All the Dead Lie Down follows the story of Marin who becomes the nanny to her mother's former childhood friend/famous horror novelist. Their love story is beautifully depicted as they find solace in the horrors and grief they experience through one another.

Sometimes grief is only a small part of a book, and there are other elements that build the story, which allows it to be an exceptional reading experience regardless. Tremendous new thriller from the award-winning author of UNDER THE BEETLE’S CELLAR and THE RED SCREAM, and once again featuring indomitable Molly Cates as the feisty, funny, flawed heroine. I remember holding a clam and imagining opening it and finding something surprising inside—something terrible.But Molly’s already preoccupied, following the passage of a bill to legalise the carrying of hidden weapons, and burdened by the wealth of personal memories this brings.

Don’t get me wrong; I never say no to good romance blended in gothic horror but it seems like romantic scenes abruptly inserted between high tension thriller chapters and even though they helped us take a peaceful breath after getting extra disturbed from the dark scenes, they also affected the dramatic impact just a little. 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. Even before you get it confirmed why Alice was monitoring them, the sudden understanding of how deep it all went and how much Alice had been effecting her life was so creepy and impactful. I also wanted to show that anxiety isn’t the same as fear—sometimes our anticipation of something, or what we imagine in our heads, is the worst part of it all, and in a moment of crisis, we can really rise to the occasion. In a two dimensional way it's cute, but it all felt so quick and uncomplicated that it really didn't match the tone of the main story and felt too much like it was forcibly becoming the "relief".

The girls’ strange behavior starts almost immediately, escalating from harmless pranks to (almost) attempted murder. Meanwhile in the (dark, dark) woods, something is waking and stalks the shadows scaring the girls and Marin. It’s only when Evie, Alice’s beautiful teen daughter, comes home from school that Marin slowly finds the answers she is looking for and starts to fall in love—just as events spiral out of control.

While, at times, I felt the story was getting too similar to Bly Manor, I can happily say the uniqueness of this story shines through. A combination of magic and horror, the book is about Marin who receives a letter to be a nanny at Lovelace House. However, there is also a tender and rather wonderful love story threaded through the supernatural goings on – the one between Evie and Marin.Once I had that flash of an image in my mind, wondering what it could be and why it would be there, I began writing All the Dead Lie Down. There are so many twists, turns and heart-racing moments that you find yourself itching to turn the page quickly so you can find out what is going on. Am not sure about all the negative things said about this seller by other people,,, because my experience was completely different, totally positive. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition.