Review: Asylum

If you've been reading my posts for a while, you may remember that I mentioned not liking horror books. After reading and enjoying both Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children and Hollow City, I decided to give horror books another shot.


Which brings us to today's review: Asylum by Madeleine Roux.

Daniel Crawford is excited to spend six weeks at a summer college program in New Hampshire. A self-proclaimed psychology buff, he can't wait to attend a program where he won't be the only one fascinated by it. Add to that the fact that the regular dorms are closed, and the students will instead be staying in Brookline, an old dorm that used to be a psychiatric hospital.

Curious to know more about the building and its past, Dan and two other students decide to sneak down into the locked-off old wing to explore. But things take a turn for the weird when Daniel starts dreaming about what they've discovered down there. There may be a good reason the residents of the town want Brookline torn down...

Although I really enjoyed it, this book was a little too creepy for me. I want to finish the series, but I definitely won't be reading it at night.

The story is very good, the plot intriguing, the characters engaging. I thought Dan and his two friends he meets at the program, Abby and Jordan, made a very good team. They kept me engaged in the book, which moved at a fast pace but not rushed (except at the very end).

I loved how this book made use of old photos from actual psych wards, although they did add to the creepy factor. It helped the book come alive.

There was some swearing, but not a ton. The ending felt a little rushed, probably because there was so much build up to it, and then the actual reveal and "final battle" was over in a few pages. It was a good ending, but it felt like it needed a little more to make it completely satisfying.

If you're not into creepy books, you may not care for this one, but otherwise I recommend
it, even if you're not a big fan of horror.

You can buy Asylum* on Amazon in print, audiobook, or Kindle format.


 *This is an associate link, meaning if you purchase through it I get a referral fee but it costs the same as if you had just gone and ordered it through Amazon.