Book Review | All the Dead Lie Down by Kyrie McCauley

After her mother’s death, Marin receives a surprising invitation from Alice Lovelace. Alice is a horror author and childhood friend of her mother. She offers Marin a job as a nanny to her two children, Thea and Wren, while Alice’s eldest daughter Evie is away at school. When Marin arrives at Lovelace House, she’s confused by the hostile reception of the girls under her care. What seems like innocent pranks soon turn sinister. Animals are turning up dead and something dangerous is lurking in the woods. Soon, Marin finds herself in a mystery that must be unraveled.

If you are looking for something to be afraid of, you’ll find it.

Marin’s mother is gone, but her words lived in Marin’s mind, echoing through at opportune moments. Maybe memory was a kind of haunting in itself.

All The Dead Lie Down is reminiscent of The Haunting of Bly Manor with a dash of necromancy and generational horror.  There’s the familiar setup of an outsider arriving at a secluded mansion tasked with taking care of the owner’s children, but spooky things soon start happening. In this book, Marin is the lonely protagonist who feels lost after her mother’s death. She accepts the job offer by Alice Lovelace to become her nanny, although she wonders why the woman reached out after years of no contact. She doesn’t know the history between Alice and her mother. It doesn’t help that Alice’s children, Thea and Wren, seem determined to drive her away by coming up with pranks and strange behaviour like hosting funerals for dolls.

I thought the book takes some time to get going. The first half is basically about Marin adjusting to living in the house and taking care of the children while grieving for her mother. The story becomes a tad more interesting when Evie, the oldest sister, arrives at the house. She carries her own mystique and secrets, and Marin is immediately smitten. While their relationship moves quickly and simmers with tension, I thought their connection is sweet and believable. The picturesque setting has shades of darkness. You can envision walking through the mazey corridors of the mansion to the mysterious burial ground to the dark, enticing forest. Even the scents are described and make you feel blanketed in what Marin is experiencing.

However, the book’s pace leaves a lot to be desired. It’s told in starts and stops, where something ominous happens but is forgotten or breezed by in the next moment. By the time Marin figures out what’s going on, the story is close to its denouncement. There is less character development and more dealing with the present danger. I was waiting for something sharper and scarier but this is a gentle tale of love, life, and loss.

For readers looking for a gothic fantasy with sapphic romance, you don’t want to miss All The Dead Lie Down.

I received a copy from the publisher and Netgalley for review purposes.

About the author: Kyrie McCauley

Cover photo by Annie Spratt