All the Dead Lie Down

Product Information

Winner of the Edgar Award for 'The Red Scream', the Agatha Award for 'Zero at the Bone', and the Hammett Prize and Macavity Award for 'Under the Beetle’s Cellar', Mary Willis Walker is one of the most exciting writers to emerge in any genre in recent years. She lives in Texas. The cover copy gave me some THE TURN OF THE SCREW vibes– a girl comes to an old estate to work as a nanny for two children who have some creepy habits. This isn’t a retelling of that play, though. The setup is similar, but the plot goes a whole lot of other places. This has it all: a slow burn sapphic love story, an agonizingly delicious build of tension, creepy children, reveals that made me gasp out loud. A gothic love story meets gothic horror story, with expert pacing, dark family secrets, and a twisted reveal I didn't see coming.' — Katrina Leno, author of Horrid and You Must Not Miss Stanzas one and two explore what “Death” is not. This is followed by two stanzas that try to define death. The final stanza echoes the first two in attempting to make a definitive comparison — “But, most, like Chaos —”

An aspect that took me out multiple times was that the teen characters often had dialogue that made them sound much older, while the children characters were more inconsistent, at times seeming very much their young age and other times sounding more like teenagers. The time period and general setting also felt vague and hard to pin down. I assumed it was present day, especially since there is a line referencing the band, Paramore but then other little details like how they dressed, manner of speech, and way of life felt archaic at times. Superb storytelling and gripping suspense once again from the author who puts Patricia Cornwell in the shade. McCauley skillfully wrangles haunting atmosphere, anticipatory tension, and macabre humor to cultivate a slow-boiling thriller couched in a decades-old mystery.' — Publishers Weekly Cow Lady can’t see why she should do anything about it. What’s anyone ever done for her? Who’d listen? Only the journalist covering the lives of her homeless companions. Molly Cates.The book takes you on a ride within the Lovelace house. A combination of magic and horror, the book is about Marin who receives a letter to be a nanny at Lovelace House. Now that she has lost everything, this seems like a good start. But the girls are weird and there is something unnerving about the house. 🏡. As she is settling down, the level of incidents occurring at the house increases with the return of the eldest daughter. The game of death and shadows has begun! Days after a tragedy leaves Marin Blythe alone in the world, she receives a surprising invitation from Alice Lovelace, an acclaimed horror writer and childhood friend of Marin’s mother. Alice offers her a nanny position at Lovelace House, the family’s coastal Maine estate. All the Dead Lie Down” drives us to a haunted house, or at least that’s what the locals believe, as Marin takes a summer job as a nanny for the two young daughters of her favorite author and former friend of her late mother. Battling the hazing that comes with caring for children she finds that some of the pranks are too frightening to be conjured by children and with the arrival of the eldest Lovelace, Marin uncovers more than just a few skeletons in the closet. The other characters all have quirks and I love that we slowly get pieces to a puzzle that Marin is trying to figure out. I also laughed a few times (mostly with the little girls).

I really liked the setup and reveals. A great LGBT YA Gothic horror novel! The main character and the house with the spooky estate was a great setting as well. A great way to start off spooky season early! (If I'm being honest, I've been in a spooky mood all year, but let's say that this is my official entryway into Halloween-time). I feel like ALL THE DEAD LIE DOWN left me with a lot of questions. Not in the sense of the story seeming unfinished– I liked the end a lot. It just left me with a lot of questions about how to weigh out someone’s motives versus the outcomes of their choices. McCauley skillfully wrangles haunting atmosphere, anticipatory tension, and macabre humor to cultivate a slow-boiling thriller couched in a decades-old mystery. The sweet connection between Marin and Evie is solid and affirming, providing levying contrast to occasional moments of gruesome imagery and outright horror." — Publishers Weekly Overall, I feel like the synopsis didn’t match what the novel actually delivered and I was expecting something much more atmospheric and creepy. All The Dead Lie Down might be something I’d recommend to a reader who had never read in the paranormal realm before but other than that, I’d say skip this one.

The atmosphere in this book was the perfect eerie setting for a spine chilling horror novel. I loved the way that everything slowly unraveled as Marin unfurled the mysteries of the Lovelace family. Her romance with Evie was soft and tender, and it was so sweet seeing the two girls band together to protect the younger sisters. The horror aspect slowly unfurled and was cleverly done. The ramifications of Evie's power slowly lead to escalating horror and gore. This was a great YA horror read! The poem comprises six quatrains, that is stanzas of four lines each. There is a simple ABCB rhyme scheme. The metrical rhythm is made up of alternating iambic tetrameters — that is four metrical feet, each foot comprising an unstressed followed by a stressed syllable — and iambic trimeters, that is three metrical feet per line. This book definitely enjoys a Gothic Horror leaning aesthetic, and the bones and the sprawling estate fit with greenhouse and ancient cemetery really make this setting feel real and get your ready for the story being told. I appreciate how much this is a "girl comes to be a nanny, is immediately isolated and over her head" classic piece of horror, but in a way that still feels modern even while leaning into that dressing. Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins Children's Book for this advanced reader copy. My review is voluntarily my own.