Review: Asylum by Madeleine Roux

 Asylum

Author: Madeleine Roux

Publisher: Harpercollins Publishers

Published: August 2013

* Under consideration for purchase

 

 



Summary:

Once you get in, there's no getting out.

For sixteen-year-old Dan Crawford, a summer program for gifted students is the chance of a lifetime. No one else at his high school gets his weird fascinations with history and science, but at the New Hampshire College Prep program, such quirks are all but required.

Dan arrives to find 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 it turns out Brookline was no ordinary psych ward. And there are some secrets that refuse to stay buried.

Featuring haunting found photographs from real asylums, this mind-bending reading experience blurs the lines between past and present, friendship and obsession, genius and insanity.

My Review:

Asylum by Madeleine Roux is a young-adult mystery novel about 16 year old Dan Crawford who gets the opportunity to go to a college prep program for the summer. When the college dorms are closed he has to stay in Brookline, a retired asylum that is on the college property. Then Dan finds an old photo and he and his new friends, Abby and Jordan, venture in the hospitals crumbling basement where they find secrets that refuse to stay buried. I really liked the picture element of this book, they were very creepy and fit the book. I found the setting very well described and could easily picture the creepy halls of Brookline. The place where the book lacked consistency was with the characters and relationships. Dan would say he was socially awkward, but then would make friends with Abby and Jordan instantly and easily. They didn’t act the way described. Also the relationships seemed rushed and not very believable, especially his relationship with Abby. I didn’t feel any pity for the trio when they were fighting or in trouble, I just didn’t connect with them. My favourite parts of the book was any of their adventures in the basements. I found them suspenseful, creepy and well written. I liked learning about Brookline and its patients’ pasts. I felt differently about the ending. The ending didn’t seem to fit the rest of the book and seemed sudden. I wasn’t left wanting more, I was left confused. Overall I found the book hard to get through and didn’t enjoy the characters.

Happy Reading,

Alicia Campbell

Teen Reviewer