Fear Itself: How Anxiety and Horror Walk Hand in Hand, a guest post by Kyrie McCauley

Stop worrying.
If there was ever a phrase tattooed on my insides, it’s that one. My anxiety has been like a shadow my entire life, following me from room to room like a nervous dog, always on my heels. When I began to write All the Dead Lie Down, I was imagining what it would be like to have anxiety and be dropped into the middle of an actual Gothic novel. What if all of those worries cluttering up your sleepless nights were suddenly grounded in something real, tangible, horrible? And so my main character, Marin Blythe, came to life.
I might owe Marin an apology for chasing down that idea. To draft this book, I began to explore questions about the nature of anxiety in the novel. What is Marin afraid of? How can she learn to trust her intuition? 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. There is a lot of strength in that, and I wanted to show it in Marin’s growth. She is so capable and so good at loving people, despite her anxiety, but also sometimes because of it.
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All is not well at Lovelace House. That was the first thing I knew about the setting of this novel. I’ve always loved Gothic literature—stories that walk a fine line between reality and horror. I was drawn to Frankenstein, Beloved, and The Yellow Wallpaper. Stories that sow themselves under my skin and take root. Stories that explore things that are strange but known. Terrible but recognizable. What happens when we can hold onto dread like it is made of clay and manipulate it into something familiar?
In All the Dead Lie Down, I pursued that dread through Marin. Her worries became her questions, and trusting her instincts meant answering those questions. Marin doesn’t know she’s in a scary story, and it let me explore her anxiety in a new way. So much of what we fear is from playing worst-case scenario at every turn. In All the Dead Lie Down, Marin has to learn to trust in herself at Lovelace House in a way she never has before.

In fact, the very first inspiration for this book came from my own very dreadful thought while visiting Maine. We were on the coast, playing in the tidepools, and I was holding a clam that my dog had dug up in the mud. I remember wondering, what if there’s a pearl inside? And then immediately I thought, what is there’s something else? Something terrible, that doesn’t belong there at all. What could it be? How could it have gotten there? This moment inspired a very specific scene in All the Dead Lie Down, a scene that is so important for Marin, because it is the moment she really understands that the horrors of Lovelace House exist independent of her anxiety. It isn’t her imagination, or her worry, but actual terrible things happening around her. It’s a huge shift for her, from a place of self-doubt to one of confidence in herself and her own intuition.
And there are so many things for Marin to fear at Lovelace House. This book really does read like a love letter to Gothic literature and Gothic romance. I knew I wanted to include as many of the incredible elements and tropes that made me love this genre as possible: creepy children, a sprawling mansion by the sea, decrepit cemeteries, a whirlwind sapphic romance, and of course, a messed-up deer. It was important to me to create a place that was bone-chilling at times, but also the kind of place you fall in love with and never want to leave.
Because there is more than darkness at Lovelace House—there is a family. And even as that family reveals its strange secrets to her, Marin doesn’t turn them away. Because of her anxiety, she’s so familiar with dread that Lovelace House becomes an extension of that part of herself, and Marin finds ways to embrace it.
In turn, Marin finds belonging in a way she never has before, even among the ghosts of grief that haunt the halls. Some of those ghosts Marin discovers there, and some she brings herself.
Meet the author

Kyrie McCauley spent her childhood climbing trees in dresses and reading books during class. She is the author of If These Wings Could Fly, recipient of the 2021 William C. Morris Award. Kyrie holds a Master of Science in Social Policy from the University of Pennsylvania, and has worked in advocacy and development for non-profit organizations. She lives near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with her family, three rescue cats, and a dog that eats books and is never sorry.
Author Website: kyriemccauley.com
Author Twitter: @kyriemccauley
Author Instagram: @kyriemccauley
About All the Dead Lie Down
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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.
ISBN-13: 9780063242982
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date: 05/16/2023
Age Range: 14 – 17 Years
Filed under: Guest Post

About Amanda MacGregor
Amanda MacGregor works in an elementary library, loves dogs, and can be found on Twitter @CiteSomething.
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