Asylum, the first part to the two part series, written by Madeleine Roux is a chilling and haunting novel exploring the supernatural and the changing life of three individuals.
In this original book, Dan Crawford, an outcast is spending his summer at New Hampshire College Prep program with hopes for friends with the same interests. However, things begin to take a turn after they began exploring the basement rooms of an old asylum where their dorm rooms are housed.
When they first get to their dorms they can’t help it but be tempted to go in the restricted area which is the uncompleted section on Brookline which is still untouched. They sneak into the asylum part and discover a small portion on their own before retreating. While investigating, Abby finds a photo in the wardens office and decides to take it along with her. On the following day they choose their classes and become almost completely inseparable during this first week of the program. Soon enough, Dan even gets up the nerve to take Abby out on a date. However, things begin to interfere with their friendship and personal life. First, Jordan gets annoyed with not being informed about Dan and Abby’s date. Jordan also becomes obsessed with a mathematical problem that is supposed to be unsolvable, and at the same time, Abby has become oddly obsessed with the picture she took from the warden’s office.
The triad set another trip into the asylum, but this time they submerged deeper. What they see is far too ominous for them sending them to the conclusion that they should not return. However, among the patient files, Abby found an admittance card that commend her aunt was once a patient at Brookline. Abby becomes haunted with learning more about her dads side of the family.
As Abby and Jordan become distracted by their own problems, Dan soon finds himself drawn into the history of Brookline. Dan even goes to visit a local man who has published a website about the asylum to help him out. However, Dan’s visit is not welcome, mostly because his name is the same as the last warden that ran it.
Towards the end, a boy is assassinated at Brookline and another injured. Dan gets in some trouble with himself and his roommate from being attacked by a mysterious man. The police suspect him of lying, but Dan feels that its the asylums most famous inmate, a serial killer, known as the Sculptor. When Dan Crawford gets invited into the basement by a mysterious messaged over text he goes and discovers that its the Sculptor. He also gets confronted by his roommate, Felix, who apparently has been possessed by the Sculptor. A fight ensues, but with the help of his friends, Dan triumphs.
In the aftermath of Dan’s ordeal, Abby finds her aunt and Jordan reveals his sexual orientation to his parents and is not accepted for it and may be thrown out of this house. Dan, whose adoptive parents are open minded at the most, invites Jordan to come live with them with the hopes that the trio will remain close for years to come, but what will happen when they return to Brookline the following year?
This book as you can tell is on the horror side. Some people may say books aren’t scary, well I use to agree to that but than I actually read it and honestly I got chills. It pulls you in and its like your watching it play in your head. Just like a movie has jump scares, this book has some twist and turns of its own especially the sequel. This series is good for people who enjoy the show AHS (American Horror Story).
Most people have problems with the length of the book. A good plus is that the novel isn’t too lengthy. Another plus is that the book comes with pictures. Its not a complete 100 percent picture book it just has pictures of what they find, for example when Abby finds the photo in the wardens office they have a photo of that.
Madeleine Roux is an extremely good writer and I feel like more people should explore more of her books. Asylum made the New York Times Best Seller’s list and received accolades from Publisher’s Weekly. Personally her writing reminded me of John Green and could possibly be the girl version, but instead of sappy love books, they have a cynical twist. The books aren’t even that expensive either.
I purchased the books from Barnes and Nobles and I also bought them together and the first book Asylum was soft cover and Sanctum, the second book, was only in hard cover automatically making it more money. It wasn’t by a lot maybe from around to three or four dollars more. Also, the second book is longer than the first one so that would probably make more sense to make the longer book hard cover.
