BLOG TOUR AND GIVEAWAY: The Fall

The Fall is a perfect Halloween read, one that I LOVED, and so I couldn't be more excited at the opportunity to be part of the blog tour, so here I am! As it's nearly Halloween, and this book is Halloween material, I have a suitably Halloween-y guest post from the author herself, as well as a nice little giveaway for a copy of the book courtesy of the publisher! How much do you all love me?! Yeah yeah, I know, "get on with it!" I hear you all cry, so without further ado......

Madeline Usher is doomed.

She has spent her life fighting fate, and she thought she was succeeding. Until she woke up in a coffin.

Ushers die young. Ushers are cursed. Ushers can never leave their house, a house that haunts and is haunted, a house that almost seems to have a mind of its own. Madeline’s life—revealed through short bursts of memory—has hinged around her desperate plan to escape, to save herself and her brother. Her only chance lies in destroying the house.

In the end, can Madeline keep her own sanity and bring the house down?The Fall is a literary psychological thriller, reimagining Edgar Allan Poe’s classic The Fall of the House of Usher.

You can check out my review of The Fall here. 

Bethany Griffin is the author of the post apocalyptic The Masque Of The Red Death sequence as well as The Fall! She was born in Louisville and she teaches English Literature, History and Creative Writing. 
http://www.bethanygriffin.com
@_bethanygriffin

And now for the moment you've all been waiting for! In the spirit of Halloween, Bethany has provided me with a guest post to fit the occasion! So read on for Bethany's Top 3 Gothic Stories.... 

My top 3 Gothic Stories

1. The Fall of the House of Usher. I know, big surprise, right? But I’ve loved this story since I first read it at the age of 12. I’m sure I didn’t understand a good bit of the story, possibly most of it, but the sense of danger, the scary house, the storm outside, the realization that Roderick has buried his sister alive, it all came together to form a huge impression on me as a young reader. Later, when I revisited the story—and I don’t think I would be exaggerating if I said that I read it dozens of times as I worked out the story for The Fall—I found that I loved it just as much. The Fall of the House of Usher is a dense story, it wraps you up and suffocates you with words and images, one after the other, so much you aren’t sure if you can hold all of it in your mind. And…that’s what the House of Usher became to me, as I wrote it into my own story, something so vast and evil you couldn’t fully comprehend it. Poe gave me that vision, and for that reason this story will always be my favorite.

2. The Yellow Wallpaper- a perfectly perfect unreliable narrator, or a woman whose forced seclusion drives her mad? Our main character is the wife of a physician who has no imagination or time for fanciful things. To counter her hysterical nature, she must remain on bed-rest, alone for most of the day in a room with barred windows at the top of a rented manse. She must not read, or write, or do anything with her mind, only rest. And slowly, we watch her go mad, fixated on the yellow wallpaper that covers the walls of the room. The last line of this story is creepy perfection.

3. The Pit and the Pendulum- there is nothing that isn’t scary about this story, but like all of Poe, it’s the creepy menace of the unknown that is the reader’s undoing. The narrator wakes up and is filled with terror and uncertainty, where is he? A dungeon filled with instruments of torture. He narrowly escapes death several times, but each time the next fate designed for him is even worse. And then, there’s the pendulum, razor sharp, descending slowly, slowly…and there are the rats…and there are the walls that close in around you…

Giveaway time! Perhaps this was the moment you'd been waiting for?! So, I imagine most of you, if not all of you, know the drill by now! Standard rafflecopter, do the little tasks, as many or as few as you like, knock yourself out. I have ONE copy of The Fall to giveaway to one of you lovely readers! 

Time to get (momentarily) serious. 

The Rules. 

1. Fill out the Rafflecopter boxes, you HAVE to fill in the one with your email, not only to unlock the others, but ya know...so I can actually contact you if you win. UK ONLY 

2. I will pick a winner on the 31st, so you have until then to do as much as you want towards entries. Short I know, but Halloween! 

3. Winner will be notified by email, from me, the day I have drawn the winner, and I will TWEET the winner's name on Twitter. So check there, but ya know....if I haven't emailed you then you haven't won. Sorry folks. 

4. I love talking to all of you, I really do, but please don't spam me begging me to pick you! I will be using a generator to do that and therefore have no control! Likewise please don't send me upset tweets if you don't win, it will make me sad :(

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck guys, and have a spooktacular Halloween! 

Pssssttt....check out the rest of the dates for the tour! It's coming to a close but there's three more stops, and tomorrow is the lovely Uncorked Thoughts!