Asylum

It wasn't scary in the slightest. Not to say that it was bad. I DID read the whole thing. I was curious as to who or what was behind the whole thing. Of course to fully appease my curiosity I will have to read the next book in the series. It is YA perhaps that's why I didn't find it spooky. But I feel like my eleven year old could read it and not be scared. All in all, it was an okay read and a decent time killer.

DNFed @ 20%

I always try my best at finishing the books I'm not liking but this time I really feel like I couldn't care less about any of the characters + I don't even like them, so I'm giving up with no second thoughts, honestly.
Perhaps I'll try to pick it up again in the future but meh, this had been the FOURTH TIME trying to read this one so I guess I'm quite done.

Dan Crawford can’t wait to start college prep classes. It’s a chance to escape being an outcast and find friends he can connect with. But he never expected an old asylum to be converted into a dorm. Dan can’t help but entice his new friends Abby and Jordan to explore the older sections they were told to stay out of. Together they will uncover unsettling truths about the asylum and stir up ghosts better left alone.

Dan finding true friends was a great theme to add to Asylum, but the character relationships were rushed. Readers barely have enough time to learn about Dan before the story adds Abby and Jordan into the mix. Jordan and Abby bonded outside of the main story, which worked quite well. But Dan did not have enough time with each of them individually to form a connection. The story does mention Dan has difficulties socializing, and the reader is able to witness the internal debates he has with himself as he tries to adjust to different social situations. But there needed to be more examples of Dan’s behavior. Instead of telling the reader, show them his issues and give some background information on what has not worked in the past for him.

The characterization was also inconsistent throughout the story. In one chapter the three friends would be carrying on just fine, then rapidly one of the others would have a complete personality change. Either growing easily frustrated or downright ignoring characters. While eventually, the reader finds out the why behind these sporadic behaviors, it would have been great to have more of a foundation for the reader to guess what happened and then do small reveals to lure readers into the overarching mysteries.

There were many subplots and mysteries to solve in Asylum. Too many. This story brought the teens together at the asylum and tried to connect each one to its past. In addition to this, they each had home lives filled with drama. If this had been a longer book, it may have worked out better, but not enough time was spent on each key point to make the story work. Instead, it seemed to skip forward without properly explaining the character's actions, and not leaving behind enough breadcrumbs for the reader to form any sort of conclusion.

Listening to the audiobook of Asylum did cut out the vintage photographs which are included in the print edition. But even with the photos to add to the mood setting of this story, the plot was too tangled. This was an extremely ambitious book, and if it had cut down on the subplots it would have been able to spend more time on the main story. Not a series I will be continuing.

There was potential for lots of greatness in the book. The back story that the characters were discovering was great. However, the characters themselves were unimpressive. Their personal “secrets” were overblown and took away from the story. The pictures were cool but added very little to the novel. There were too many questions left unanswered and the ones that were answered were too quickly answered. The characters didn't discover the answers. The answers just fell in their laps. And some of the answers didn't make sense.

There are two more books and two novellas in this series. Maybe more answers will be given in those. However, I doubt it considering the reviews I have read. And the fact that there are two novellas needed to further explain what is going on makes me very skeptical of the “main” novels.

This is a YA novel, so maybe I shouldn't be so hard on it. Some YA novels hold adult appeal and some don't. This doesn't. In my opinion, Miss Peregrine's is a better YA novel. And Carol Goodman's books are much better for creepy locations full of dark history that is being resolved in the present.

If I was a teen, I think I would have enjoyed this book a whole lot more.

Dan Crawford is excited to go to New Hampshire College Prep program. He's less excited to find out he will be staying in Brookline, which used to be a psychiatric hospital. The place is really creepy, he starts to receive scary notes, and has nightmares. As he and his friends explore the old hospital, strange things start to happen to them. This was decent book, I think I enjoyed it more because it's the season for creepy.

I hate when I accidentally read a crappy book. This was way too predictable it became nearly laughable towards the end. I generally like mixed media books, but the photos at times seemed to be out of place and just a waste of time? The comparison to The Miss Peregine's Home for Peculiar Children books is not deserved. Just because they both use pictures does not make them anywhere near the same level. While Miss Peregine's was a fanciful story woven around found photos this was a clumsy trek through a poorly designed excuse for a supernatural mystery. Am I being harsh? Well, I guess I have to since I wasted 2 to 3 hours of my time trudging through this mess. Conclusion: DONT READ.

2/5 stars

Yeah. This is definitely not a 5-star book for me. This felt too unfinished. I am definitely glad I never picked up the next book in the series and ending up forgetting this book. There are a number of things that bothered me. I'm just going to summarize them.

There was very little character development throughout the book.

Man what a creepy read, which I love! I've always been curious about old asylums and haunts of the past. When I saw this series I had to jump in. I started this last year by reading Escape From Asylum and decided it was time to keep going.

Dan goes to a college prep school during the summer that just happens to be in an old asylum. While there, mysterious things begin to happen and people start getting hurt. Just what is really behind all the “accidents”? What role does Dan play in all of it? Read on friends...

One thing I enjoyed while reading this series is that the book has photos of actual asylums and their staff throughout. Definitely adds to the creepy factor.

I listened to this as an audiobook and knowing that it involves pictures in the physical copy I think I may have enjoyed it more if I'd read the physical copy. even though the book is supposed to be young adult it felt very middle grade to me. The reveal at the end was a shock and I liked the spooky elements. It just felt like it shouldn't have been in the genre it was marketed as in my opinion.

This is not my first dance with Roux. I tried Allison Hewitt is Trapped and couldn't get through it. Asylum is better. It grabs your attention right away and it is very fast paced. I think that's the problem, it is TOO fast paced. There is no investigation into anything, the descriptions are short and shivery. The pictures help. In fact, the best thing about this book is the pictures. They do more to set the mood than anything else. We know, pretty much right away, we are in the hands of an unreliable narrator. The relationship between Dan and everyone else feels false and forced. Clearly he is completely set apart from his amigos (the ones he is supposed to be so tight with- after two days of knowing them). Jordan is an ass, and mean to Dan and I'm not sure why because I thought he was supposed to be the comic relief and a sympathetic character. One problem might have been that the reader does not get to know the characters as they are normally BEFORE they are plunged into crazytown. Abbey was completely unpredictable and obsessed with something that doesn't even seem related to the story, let alone making up part of a romantic duo (that relationship comes off as a complete fail and just drags the story down). Seriously, with such a short time to plot the story, the romance was so unneeded. What was needed was more background from the locals and horror stories that surrounded the school/asylum. As for the big bad, it's confusing, and barely makes any sense.

So, it's a little spooky, very atmospheric, but swiss cheesy in storytelling and doesn't feel solid when it lands.