Many authors like to reveal 'just enough' to the reader to help them figure things out, and usually I do not need everything spelled out for me. Because she sounded the same at 12 as she did at 17, for example, I found it more difficult to believe she was 'real,' and I had a harder time keeping track of how old she was and where I was in her life story.Īnother reason I could not give this novel five stars is that I found myself aggravated by Griffin's choice to use heavy subtlety in outlining her characters, setting, and various events. Although this is not a black mark against the novel itself, since it is only my personal preference, I felt that Griffin could have done a better job with it by altering the Madeline's voice at different ages. Some readers really enjoy this, but I am not one of them. This means that we follow Madeline through different periods of her life, but while she remains in her own present, we hear her story in bits and pieces as we switch back and forth through time.

Also, the story is told in first-person present and is non-linear. For a long time, I wasn't even sure of the story's main conflict, because nothing important seemed to happen. Why this book might not be right for your teen:Īlthough I love suspense stories, I found much of the novel to be both slow-moving and frustrating. Anyone who loves old-fashioned ghost stories will be spellbound by this eerie tale until the end! Griffin does a masterful job creating a spooky, gothic mood in her novel with all the classic elements: murky bogs, dead foliage, a crumbling house full of creepy rooms, a tragic heroine, supporting characters who appear normal but aren't, a mysterious murder or two, crypts and curses and lots of ghosts. As someone who appreciates well-done re-imaginings of classics, I felt that The Fall belonged on the What's In It list. According to Griffin, elements of other Poe stories also weave their way through the novel. It is a re-imagining of the short story classic, 'The Fall of the House of Usher,' by Edgar Allen Poe. Why? Many parents want strong writing and 'literary' experiences for their teens, rather than mind candy, and, like Miss Perigrine's Home for Peculiar Children (another novel I would consider horror/fantasy that I reviewed for this website), The Fall helps meet this need. In this case, I didn't realize it was a horror novel until I was about halfway into it, and when I did, I decided to include it.

Once in a while, however, a book makes it onto the list that belongs in one of those categories, and The Fall is one of them.

There are two genres I purposely avoid in What's In It reviews-religious and horror (slasher and occult) novels-because most parents don't need help discerning the appropriateness of those for their teens.

The fixer jennifer lynn barnes book 3