as filler in some cases but it wasn’t enough to distract from the fact this book was intended to be a thriller. And a thriller that should have kept me on the edge of my seat wanting to read more.
Lastly, I unfortunately cannot say I would recommend this book to anyone looking for something to keep them eager to read. Although, the author integrated some vivid, gothic, and beautiful language that would be helpful to boost your vocabulary or satisfy a photographic thinker. But, for me, The Fall by Bethany Griffin is by no means a thriller or horror mystery that’s remotely scary to read. But it does re-tell the nicely accented story it was based upon since no major changes to the plot were made.
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