Review: Asylum by Madeleine Roux

Title: Asylum
Author: Madeleine Roux
Series: Asylum #1
Publisher: HarperTeen
Release Date: August 20, 2013
Source: Purchased
Find it Here: Amazon, Goodreads

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 thoughts: 

I remember when Asylum first came out and I thought to myself that YA had finally put out a horror novel that actually sounds like it’s going to be scary. I wanted to read it as soon as possible. So I got it from the library and I didn't get around to reading it. I even got it from the library a second time and I still didn't get around to reading it. Clearly I was busy reading other things. Then Sanctum was released and I had a Barnes & Noble coupon so I used it to buy both Asylum and Sanctum. I was putting a lot of faith into this supposedly scary series that I hadn't read yet. But I was right because I love it!

Asylum had me hooked from the first chapter. Everything about the story, the characters and the atmosphere had a really creepy feel to it. Well, it better since the characters are staying in an old mental asylum that the school is using for dorms for the summer program students. So creepy atmosphere down pat! Locked rooms, that when broken into, lead to offices filled with old paperwork and even creepier photos of previous patients. And of course the majority of these creepy patients were serial killers! And the warden was doing some kind of crazy experiments on them! Asylum is all craziness!

Asylum is definitely a scary book so if you’re not into that then don’t read it! I like scary books and I still had a hard time reading it right before bed. YA need more writers like Madeleine Roux who write legitimately scary books. The romance wasn't so bad either as far as “liking someone as soon as you meet them” goes. I wouldn't call it insta-love because it wasn't really that. It was tolerable.

Asylum! Excellent! One of my favorite reads this year and I’m so glad I read it in October!