Review: Asylum by Madeleine Roux

Summary

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.

My thoughts

This book has been one of the books that I chose for the ones that I disliked the most in 2013 = nothing positive ahead. This book combines two aspects that I think can make for an amazing story but oddly exactly these two always tend to disappoint me. One is to include photographs in the story and the second one is an asylum as the main setting.

All the things I disliked about Asylum

The pictures

The photographs themselves are great, no critique there. But how they are included in the story? Totally different thing. Besides one or two they could have been left out and it wouldn’t have made a difference.

The characters

Reading about them felt like going through a list of all cliches there are. And on top of that they were afraid of every damn thing and utterly whiny. There were just too many headdesk moments to not dislike them.

Instalove

Not only that but also “insta-friendship”. It was just weird how obsessed this guy seemed to be about his new friends. He has only known them for a day and he is already talking about them like they have been friends for years.

Badly used references

There were quite a lot of references to books and movies. Too many actually so that it felt exaggerated. And as much as I liked some of them, they couldn’t make up for the boring story.

Predictable ending

Not only was it pretty clear were this was going but it also revealed something that was just stupid in my opinion. Everything could have been explained in a perfectly normal way but suddenly something paranormal happens. I guess she needed that to have something to write about in a second book.

Overall

Sadly this really pretty book (dark green font!) was one big disappointment. Artificial, not at all creepy and cliche ridden, this is a book I would never have finished if I hadn’t read it together with some friends.