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    Asylum
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    Asylum
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    Asylum
    Audiobook6 hours

    Asylum

    Written by Madeleine Roux

    Narrated by Michael Goldstrom

    3/5

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    About this audiobook

    The asylum holds the key to a terrifying past…

    A thrilling creepy photo-novel, perfect for fans of the New York Times bestseller Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.

    For sixteen-year-old outcast Dan Crawford, the summer program at New Hampshire College Prep is a lifeline. Finally, a chance to make some friends before college. Even if that means staying in a dorm that used to be a old asylum.

    Soon Dan’s hanging out with Abby and Jordan, and summer is looking up. But then he learns that the asylum was not just any sanatorium – it was a last resort for the criminally insane.

    As Dan, Abby and Jordan explore the hidden recesses of their creepy summer home, they discover it's no coincidence that the three of them ended up here. And that some secrets refuse to stay buried…

    Featuring unsettling found photos of real abandoned asylums and filled with chilling mystery and page-turning suspense, Madeleine Roux's teen horror debut ASYLUM treads the line between genius and insanity.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateAug 28, 2014
    ISBN9780008110352
    Author

    Madeleine Roux

    Madeleine Roux is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Asylum series, which has sold over a million copies worldwide. She is also the author of the House of Furies series and several titles for adults, including Salvaged and Reclaimed. She has made contributions to Star Wars, World of Warcraft, and Dungeons & Dragons. Madeleine lives in Seattle, Washington, with her partner and beloved pups.

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    Reviews for Asylum

    3/5

    56 ratings48 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Asylum by Madeleine RouxCONCEPTI am totally in love with the idea of asylums. The stories behind them are just so fascinating to me. Because of that this book's concept is automatically something I enjoy.CHARACTERSThe characters in this story were relatively stagnant throughout the entire book. While you had the obvious changes such as when (view spoiler), their personalities do not grow in any way. To be frank, I didn't feel any sort of connection with any character and I didn't see any change or development.PLOTThe plot of this story was so predictable the only things that surprised me were (view spoiler). Every single time something new was introduced it was painfully obvious was was going to happen with it.ROMANCEIf you are looking for a teen romance, do not read this book. The relationship in here is appallingly weak; I need to pull out a microscope to see it. It honestly seems like something thrown into the story just to appeal to those who find it necessary for a couple to be in every book they read. The friends dynamic was more than enough for the story, and the romance felt clunky at best.PHOTOSThroughout Asylum, there are photos that are used to give visuals on certain parts of the story. There were some that I really appreciated and even found creepy; others were very obviously fake and did nothing to immerse me more in the story. I feel like the pictures would have been much better if they weren't all green and were more sepia or black and white.ENDINGThe ending held the major plot twist that surprised me, and I quite enjoyed it. The action involved in it really drew me in and kept me into the story until it finished.CONCLUSIONThis book was a quick read for me, and while it was interesting it didn't do much in the way of really drawing me in. The only reason I held so much interest was due to the subject of Asylums. I would recommend this book for anyone who wants a somewhat quick read that might give them some chills. I also recommend it for anyone who is interested in Asylum related books. It's a decent read for any fan of YA for Halloween!(To see the spoilers, find my review on GoodReads.)
    • 3/5
      I was so excited when I picked up this book. The cover is horrific and I was ready for a chilling read. Unfortunately, I wasn't creeped out in the slightest....ever. First, the characters were very under-developed. I didn't care for any of them and their insta-friendship just wasn't believable. I found the main character Dan to be annoying. He put himself down a lot and I found myself agreeing with him. I also had the plot, and the killer, figured out from the beginning. This book had such strong promise but did not live up to it's potential. The pictures looked digitally enhanced and took away from the story. The book would have been better without them. Overall, I was bored and ending up skimming to the end just to get it over with.
    • 4/5
      "Sometimes, Dan, friends have to take a stand and say: Hey, idiot, we're here for you no matter what. We're not going to disappear when you get grumpy or angry. We're in this for the long haul. We're in this for each other."

      A college dorm in a building that used to be an asylum for the insane, including the criminally insane? A group of high school students visiting for 5 weeks of summer school? What could possibly go wrong? Well, the asylum was run by a warden who performed experiments on the patients and when authorities found out, it was shut down. Brookline was a place of much suffering and evil and that has left an impression. From the beginning the kids can feel that something is creepy about the place.

      Dan is there to spend time with other kids who want to learn. He is tired of being a social outcast. He forms a quick friendship with Abby and Jordan; they become sort of like the three musketeers. The three of them can't resist checking out the creepy off-limits office on the first floor of the Brookline dorm. But by going in there, have they opened the door to the truly creepy? The experience is intense and afterwards, Dan begins having visions. What did the three of them get themselves into?

      I don't want to give anything away. This story was great fun to read and it had me on the edge of my seat. It was scary and mysterious. I didn't know what was going on until the very end. And the second I finished it, I downloaded the sequel to my iPad.

      Recommended to:
      Young Adults & Adults who enjoy scary stories with twists and turns.
    • 3/5
      The forboding settings & truly strange photographs helps make this otherwise ho-hum horror/mystery story truly creepy: 16 yr old Dan Crawford shows up for a summer institute at New Hampsire College, and discovers all the summer students will be housed in Brookline, one of the older buildings on their campus, once a mental institute. Requisite side kicks/love interest: artistic and sweet Abby, & her new friend, math enthusiast (gay, of course) Jordan. Besides after hours sneaking around to explore the old offices and basement levels of Brookline, Dan has discovered a photograph of the former director of the mental institute; it haunts him - he's determined to find out more; then he begins receiving cryptic messages from someone. Then throw in his strange roommate Felix, and a murder, then an almost murder: a summer institute college helper found dead in a eerily similar pattern of the once notorious "The Sculpter", a killer once housed at Brookline--- great pick for fans of ghost stories, with a driving question-what is madness? can a murderer or insane person really be cured?
    • 4/5
      This fall I’ve been looking for books that are… darker and perhaps a bit twisted. When I watched the Epic Reads video for the Dark Days tour I was introduced to Asylum. I knew I wanted to read it, especially when it was compared to one of my favorite books, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.The PlotDan is going off to summer camp, New Hampshire College Prep, to take some college-like courses. Right away he meets Abby and Jordan, and they instantly become friends. Their dorm used to be an asylum, and while the school has done a fair job at renovating it, some areas from the old asylum remain–such as offices filled with old pictures. Dan feels a connection to this building, and wants to know more. He does research and goes down into the bowels of the building, further discovering some darker secrets of the old asylum. When weird things start to happen, Dan makes the decision to figure it out, and try to stop things from getting worse before it’s too late.Reading early reviews I was concerned I might not enjoy this book. However, I was quite pleasantly surprised. I loved this book. There was just the right amount of creep-factor to keep me turning the pages. I had a delicious tension in my shoulders when I was supposed to, and there were literally moments where I had to close the book and take a deep breath before I could continue reading–I was just that concerned for the characters and their choices to venture into dark, scary places. I felt the pacing was great, the story was engaging, and it was delightfully creepy.The CharactersFor the most part I liked the characters, though this is one of the first times in awhile that I was more invested in the story than the characters themselves.Dan is interesting. He has social anxiety issues that I could identify with, especially reading this right after getting back from a camp-like experience myself. He’s described as having a hard time making friends and dealing with lots of people. So when he makes friends with Abby and Jordan he has a safe haven. Some reviews I’ve seen criticized the book for how quickly this happens. I, however, I found this very realistic. As someone who also deals with social anxieties… I’ve done what Dan did. Find a few people you get along with well, and stick with them. So overall I liked Dan. He made sense to me. He felt consistent and I enjoyed following his arc, as well as investigating and discovering the creepy history of the asylum with him. It was the other characters I had some issues with.Abby was an interesting character. I enjoyed her personality, however there were times where I felt her characterization was a little inconsistent. However, I suppose I’ve been susceptible to mood swings myself, so perhaps how she acted wasn’t actually too out of it. She had her own connections to the asylum, and while I liked it, it also felt a little too much. I would have rather the focus been souly on Dan and his connections and have his friends help him out there, opposed to having this side plot that felt mildly distracting. Not to say it wasn’t nice or interesting… it just also didn’t feel necessary.Now Jordan… is a whole different story. I still have no real idea how to feel about him. While there were scenes where I appreciated him, he, above anyone else, felt the most inconsistent. While Abby had mood swings, Jordan had… some very distinct personality shifts for what appeared to be no reason (other than perhaps plot purposes). I’m still not really sure what was really going on with him throughout the novel, or if he may have also had connections to the asylum. A few things may have suggested it, but otherwise it may have just been him channeling the asylum’s history.In The End……I really enjoyed reading this novel. While the characters weren’t perfect, the story was really interesting and engaging. Roux did a great job at keeping a tension in my shoulders, and me flipping through the pages. It’s left off as if there may be a sequel, and I really hope there is. Perhaps within the next book things character-wise will even out and be explained.One thing I do want to note is the use of pictures in the novel. Where I had enjoyed them in Miss Peregrine, I felt they were ultimately unnecessary, and at times looked a little too over the top. While I didn’t necessarily like them, they obviously didn’t keep me from enjoying the novel.If anyone is looking for a fun, dark, creepy read, I’d most definitely pass this one along. The tension I felt while reading made me love Asylum so much. I can’t say that enough.Originally posted on BooksTurnBrains.com
    • 2/5
      Originally seen on Emily Reads EverythingBook TalkDaniel has been accepted to a prestigious summer college prep program held at a university in New Hampshire. Unfortunately the normal college dorm is closed for renovations. This summer the students are being housed in an older building on campus, that just happens to be an old mental hospital. Daniel and his two new friends must race to figure out what secrets the building holds before someone else gets hurt. This is the first book in a trilogy.ReviewThis book reminded me, and everyone else, of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. Asylum makes use of creepy black and white photographs and hand written notes that just add to the unsettling feeling the author is cultivating. However, unlike Miss Peregrine, this book is not paranormal. Everything that happens is caused by natural means.Asylum is rated YA but I would place it a little younger than that. The characters are still in high school. That doesn't automatically make it appeal to a younger audience but Daniel and his friends were immature. There was a little romance that was sweet, innocent and at odds with the horror theme that the author was going for. Nothing says horror like young love and first kisses. I just didn't connect to this book the way I wanted to. I didn't like the characters. I wasn't scared. When the friends were doing something unwise, at no time did I ever think they were in actual danger.Asylum was a quick read. I finished it in one evening. It seemed like a complete story with all the loose ends were tied up and no cliffhanger, which is odd for a series. I'm not sure where the author is going to go in the next book.Read this book if you like the idea of horror but scare easily.
    • 3/5
      The book was nice, I'll give you that. Sure, it has its 'OMG!' moments, but this book makes for almost a light read. I was surprised at myself that I took this quick to finish this book.

      The adventures of the protagonists didn't go as deep as I thought it would, and Brookline's history was not completely revealed either (intentionally or not, I'm not sure). There were a lot of loose ends still surrounding the mystery of the sanitarium that Madeleine has also not covered in this book.

      Also, the climax of the story wasn't really... well, climax-y. It ended a bit too easily and quick if you ask me. However at the end of the book, Madeleine proves that there will be more to come.

      Let's hope that all loose ties will finally come together in her sequel, Sanctum.
    • 3/5
      writing wasn't that great, but still ended up being a creepy story
    • 4/5
      Dan Crawford is looking forward to a summer at a prestigious Prep School. When he meets Jordan and Abby --esp. Abby!-- it seems it will be a summer of learning, love, and adventure. He soon learns however that their dorm is a former psychiatric hospital. Pictures of patients, doctors, inhumane treatment are coupled with weird messages and sightings. Secrets abound and trouble ensues. Flat pacing and a predictable bad guy ruins a great concept --at least for this reader.
    • 2/5
      Rubbish. Had the makings of a good chiller but it didn't get there.
    • 4/5
      Curious for a mysterious and spooky read, I picked up this book wanting to be entranced. It took me down some strange halls that I would never forget.Pictures: First, I want to talk about the pictures that came along with the story. I loved them. I felt it gave the story a more 3-d. Like you can read the story but a visual is placed in front of you as well. Some pictures were interesting while others were well creepy. Still, I enjoyed turning the page and looking at long past history.Plot: One of my fave movies to watch during this season is House On Haunted Hill both the old and new version. I adore the whole premise of vengeful spirits luring back their heirs to a place that has gone mad. This story carries a similar plot. I loved every bit of piecing together the mysterious clues of the staff and the coincidence of clues left for others to follow.Love/Friendship: Since this is a thriller read, there isn’t much romance but it did carry a good flirtation feel that gives the book that right amount of peace. There are creepy moments then two characters get real and get to know each other, smiling. I loved that. The friendships formed have more than what the reader sees. I love reading the story and watching it unfold secret by secret before my eyes.This is a great story of mystery and mayhem. Lots of scary tales of the old building, told by the townspeople, give this story dimension. The pictures add a great affect to visualizing the world that is being built for the reader. Ultimately an intriguing read that you can not put down, Asylum is perfect for Halloween!
    • 3/5
      Guess what?! This was the book I read for book club! My very first book club book! YAY!

      Anyways...this book was creepy. Not scary...but freakishly creepy. I chose this book because I was promised chills and thrills and all sorts of horrifying things...but I also chose this book, expecting not to be affected. I've only ever read one horror story before, and it was not horrifying. At all. This one on the other hand...creeeeeeeeeeeeeeeepy.

      Well, there are several factors that contributed to the feeling, I suppose.
      1) I'm very easily scared (yes, I jumped when someone sneezed abnormally loud once)
      2) I was reading this at night (pretty much the only time I ever get to read in peace)
      3) I was reading this in a silent room (it was really, really quiet, okay?)
      4) I was the only one in the room (imagine all the weird looks I would have gotten if I had screamed...)

      So there I was reading this book when suddenly...*bzz bzz*
      I very nearly screamed and hurled the book across the room.

      What I DID do, however, was jump and scold myself for being afraid of a book. I mean...what's the worst that could happen, right? It's just paper...

      Now, the blurb on the back did warn me of haunting images from actual asylums, but I didn't think much of them. Until this long period of reading when I was beyond freaked and I turned the page , only to be greeted by this girl with this hair with these clothes...gaaaah! From then on, I would always scout ahead a few chapters to warn myself if there was something alarming coming...

      There was this point in the book, where I was so deeply entrenched in the book that I was actually afraid to turn the page or even treat the book with anything but utmost respect and care...I thought...I thought...a hand or SOMETHING would reach out of the book. I actually did. I kid you not.

      Thankfully, I did the sane thing and took a break (at some point in the book when I couldn't take any more creepy) before I finished the rest of the book. And by break, I mean, I walked around the house and shouted some gibberish, then decided to go back into the book. Of course...at another point...I told myself to go to bed and finish the rest of the book in the morning where it would be bright, and loud, and not a perfect environment to read a horror novel...

      The ending...although the main problems that were introduced in this book were addressed, and all those little nuances finally made sense...there were still a few things that I still don't get...still some things that have left me without a reasonable explanation...hmm...

      This book really had the creepiness down pat. It wasn't the sudden surprise thing I was always afraid of in the movies...this book had this great build up of suspense, and I was taken from mild amusement in the beginning, to reading behind a pillow...

      As for the next book, well...I'm pretty sure I will read it...I mean, it's unlike me to NOT finish a series I've started...but I think I've had enough creepiness to last the year...or what's left of it anyway...I think there's...a week left...a week and a day...?

      Aaanyways....I'm definitely taking a break from the creepy. I'm going to read something much less horrific and goose bumps-causing. Something that requires little to no brain power to comprehend...a fluffy, girly, read, if you will...
    • 4/5
      Take one very creepy setting (a former psychiatric hospital with a dark and twisted past, now used as a dorm for a summer school program), three new friends with secrets and unknown ties to their new summer home, and some actual old photographs found in old asylums (reminiscent of Miss Peregrine's Home...), and you've got a really good, gripping young adult novel in what is luckily a new trilogy. I can't wait to read the second book.
    • 4/5
      All I know is that I am officially scared of hospitals. The characters were really interesting and I will pick up the next book Sanctum soon.
    • 3/5
      I am a pansy when it comes to scary stories. I will readily admit that. The book can be even not well written and I'll still be pansy. Add pictures into the mix and yeah, I'll be sleeping with my light on for at least 2-3 nights after finishing the book (and sometimes during if I just can't finish the book in one setting). Asylum was one of those books - I was so tired and haunted by the images in the book that it was a two night read for me...and the result was I spent a few nights restless in my sleep due to having to have my light on.Read the rest of this review at The Lost Entwife on Dec. 9, 2013.
    • 3/5
      It was alright. The writing was over-simple and the story was predictable, but not in a bad way. Good brainless reading. The pictures weren't as creepy as they could have been.

      I'd love to see more photo stories like this that are pitched more towards an adult audience.
    • 2/5

      This and other reviews can be found on Reading Between Classes

      Cover Impressions: This cover is awesome. The first one that I saw had similar shading but just featured a set of keys. It wasn't nearly as creepy. I believe this is the final cover and it is a great change. The shadows draw your eye into the frame and the blurring coupled with the lace adds the perfect spooky factor. Although, I do wish they had given the book a more stand-out name. Asylum is just far too common - a Goodreads search provides 837 results.....

      The Gist: Dan Crawford has finally escaped the opression of his foster home and high school. At New Hampshire College Prep, a summer program for teens, he is excited to spend his days with students that share his thirst for knowledge and geeky tendencies. He soon discovers that the dorm in which they are to spend the summer is actually Brookside, a former asylum that featured drastic experiments meant to cure the criminally insane. Feeling a strange connection to the building's history and suffering from nightmares that don't always come at night, Dan and his new friends begin to explore the bowels of the building and find that there are some secrets that should stay buried.

      Review:
      That cover is sure to pull in any horror fan. However, the book itself is not strong enough to hold them there for long.

      The characters in Asylum are far too one dimensional. It seems important to the plot that we understand the drastic changes in their personality that are brought on by living in the asylum, but we are given little to no time to actually get to know them before those changes begin. We are expected to believe that the three are the best of friends after having known each other for only a week. Couldn't the author have at least had them "meet" online, prior to attending the summer school program? What's more, there is an underlying plot featuring Jordan's obsession with an "unsolvable equation" that seems to completely drop out of the storyline without any resolution. Is this meant to be a series? Am I missing something?

      The setting for this novel is phenomenal. A student dorm built in what used to be an asylum and featuring a (sort of) locked basement with the trappings to spell out the horror that once occurred there. That has all kinds of potential! The author does do a good job of creating a tense and spine-tingling atmosphere whenever the kids are in the basement. This is aided by the addition of pictures which puts this book in that new sub-genre of multi-media fiction a la Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, though I do wish that the EARC had actually contained more of the pictures that will be featured in the final edition - since that is what interested me in the title in the first place.

      The plot of Asylum starts off strong by weakens as we get further into the mystery. There is some meandering into the past via dreams and visions which give us a glimpse into the mind of the madman who once ran the asylum, but we never learn any real details about what went on there other than a vague notion of horrific surgeries. One the murders start, we get to watch the cops bumble around and the kids go into Scooby Doo mode. The constant arguing and teenage drama that comes with the three main characters gets tedious rather quickly and, eventually, when the killer is finally revealed the dialogue becomes downright laughable. Rather than being scared, I found myself rolling my eyes and wishing the plot had gone in any direction other than the most obvious.

      Asylum may represent one step towards the road to a new genre as more and more authors attempt to bank on the commercial success of Ransom Riggs. However, until an author is able to seamlessly weave together pictures with a strong plot and compelling characters, I will be staying away.

      Teaching/Parental Notes:

      Age: 13 and up
      Gender: Both
      Sex: Kissing
      Violence: Murder of Teens
      Inappropriate Language: Asshole, Shit, Bitch, Pissed
      Substance Use/Abuse: Underage Drinking
    • 3/5
      Whenever I glanced at reviews of Asylum after reading it, I was really surprised at how much people disliked this one. I didn't think Asylum was a perfect book, but it was entertaining enough and I never really got that "why am I still reading this" feeling I usually get with books I want to give up on. It wasn't entirely what I wanted it to be, but it kept me busy with a minimal amount of eyerolling. The book had a lot of high expectations to live up to, being compared early and often to Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, and unfortunately it just doesn't always deliver.

      That said, I really enjoyed the setting of an old asylum, now repurposed into dorms for a college campus. The setting alone adds a touch of menace that helps drive the story, and I know I sure would be both fascinated and creeped out by staying in such a place. As creepy things start happening to our main character Dan, we learn more about the asylum and get hints of the horrific things that happened there, and Dan struggles to figure out what is real and what is imagined.

      Like I said, the book has a lot of potential but it never quite lives up to it. The characters are all sort of flat and one-note, although there are hints that they could have more depth. Dan had a somewhat mysterious early childhood before he was adopted, and has some anxiety issues. Abby's family seems supportive of her despite harboring some secrets of their own, as well as turmoil between her parents. Jordan's family strongly disapproves of the fact that he is gay. The story touches on these things but never really mines them to flesh out the characters. There are a ton of plot ideas introduced that never really get followed up on, or which get pretty neatly dismissed when they could have been so much more. For example, with what I guess is a mild spoiler, Jordan goes through some wild mood swings and gets obsessed with solving a particular math equation, but this never amounts to anything and doesn't get followed up on.

      It often seemed to straddle the line between being more middle grade-leaning, with how simple the writing and the characters were, like it wanted to be scary but not full tilt scary so it went the opposite direction into bland. Here's where the comparisons to Miss Peregrine's really hurt this book. While I've never finished reading Miss Peregrine's--I started reading it once, then let a friend borrow it and have just not gotten back around to it--I remember feeling deeply unsettled by just the first few chapters. Despite Asylum's attempts to be scary, it never quite made it there for me. The ending didn't work for me at all -- this is another book that seems to want to go in a paranormal direction but doesn't commit to it the whole way, so we get a rushed ending that never gets fully explained.

      That's a lot of complaints for a book I didn't actually hate. It had its problems, but like I said, it kept me engaged and I never really felt like putting it down and moving on to something else. Unlike other readers, I thought the photographs and interior artwork were intriguing and added to the sinister feel of the story, and I'd be interested to flip through a finished copy, as the ARC doesn't have all of the artwork in it. It's a good rainy day sort of read, something to keep you occupied but not something you're going to think about all that much whenever you're done.
    • 2/5
      After some bad bouts in "adult" horror novels, I was intrigued to jump into this YA suspense/thriller. Asylum is set in a mental-hospital-turned-college. It is summer and instead of being filled with college students, the asylum/college is being used as a summer program for gifted high school students. As promised by the synopsis and the creepy art scattered through the book, a suspenseful ghost story thriller ensues. The book was also touted as a "photo experience" with a number of "vintage" photographs and images from the asylum to increase the creepiness factor. The concept really drew me in and I was excited to read this.The first few chapters went pretty smoothly. The writing definitely felt like it was aimed for younger readers, potentially even middle graders, in spite of the heavier/scarier topics promised to come. I quickly decided it wasn't a book for terribly young readers when the teenage characters started swearing with moderate frequency. I acknowledge that teenagers do swear and many of them do so awkwardly as they experiment with it almost as a form of rebellion, but I'm not going to pass a book to a youngster if it's got swearing. Just my personal taste. Aside from their language, the characters seemed interesting at first. The main character is a boy named Dan. He's smart (a requirement for this school program) and a bit of a loner. He also has some undisclosed psychological problems for which he seems to have a therapist on speed dial. This doctor is referenced numerous times but never called. On arriving at the school Dan meets his roommate for the summer, a boy named Felix. Felix is also smart and definitely socially awkward. Dan immediately feels a bit put off by Felix and his semi-neurotic tendencies. Frankly I felt like Dan's dislike came on a little too sharply especially considering they were going to be rooming together and also because Felix's actions may have been a bit odd and off-putting but they certainly weren't offensive. Still, Dan decides to avoid Felix and instead searches out new friends. He meets an artsy girl named Abby and immediately falls in crush with her. He's quickly jealous of any other guys talking with her, even Jordan the gay math genius.From a quick high level description, the characters sound interesting and have some potential. Unfortunately they never seemed to grow on me. They started out a little bit flat but I expected them to flesh out or mature throughout the story. Instead I was left feeling like their actions were forced and their motivations weren't believable. Some of their actions felt unrealistic for the characters I believed (wanted?) them to be. I think a lot of the problem was that there was more "telling" than "showing" in terms of trying to develop the characters. I was told what their characteristics and motivations were but when the characters acted, the actions felt disconnected and a little flat. I felt like there was a lot of missed potential in terms of using character development to draw me into the story. Still, accepting this as a younger novel, I moved on and assumed the characters for what I was told.The book was definitely a plot driven story and the plot was intriguing. When Dan arrives in his dorm he finds a stack of old photos in his desk drawer. The photos are presumably from back in the day when the asylum was in full operation. Aside from being creepy depictions of strange old hallways and operating rooms, the pictures are extra creepy because the eyes are scratched out on all the photos of people. Dan asks Felix about this and Felix informs him that he found an old off-limit office downstairs with similar photos. With that, the mystery is underway.Dan, Abby and Jordan decide to explore the office where they find more creepy old photos, hospital records and bloody handprints. As the story goes on, they explore farther and farther into the off-limits wing and discover more hidden secrets. Dan starts conducting research on the Asylum and interviewing people in town. He starts receiving strangely threatening notes and weird visions.As the story went on, I felt some of the portions of the plot to be predictable and I quickly guessed the direction I was being taken. Then we start having murders and attempted murders and I began to doubt some of my predictions. The author worked to throw in a number of twists and turns filled with plot points that seemed predictable but questionable. Chapter after chapter I found more and more threads emerging with strange questions and weird side-plots. I still felt like I was predicting the main action but I was getting confused with all the extra material. Finally I arrived at the climactic ending where a few of the key plot points were wrapped up very cleanly…too cleanly. Honestly it felt a little dissatisfying. Even then, I hoped that the next few pages would wrap up some of the peripheral elements that were presented as important but alas those elements were left dangling.Because I never felt particularly attached to the characters and as a result I wasn't especially invested in their success or failure. I felt a little let down that they didn't develop into more. The plot had me intrigued and curious as to what was really going on. There were definitely some good surprises and creepy moments that could have been more suspenseful or exciting if framed in a different way or if I was more attached to the characters. By the end of the story I was looking for a nice explanatory denouement to help wrap things up and answer all my various questions. Sadly that was not to be. Many of the peripheral plot elements that I thought were most compelling were left unanswered and almost wholly ignored at the end of the book. It left me unfulfilled and wanting more. I guess that means that in spite of the shortcomings, I was invested in finding out what happened. I just didn't feel like the ending satisfied that desire. The main plot ended with a small deus ex machina moment to resolve the main plot but then didn't bother to answer the lingering questions.Overall I felt like this book had a lot of potential that just wasn't fully realized. It didn't work particularly well as a suspense novel for me because I didn't feel attached to or invested in the characters. It had some thrilling/horror elements but they were pretty low key overall since the goal seemed to be suspense more than shock. The mystery was compelling but was left so unresolved that it was unsatisfying. I honestly feel bad for rating this one low as I really felt like it had potential and I really wanted to like it but in the end, I wanted a lot more from this book and was left dissatisfied. Maybe others will like it more, but for me, it fell flat.**2 out of 5 stars
    • 2/5
      The story was okay, but it was a bit predictable. The concept of being in an old asylum turned into a dorm and one of the students begins to have some weird connection to the asylum, pictures, information - it just feels like the same old same old. A very simple read, nothing complicated or hard. Definitely not ranked with YA in terms of wording, but I think it falls in that category because of it being in an asylum and the images that come with that idea. Maybe one day I will borrow it again and finish it, but for now, I'm not in the mood for this basic concept of a story.
    • 3/5
      This is a pretty good young adult story that could have easily been a middle grade story if it had less swearing. I liked the premise and narration though. I was hoping to like this book more than I did, don’t get me wrong it’s not a bad book it just wasn’t as engaging or scary as I was hoping it would be. It is also written much younger than the Young Adult genre it is in.All the “coincidences” were never really explained, it also says it is book #1 but I didn’t feel like there was much to continue once the book was over, so I am curious enough to check out the next book just to see how and why there is a second one.The narration by, Michael Goldstrom was well done he is a new to me narrator, and I thought his voices were well done he didn’t go overly young for the boys voices and not overly high pitch for the girls, which I have found happens sometimes in a middle grade/young adult book. I will be looking for others he has narrated.This wasn’t a bad book but it wasn’t a great book either and I think if some of the swearing were taken it would work very well as a Middle Grade book rather than a Young Adult book, if you have Young Adults who need an easier read I would recommend this one.3 stars
    • 3/5
      A friend in Slowly app mentioned this book.
      Until the end, I keep on wondering what's the point of this story.
      It's like spending hours trying to figure out how you got involved in a mess.
      There's more to this story, but I don't want to waste my time in slow-paced books.

      It's still useful in the 2020 PopSugar Reading Challenge: a character with vision impairment/enhancement
    • 3/5
      I was quite excited about this book: the plot and the photographs really appealed to me. It didn't live up to my expectations, though. The plot itself was good and is what kept me reading but the characters were unbelievable, especially when it came to dialogue. The teens just didn't seem real; they bonded within hours, were having blow-ups within days. They acted as if they had all grown-up in the same town together when in fact they had all just met. The dialogue was weak; I didn't believe the teens would talk to each other that way; Jordan was snarky from the get go and the things that came out of police officer's mouths were hilariously unbelievable, in the real world. So this put me off, not caring about any of the characters. However, I did read the book to the end and didn't once think of putting it down as the plot was quite creepy and it isn't too often I come across a real horror story aimed at YA. The horror works, this is not a book for under 14s and the photographs certainly add to the atmosphere. This is a horror that falls into the paranormal subcategory and the ominous atmosphere kept me absorbed. So, to conclude, cheesy dialogue and unbelievable situations put me off but a macabre plot kept me entertained.
    • 4/5
      This book is pretty good. I am usually one to figure out "whodunnit" but this time I was taken by surprise. I think I would like to see a sequel to this--or definitely a prequel!Definitely Recommend.
    • 5/5
      This book was addicting. I just could not put it down once I started reading it.
    • 3/5
      Daniel Crawford is attending the New Hampshire College Prep program during the summer. He hopes to make some friends, take some classes, and enjoy the summer. This proves to be impossible after he discovers his dorm used to be an insane asylum for the criminally insane about 50 years before that used tortuous and inhumane methods on the inmates. Daniel does make new friends in Abby and Jordan and they explore the rotting disarray of the asylum, parts of it left completely untouched for years. He starts receiving creepy messages in spidery old fashioned script and e-mails that disappear when he tries to open them. It all becomes real when someone is killed in the manner of a serial killer that lived there. Daniel feels his life spiraling out of control and his new friends pull away from him. Is he the killer despite having no memory doing it? Or is someone trying to drive him insane?Asylum interested me because I am fascinated with sanatoriums, particularly those in the past where torture was passed off and accepted as treatment and so much psychology was not understood yet. The descriptions of the creepy sanitarium rooms were phenomenally creepy. The creepiness factor was pushed with the dreams and visions with Daniel as both a patient and as the twisted warden. Then he starts receiving letters in the warden's writing and I have no idea what's going on. I'm questioning if it's ghosts, someone trying to mess with him, or if he's simply insane. This is before the murder even happens. The mystery is well crafted and I had no idea where it was going to end up. Pictures are interspersed throughout the book and they succeed in enhancing the mood of the story. My only complaint about them is that it's clear they are stock photos and don't always mesh well with the story. I also liked the short chapters. The story flows well on its own and the short chapters and many pictures make it seem like the tempo is much faster.I had a couple of small problems with the book. Although Daniel felt like a real teen, Abby and Jordan were both prone to crazy mood swings. One minutes they were the best of friends and the next minute (and for no reason) they despised their friends. Their friendship didn't go through a lot of development before doing this either, so it felt really od. I felt Jordan was unnecessary to the story and Abby's revelation later in the book. I wanted more of the mystery and the asylum and less of their petty teenage drama.Asylum is a deliciously creepy read. Near the end of the book, I was on the edge of my seat, constantly guessing what the resolution would be. I would love to get my hands on a finished copy so I can see all the pictures in their creepy glory.
    • 4/5
      A teenager travels to a secluded college in New Hampshire to attend a five-week college preparation program. A shy orphan with a mild memory disorder, he is pleased to find himself making friends with two other students, a pretty artist and a gay mathematician. Their friendship is poisoned when the three are subtly led into exploring the closed wing of their dormitory. Their current abode used to be an asylum for the criminally insane. The patients weren't the worst people there, however, for its last warden was a madman who tortured and killed patients while trying to cure them. He was imprisoned, the asylum closed, the patients sent away -- save for one, a serial killer who was never accounted for.The three discover secrets in and under the dormitory / asylum. The gay retreats into himself. The girl becomes obsessed with the photograph of a very young lobotomized girl who may be her aunt. The hero realizes that he may be related to the mad warden. He begins to suffer very frequent memory lapses while being tormented by written notes left in his personal spaces and strange messages sent FROM his phone. Worst of all, a series of attacks in the dorm leads him to suspect that someone is channeling the missing serial killer. He fears that person might be him. He is wrong, It is his relative who is trying to possess him. The killer has possessed someone else, and he is out for revenge on his old tormentor.This book is a mix of genres. It is very effective as a psychological thriller and as a Gothic horror tale. The latter especially is helped by the illustrations, which are custom photographs based in part on former mental patients, their healers, and the terrible equipment use to 'treat' them. Where it falls down a little is as a mystery, which the reader can see halfway through the story and spends the rest of the yarn wondering while the kid can't figure it out.
    • 5/5
      Dan is just a normal kid wanting to go to a normal college. But the college he ends up at just happens to be an old insane asylum. Murders begin to happen and nobody can figure out who is doing them. But in a random twist of events they find the true murderer, while also figuring out the mystery of a little girl.I loved this book and would totally recommend it. But i would pretty much only recommend it if your into horror type stuff. The writing overall was good. The book also includes pictures from real asylums that just adds to the intensity of the book.
    • 3/5
      I was hoping the book would be a bit better, but I did enjoy it. Some of it was a bit silly almost, but relatively atmospheric. I might read the next one - not sure yet.
    • 1/5
      The word Asylum alone evokes a feeling of dread. A twinge of apprehension. Unfortunately the title was the only thing that elicited that expected response, because the book was honestly extremely dry and wearisome.The idea behind the story was solid: 16 year-old Dan comes to stay for several weeks over the summer at a college prep program and he finds out their dorms are located in what once was an asylum for the criminally insane. I'm on board with that. The characters completely destroyed this story though. They were dull, uninteresting and lacking in any sort of dimension.The inconsistency of maturity was awful. Dan would be contemplating Jung one minute and acting like a 12 year old boy the next. He is supposed to be this incredibly socially awkward guy that has the hardest time making friends, yet he finds two people and they're the bestest of friends... instantly. They spend all their time together and they even decide to take some of the same classes together and they talk about their family problems with one another and... it just didn't feel authentic. Their friendship itself may have worked, but the fact that we knew they had JUST met ruined it all. Within a week even the teachers have nicknamed them 'The Hydra'. Dan's two friends, Abby and Jordan, also met each other for the first time on the bus that brought them to the school. The nail in the coffin happened for me when about a week into their stay, Abby forgets to tell Jordan that she won't be able to study with him because she's hanging out with Dan instead. She comes home to find him waiting for her outside her dorm door, drinking, proclaiming that she drove him to drink. Their friendship lacked a necessary composition that would generate these types of responses. But honestly, I'm not sure when I would ever put up with that type of behavior from a friend; it was just unnecessary and dramatic. (Also unnecessary was the incredibly forced romance that could have completely been done without.) It seemed incredibly unrealistic how advanced their relationship seemed to be after such a short amount of time and considering this was a huge basis of the story, it practically ruined the story as a whole for me. The comparison to Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children is a bit far-fetched and the only link between the two I could determine was the inclusion of black and white pictures. With Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children though, the pictures felt like they fit with the story much more and appeared to be incredibly authentic. While my ARC copy didn't contain all pictures, the ones I was able to view looked digitally created and many didn't even match up to what was being described which completely defeated the whole purpose. I would consider this to be a far closer match-up to Dennis Lehane's 'Shutter Island'- the YA Version with extremely bad characters.The story was interesting enough but I was really anticipating a much more intense reading experience. The ending doesn't give you all the answers, because apparently this is being made into a series which is completely unnecessary; this could have been a perfect stand-alone story (if it had more solid of characters and maybe a bit more creepy thrown in for flavor). Suffice it to say this was an epic disappointment and I don't consider myself to be interested enough in continuing.