Sanctum

Dan, Abby, and Jordan remain traumatized by the summer they shared in the Brookline asylum. Much as they'd love to move on, someone is determined to keep the terror alive, sending the teens photos of an old-timey carnival, with no note and no name. Forsaking their plan never to go back, the teens return to New Hampshire College under the guise of a weekend for prospective students, and there they realize that the carnival from the photos is not only real, it's here on campus, apparently for the first time in many years.

Sneaking away from sample classes and college parties, Dan and his friends lead a tour of their own—one through the abandoned houses and hidden places of the surrounding town. Camford is hiding a terrible past, and the influence of the asylum runs deeper than Dan ever imagined.

*May Contain Spoilers*

Looking for closure can open old wounds, especially when the wound never stopped bleeding. Madeleine Roux lets readers in on a little Brookline Asylum secret in her sequel, Sanctum. And the secret is? The madness never stopped. 

Dan is still having nightmares where he feels as if he is the old Warden of Brookline Asylum. He's definitely heading for the deep end. Bravely, or stupidly, he decides to return to the place of murder and mayhem for a college tour weekend. I like Dan; I can't really help it. He's a little weird, goofy, teetering on the edge of crazy, but it works for him. And for this novel. Readers will definitely be intrigued by the unsolved mystery that we all thought was solved. However, this book is more about the mystery than the actual character. Roux connected readers to Dan in the first book and since that has been established, the story can move to center stage.

Abby and Jordan are still present, and accounted for, in this sequel. Though, they have seemed to distance themselves from Dan to help leave what happened at Brookline in the past. But Dan isn't the only one being haunted. Readers get a deeper look into Abby's love for art and Jordan's mathematical madness in this sequel. The trust these three have in each other is a big part of why readers will feel themselves connecting with the characters. When characters rely on and trust each other, readers feel as if they are reliable and trustworthy. Especially when their crazy theories turn out to be right.

The plot of Sanctum begins with the three teens being lured back to Brookline. Obviously whoever was behind the grisly murders in the first book was not the ghost of The Sculptor or The Warden. There's much more to the story and it's quite intense. Dan, Abby, and Jordan meet back at NHC for a weekend tour to find out, once and for all, what or who is haunting them. This book isn't as gruesome as the first one, with less death and more threats. However, honestly, I was a bit disappointed with the ending as I had already guessed who was the true culprit. And when it comes to mysteries, I want to be wrong for all the perfect reasons.

Rating: 3/5 Cups

Asylum

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.

*May Contain Spoilers*

The history of New Hampshire College will invite readers into the haunted halls to study for a summer college prep course in Madeleine Roux's novel, Asylum. When Dan discovers that his summer dorm was once the background for highly immoral experimental procedures for the criminally insane, he starts to wonder what could still be hiding in the shadows and the off-limits office. 

Daniel Crawford cannot wait to go to college. He's intrigued by history and psychology, always studying and sitting alone at the lunch table. When the prep course at NHC begins, he's filled with excitement allowing us learning nerds to connect with Dan right off the bat. Nothing like the empty pages of a new notebook, am I right? While Daniel enjoys education, he is also interested in toeing the line of rules and regulations. But a little adventure isn't always a good thing. No matter, Dan is actually a pretty brave kid (especially when trying to impress a girl) but he's also kind of creepy at times. Like when he blacks out and someone ends up hurt... or when he tries on a reportedly insane psychiatrist's spectacles. The good and the bad really balance out in Daniel as he tries to be less awkward and more open, which lets readers connect with him even more. 

The plot of Asylum is basic while simultaneously frightening. At first, with the photographs and such, I thought it would be comparable to Ransom Riggs' Peculiar Children novels. However, that is not the case. Daniel discovers that his dorm, Brookline, once housed the criminally insane. While there, the inmates were subjected to inhumane experiments to cure them. Daniel and two friends decide to dig in to the secrets of the Asylum around the same time that people start dying. One patient sticks out the most: The Sculptor, who would kill and then pose his victims as if they were still alive. With Daniel blacking out and losing blocks of time, he begins to think he's going insane but he hopes to catch the murderer instead of being him. 

Though Asylum is a young adult novel, I would advise caution with this book. It isn't as brutal and gruesome as it could be, but it is quite creepy. I was creeped out enough not to read it before bed. Even with the warning, Asylum was an interesting, entertaining, murder mystery that I struggled to put down. I even took it on errands with me just in case I found myself with a few precious moments of down time. I'm definitely looking forward to book two. 

Rating: 3.5/5 Cups

WWW Wednesday (167)

To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

• What are you currently reading?

• What did you recently finish reading?

• What do you think you’ll read next?

          

01. Currently Reading:
Corsican Justice by Bluette Matthey. After arriving in Corsica to check out the hiking trails, Hardy stumbles upon the truth that his father was murdered there five years earlier.

02. Recently Finished:
I Truly Lament by Mathias Freese. Short story collection focusing on the Holocaust. Powerful subject matter and writing style.

03. Reading Next:
Asylum by Madeleine Roux. Dan wasn't expecting his college dorm room to have a history as an asylum for the criminally insane.

Expecting a Slap in the Face

When you work at a hospital for the criminally insane, it is essential that you don't let your mind slip beyond your control.

Dr. Matthew Russel is the managing director of a mental hospital for the criminally insane in Claude Bouchard's novel Asylum. Becoming more and more frustrated with his job, Matthew knows it's time for a vacation. Especially when he learns that he's days from losing his wife and children.

Matt promises his wife, Cass, that he'll make a change. And by the last page, it's a change that I guarantee the reader won't see coming.

* * *

Although at the end of the novel I understand the middle, while reading Asylum I had countless problems with the plot. The first thing that bothered me is that it is drastically unrealistic. Around every corner there is a man with a knife, a car jacker, a robber, a sexual predator, and Matthew is always there to save his family. He's "Family Man." The super-hero dad that every father wants to be. And like I said, with the last chapter, I completely understand why Matthew needed to save each member of his family.

But, trying not to give too much away, to believe the end, I need to believe the entire novel.

Yes, I was brought in with the opening of the novel. Bouchard did a wonderful job in drawing the reader into the story line.
Yes, the characters were intriguing. (i.e. when Matthew snaps and does something completely ridiculous such as kills a man and throws him into a dumpster) 


However, when I'm doubting whether I, as the reader, can believe the narrator ... there's something not right. Towards the end of the novel I found myself scoffing at a plot twist instead of being surprised or entertained.

Not to be harsh, but I would rather this have been a short story, leaving out the day by day account of Dr. Matthew Russel. At least that way the end would have actually slapped me in the face, like it was supposed to.

Asylum on Amazon

rating: 2/5 cups