Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars
Disclaimer: This review is solely my honest opinion. I purchased this book on my own from Barnes and Noble. The opinions in this review do not reflect the views of the author.
Asylum by Madeleine Roux is a suspenseful young adult novel following the journey of Daniel Crawford and his two friends. Daniel Crawford signed up to go to a college prep school the summer before his senior year. He had heard there were trouble with the previous dorms and the school had decided to house the student a in an old asylum. When that voice inside his head told him to turn around, he did not listen and there will be consequences. This novel has an interesting take on asylums and describes how a little bit of fate brought Daniel Crawford and his two friends to this school for the summer. These three “Nancy Drew’s” decide to walk around the campus and explore the old asylum hoping to learn more about the place they will be housing in for the next six weeks. They find more than old papers, they find connections between themselves and the asylum. Will these three let their curiosity get the best of them? Will they head the warning signs? Who can you really trust in an asylum? You will have to read the book to find out!
Here is the synopsis, this is pretty convincing!
For sixteen-year-old Dan Crawford, the New Hampshire College Prep program is the chance of a lifetime. Except that when Dan arrives, he finds that the usual summer housing has been closed, forcing students to stay in the crumbling Brookline Dorm—formerly a psychiatric hospital. As Dan and his new friends Abby and Jordan start exploring Brookline’s twisty halls and hidden basement, they uncover disturbing secrets about what really went on here . . . secrets that link Dan and his friends to the asylum’s dark past. Because Brookline was no ordinary mental hospital, and there are some secrets that refuse to stay buried.
Overall, I thought this book was great. It definitely had me on the edge of my seat the entire time. I gave it a four star rating because I wanted to know more about Daniels “real” parents and find out exactly his connection to the asylum. We find out about Abby and her connection but not Daniel. Also, I wanted to know what Jordan had to do with anything besides being an extra person in the story. The development of Abby as a character was great but I thought Dan was the main character in the story. I did like the excerpt at the end of this book for the next book in the series, it definitely makes me want to go out and get it. I also thought there would be a bit more romance in the novel but there wasn’t any. I did love the whole mystery of the entire novel and the suspense. The author did a great job keeping me engaged the entire time.
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in The American Horror Style books. This book gave off that feel the entire story. It is still technically young adult.
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