Asylum Review

Asylum by Madeline Roux (310 pages)

My Rating: 2.5 Stars

Date Finished: 9 February 2015

Synopsis:

Asylum is a thrilling and creepy photo-novel perfect for fans of the New York Times bestseller Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.

For sixteen-year-old Dan Crawford, New Hampshire College Prep is more than a summer program—it's a lifeline. An outcast at his high school, Dan is excited to finally make some friends in his last summer before college. But when he arrives at the program, Dan learns that his dorm for the summer used to be a sanatorium, more commonly known as an asylum. And not just any asylum—a last resort for the criminally insane.

As Dan and his new friends, Abby and Jordan, explore the hidden recesses of their creepy summer home, they soon discover it's no coincidence that the three of them ended up here. Because the asylum holds the key to a terrifying past. And there are some secrets that refuse to stay buried.

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

My Review:

I expected this book to be a lot scarier. Especially with all of the creepy pictures. But unfortunately, it fell flat. The parts that were supposed to be suspenseful didn't always work with the rest of the story. There were a lot of instances of the phrases that are in so many YA books. "I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding" or "She wasn't like other girls" kind of things. Those plot points make reading the novel not as fun for me. I am not saying it was a bad book, but it could have been so much better.