Asylum: A Great Fall and Halloween Read for Teens Hardcover – August 20, 2013

Asylum…let’s just start with the cover. The cover was spot on giving the reader the feeling that creepy secrets mixed with a hint of madness wait within. I think like many readers the cover draws me in and makes me want to read. The cover of Asylum, however, gave me an excited tingling in my brain that shouted read it, read it, read it.I will be honest; I am forever in search of a good scare. I rarely, if ever. Find it. As my friends and family would say, I am beyond hard to scare. That aside, I can truly understand what scares other people and I know many that would be unable to finish this book on creepy factor alone. If you like tales of places like Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, Waverly Hill Sanatorium, or Danvers Lunatic Asylum this read will be right up your alley. What Madeleine Roux captured in the pages of this book was pure and creepy gold.Daniel Crawford is insanely smart (pun intended) and a little weird so his acceptance into New Hampshire College Prep program or NHCP was no surprise. As he pulls up to the college his instincts all but bash him over the head telling him to turn tail and get as far from his new dorm as possible. The college was housing the summer program students in what used to be Brookline an old asylum that Dan would soon learn was more than just an ominous looking building.Dan’s past experiences being the smart kid did not make him confident in the making friends area, but when a pretty girl wants to be your friend you’d be stupid to refuse. The connection between Abby her friend Jordan and Dan happens quickly and while something seems to pull them together, none of them are very forthcoming with information about experiences each of them began to have within the old psychiatric hospital’s walls.Drawn to a picture left in the drawer of his dorm room desk, Dan is nudged by his roommate Felix to explore the off-limits offices that he found open upon his own arrival. Against all his good boy, boring, academic ways Dan tempts his new friends into exploring with him. Dan and Abby are pulled in by the clues they find to Brookline’s dark past but Jordan, not wanting trouble or to be the real life embodiment of a horror flick, would rather leave well enough alone. What ensues are the scary possibilities of Dan’s and Abby’s connections to Brookline itself and the few weeks within its walls that may drive the three friends to insanity.Roux drew from a dark time in history when the monsters in the world were sadly the ones that were in charge of healing and helping. She created Brookline, a place like the famous House of Usher, that almost takes on its own scary living, breathing personality. If you like well written, creepy stories Madeleine Roux is your storyteller!

I found the tale spooky and written well enough to capture and hold my attention. Characters are lightly dusted, with just enough information to tell me who they are or at least as much as I want to know. I didn't feel that it needed a heavy hand in the romance area, since this was a summer school, which usually deveolps fast freindships but not always lasting. Roux did a good job of describing the area of the sanitorium that was off limits and I enjoyed the added illustrations. This is a book that I would be comforable handing to middle schoolers.Not all books for older teens require hot sex scenes or blood, guts and gore. This is an easy to follow tale with some twists. I enjoyed the ending as well as the fact that not all problems were solved. This is a book that readers can use their imagination to fill in any gaps they feel are left open.And yes, I have been to Waveryly Hills in Louisville Kentucky on a very dark stormy night.Research, insanity, or possession can we ever be certain?Dan Crawford is a foster kid who finally got lucky and found adoptive parents who have helped him settle into a life of relative normalcy. His zeal for academic studies has landed him a coveted spot in a college prep program in New Hampshire over the summer. As the taxi pulls up to NHCP campus, Dan gets his first look at the old sanatorium, where he and the other students will be housed because of a current renovation. Brookline though no longer an asylum still holds chills and hides secrets that will plague its temporary residents. Curious about a photo he discovers in his desk, Dan and his new friends Abby and Jordan find their way into a locked, deserted area of the old sanatorium. What they unearth there are hidden passages, dusty records of experiments, torture, death and madness, and not just the inmates, horrors that took place at Brookline more than forty years ago. In their search the teens have stirred up more than dust and old secrets, they have awakened the long dead. Disturbing notes, phone texts and photos that mysteriously appear and then disappear turn up, than the murderous attacks begin...Asylum, by Madeleine Roux, has the same chilling feel as a stroll through Waverly Hills on a dark stormy night. Suspense, horror, madness, death and ghostly presence are laced throughout the story with photos of actual rooms from long forgotten discarded asylums. In a short time we meet and get to know some of the residents, both past and present, learn about the horrors of the past that still affect the present and discover that "Madness in great ones must not unwatched go." All wrapped up with an ending that would do justice to Hitchcock himself.

Really enjoy this cliff hanger! Lots of twist and turns! I would highly recommend reading this! I couldn’t put this down!

A complete let down - I knew this book was YA when I bought it - doesn't bother me, a book well written is enjoyable regardless. But this was sold as a bestseller (and there are more in the series) and I have just finished it after a YEAR reading it. To begin, with Dan is the only interesting character with any depth. The rest are tick box caricatures at worst.. There are flashes of interesting writing but I think this was sold on the basis of the black and white photos unrelated to anything in the book. The worst part is the plot - it is very very slow and little happens. I was more acquainted with what Abby, Jordan and Dan ate at their various meet ups in the college restaurant than any growing or interesting story line. I normally love books like this, but I'd seriously give this a miss. Won't be trying the others.

So since it's that time around Halloween, that could mean only one thing, right? Time to read SPOOKY BOOKS! And if the title of 'Asylum' with the picture of that girl on the front cover doesn't get you into the scary book mood, then I have no idea what will.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.There are so many elements of this book that make it as good as it is. There are the pictures (think Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children), there is the locked, mysterious door that leads to other chambers, there are the murders that are happening on campus, and there is Dan's link to the asylum.“If someone tells you you're crazy enough times, eventually it becomes true. It's that old psychiatrist's joke: insanity's all in your head.”― Madeleine Roux, AsylumI flew through this book, I think that I read it in a matter of a few hours. Roux had written this book at the perfect pace. You aren't thrown into the action straight away, there's a gradual build-up to the main plot points and scares. First, we are introduced to Dan and his new friends, then we are told that there is a locked door in one of the corridors, so what does Dan do? He goes to explore it, and see what is inside. If this was a horror movie, this would be the point where you are shouting at the TV for the stupid actors not to go into that dark, cobweb-ridden room. But no... Dan goes in, and his interest in the school's past (an aslyum if you hadn't guess by now), is piqued. He tries to focus all of his energy on finding out what happened there and drags his new friends into his 'adventure' as well.Whilst all of this terror was going on, there are murders happening on the school campus, so Dan tries to figure out who is the murderer on top of discovering information about the school. Bloody hell, he's a busy guy, isn't he?I did have a slight inkling as to who was behind all of this mayhem, but then I kept second guessing myself throughout the book and gave up on my theory. I shouldn't have though because it turns out that my bad feeling about that character was spot on. (Really, I should be the next Sherlock!)Asylum had a brilliant ending, it definitely keeps you on your toes and wanting to find out what happens next (which is book, 2 - Sanctum). I bought the second book straight after finishing the first and even though I have yet to read Sanctum, I can't wait as I know it's going to be a brilliant read!

"Prepare to be lost in…Asylum"With a tag line like that and a creepy photo on the cover how could I resist buying Asylum? A quick flick through gave me a glimpse of some of the creepy photos inside which include some images from actual asylums and as I read this, the pictures really added to the atmosphere of the story and just creeped me out even more! Loved it!So, let's get down to business!"It was a house for those who could not take care of themselves, for those who heard voices, who had strange thoughts and did strange things. The house was meant to keep them in. Once they came, they never left."Taking place in an old asylum that has been converted into a temporary dormitory, the plot follows main character Daniel Crawford as he arrives at Brookline asylum for summer prep school. Very quickly he and his friends Jordan and Abby start to realise that things may not all be completely normal at Brookline. Are there some sort of supernatural forces at work? What really did happen all those years ago when Brookline was closed so suddenly? And more importantly, what happened to its most dangerous patient of all – the serial killer known as The Sculptor?What follows is a dark and twisted story of mystery and discovery. The characters find themselves drawn deeper into the secrets of Brookline and the horrors that it hides in rooms and floors that are off limits. When strange things start happening to them and people start turning up dead, the trio know that something has to be done to stop the evil forces at work here."Insanity is relative. It depends on who has who locked in what cage."I loved this book from start to finish. The writing was superb and wasted very little time in getting into the nitty gritty of this macabre tale. I quite liked Dan from the beginning, he was pretty laid back and fit the bill of an average teenager. I also found him to be very believable, the decisions he made and his reactions to the events in the book were realistic and this is a big thing for me in stories like this. I've never been a fan of a main character who just ploughs into scary basements like Rambo. Most people would be scared and I liked that I felt Dan’s fear and his confusion throughout this.The mystery itself is very well paced, little details are revealed regularly but are just enough to keep you guessing. I was so riveted by it that I read the whole thing in one sitting – staying up until the early hours! I was then so unnerved by the sinister plot that I regretted staying up so late because suddenly the dark didn't seem so welcoming!The evil forces at work fit into the storyline excellently. I liked that there were two elements to the plot, the direct danger which came from one side and then the underlying mystery that came from the other – both of which had different sources and different characters driving them but that tied in with each other too."They are walking the line between genius and insanity. You know the line well."A very thrilling and unnerving read, scary and intriguing in all the right places, a must-read for fans of dark and thrilling mysteries with a splash of the supernatural.Asylum is the first book in a trilogy which offers several spin-off stories also, so Dan’s story continues in the next instalment Sanctum which I'm off to order now because I can't wait to see what the author has in store for these guys next!"I'll be seeing you real soon Daniel Crawford."

So so so so good!I can never usually get into books like this, I'm typically a contemporary, romance or fantasy girl, but this completely converted me. Loved the creepiness of the whole thing. Although some parts were pretty predictable, but that's generally expected of a YA novel, but the twist at the end left me sat there for a while just thinking about what had happened! I was absolutely hooked, probably helped that I read it on Halloween too.Waiting for this October to start the next book!

Loved this book throughout lockdown which I did not feel the time was right with what was going on in the world!Although I didn’t sleep a few times,I actually loved the book what a page turner and a scary one at that .