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Book Summary and Reviews of All the Dead Lie Down by Kyrie McCauley

All the Dead Lie Down by Kyrie McCauley

All the Dead Lie Down

by Kyrie McCauley

  • Critics' Consensus:
  • Published:
  • May 2023, 368 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

The Haunting of Bly Manor meets House of Salt and Sorrows in award-winning author Kyrie McCauley's contemporary YA gothic romance about a dark family lineage, the ghosts of grief, and the lines we'll cross for love.

The Sleeping House was very much awake ...

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.

Marin accepts and soon finds herself minding Alice's peculiar girls. Thea buries her dolls one by one, hosting a series of funerals, while Wren does everything in her power to drive Marin away. Then Alice's eldest daughter returns home unexpectedly. Evie Hallowell is every bit as strange as her younger sisters, and yet Marin is quickly drawn in by Evie's compelling behavior and ethereal grace.

But as Marin settles in, she can't escape the anxiety that follows her like a shadow. Dead birds appear in Marin's room. The children's pranks escalate. Something dangerous lurks in the woods, leaving mutilated animals in its wake. All is not well at Lovelace House, and Marin must unravel its secrets before they consume her.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"A rich, disquieting novel for fans of horror, fairy tales, and good storytelling." —Booklist (starred review)

"Beautiful and textured." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"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

"Macabre yet somehow cozy, All the Dead Lie Down is perfect for readers who enjoy charmingly disturbing children and grand old houses full of secrets. A great book to curl up with on a dark night." —Kendare Blake, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Three Dark Crowns

"A compulsively readable jewel of the genre, All The Dead Lie Down, will seize you with an eeriness that refuses to relent. An instant classic, worthy of collection with the best of them." —K. Ancrum, author of The Wicker King and Darling

"McCauley's writing is as gorgeous as her story is gruesome, filled with a creeping dread that gets into your bones and holds you in thrall. All the Dead Lie Down is the best sapphic horror I've read in years." —Erica Waters, author of The River Has Teeth and The Restless Dark

"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

This information about All the Dead Lie Down was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

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Author Information

Kyrie McCauley

Kyrie McCauley is the author of If These Wings Could Fly, winner of the William C. Morris YA Debut Award, and We Can Be Heroes. She has also been a waitress, nanny, singer in a band, ACLU intern, rally organizer, Truman Scholar, and most recently, a mother and a writer. She holds a master of science in social policy from the University of Pennsylvania. She lives near Philadelphia with her husband, children, and several ill-mannered but beloved cats. You can visit Kyrie at www.kyriemccauley.com.

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