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    Asylum
    Asylum
    Asylum
    Audiobook6 hours

    Asylum

    Written by Madeleine Roux

    Narrated by Michael Goldstrom

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    Madeleine Roux's New York Times bestselling Asylum is a thrilling and creepy novel that Publishers Weekly called ""a strong YA debut that reveals the enduring impact of buried trauma on a place.""

    For sixteen-year-old Dan Crawford, the New Hampshire College Prep program is the chance of a lifetime. Except that when Dan arrives, he finds that the usual summer housing has been closed, forcing students to stay in the crumbling Brookline Dorm. The dorm was formerly 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 start exploring Brookline's twisty halls and hidden basement, they uncover disturbing secrets about what really went on at Brookline . . . secrets that link Dan and his friends to the asylum's dark past. Because Brookline was no ordinary asylum, and there are some secrets that refuse to stay buried.

    Flled with chilling mystery and suspense, Asylum is a horror story that treads the line between genius and insanity, perfect for fans of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.

    Don't miss any of the books in the Asylum series, or Madeleine Roux's shivery fantasy series, House of Furies!

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateAug 20, 2013
    ISBN9780062272829
    Author

    Madeleine Roux

    Madeleine Roux is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Asylum series, which has sold over a million copies worldwide. She is also the author of the House of Furies series and several titles for adults, including Salvaged and Reclaimed. She has made contributions to Star Wars, World of Warcraft, and Dungeons & Dragons. Madeleine lives in Seattle, Washington, with her partner and beloved pups.

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    Reviews for Asylum

    3.5/5

    486 ratings54 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Not my cup of tea. I didn’t find it scary and I felt the characters were tedious (except Jordan, you get 5 stars).

      The audiobook narrator was… fine. Also not my favorite.

      I think everything about this book was just okay. Except the characters. They were terrible.
    • 4/5
      creepy...terrifying past...secrets...eerie photographs...frightening journal pages....just as we think we understand a trauma, a wall's erected...we understand nothingvolatile reality...haunting foreshadowingsYA debut novel ----a haunted asylum and the teenagers who are drawn to it.★ ★ ★ ★
    • 3/5
      Guess what?! This was the book I read for book club! My very first book club book! YAY!

      Anyways...this book was creepy. Not scary...but freakishly creepy. I chose this book because I was promised chills and thrills and all sorts of horrifying things...but I also chose this book, expecting not to be affected. I've only ever read one horror story before, and it was not horrifying. At all. This one on the other hand...creeeeeeeeeeeeeeeepy.

      Well, there are several factors that contributed to the feeling, I suppose.
      1) I'm very easily scared (yes, I jumped when someone sneezed abnormally loud once)
      2) I was reading this at night (pretty much the only time I ever get to read in peace)
      3) I was reading this in a silent room (it was really, really quiet, okay?)
      4) I was the only one in the room (imagine all the weird looks I would have gotten if I had screamed...)

      So there I was reading this book when suddenly...*bzz bzz*
      I very nearly screamed and hurled the book across the room.

      What I DID do, however, was jump and scold myself for being afraid of a book. I mean...what's the worst that could happen, right? It's just paper...

      Now, the blurb on the back did warn me of haunting images from actual asylums, but I didn't think much of them. Until this long period of reading when I was beyond freaked and I turned the page , only to be greeted by this girl with this hair with these clothes...gaaaah! From then on, I would always scout ahead a few chapters to warn myself if there was something alarming coming...

      There was this point in the book, where I was so deeply entrenched in the book that I was actually afraid to turn the page or even treat the book with anything but utmost respect and care...I thought...I thought...a hand or SOMETHING would reach out of the book. I actually did. I kid you not.

      Thankfully, I did the sane thing and took a break (at some point in the book when I couldn't take any more creepy) before I finished the rest of the book. And by break, I mean, I walked around the house and shouted some gibberish, then decided to go back into the book. Of course...at another point...I told myself to go to bed and finish the rest of the book in the morning where it would be bright, and loud, and not a perfect environment to read a horror novel...

      The ending...although the main problems that were introduced in this book were addressed, and all those little nuances finally made sense...there were still a few things that I still don't get...still some things that have left me without a reasonable explanation...hmm...

      This book really had the creepiness down pat. It wasn't the sudden surprise thing I was always afraid of in the movies...this book had this great build up of suspense, and I was taken from mild amusement in the beginning, to reading behind a pillow...

      As for the next book, well...I'm pretty sure I will read it...I mean, it's unlike me to NOT finish a series I've started...but I think I've had enough creepiness to last the year...or what's left of it anyway...I think there's...a week left...a week and a day...?

      Aaanyways....I'm definitely taking a break from the creepy. I'm going to read something much less horrific and goose bumps-causing. Something that requires little to no brain power to comprehend...a fluffy, girly, read, if you will...
    • 3/5
      Whenever I glanced at reviews of Asylum after reading it, I was really surprised at how much people disliked this one. I didn't think Asylum was a perfect book, but it was entertaining enough and I never really got that "why am I still reading this" feeling I usually get with books I want to give up on. It wasn't entirely what I wanted it to be, but it kept me busy with a minimal amount of eyerolling. The book had a lot of high expectations to live up to, being compared early and often to Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, and unfortunately it just doesn't always deliver.

      That said, I really enjoyed the setting of an old asylum, now repurposed into dorms for a college campus. The setting alone adds a touch of menace that helps drive the story, and I know I sure would be both fascinated and creeped out by staying in such a place. As creepy things start happening to our main character Dan, we learn more about the asylum and get hints of the horrific things that happened there, and Dan struggles to figure out what is real and what is imagined.

      Like I said, the book has a lot of potential but it never quite lives up to it. The characters are all sort of flat and one-note, although there are hints that they could have more depth. Dan had a somewhat mysterious early childhood before he was adopted, and has some anxiety issues. Abby's family seems supportive of her despite harboring some secrets of their own, as well as turmoil between her parents. Jordan's family strongly disapproves of the fact that he is gay. The story touches on these things but never really mines them to flesh out the characters. There are a ton of plot ideas introduced that never really get followed up on, or which get pretty neatly dismissed when they could have been so much more. For example, with what I guess is a mild spoiler, Jordan goes through some wild mood swings and gets obsessed with solving a particular math equation, but this never amounts to anything and doesn't get followed up on.

      It often seemed to straddle the line between being more middle grade-leaning, with how simple the writing and the characters were, like it wanted to be scary but not full tilt scary so it went the opposite direction into bland. Here's where the comparisons to Miss Peregrine's really hurt this book. While I've never finished reading Miss Peregrine's--I started reading it once, then let a friend borrow it and have just not gotten back around to it--I remember feeling deeply unsettled by just the first few chapters. Despite Asylum's attempts to be scary, it never quite made it there for me. The ending didn't work for me at all -- this is another book that seems to want to go in a paranormal direction but doesn't commit to it the whole way, so we get a rushed ending that never gets fully explained.

      That's a lot of complaints for a book I didn't actually hate. It had its problems, but like I said, it kept me engaged and I never really felt like putting it down and moving on to something else. Unlike other readers, I thought the photographs and interior artwork were intriguing and added to the sinister feel of the story, and I'd be interested to flip through a finished copy, as the ARC doesn't have all of the artwork in it. It's a good rainy day sort of read, something to keep you occupied but not something you're going to think about all that much whenever you're done.
    • 5/5
      A plus! Gave me chills and the narrator did a great job! Jumping to the next one ASAP
    • 5/5
      I really enjoyed it. Interesting and able to listen while driving to and from work . I really enjoyed this series hoping to see what happens next.
    • 3/5
      I was quite excited about this book: the plot and the photographs really appealed to me. It didn't live up to my expectations, though. The plot itself was good and is what kept me reading but the characters were unbelievable, especially when it came to dialogue. The teens just didn't seem real; they bonded within hours, were having blow-ups within days. They acted as if they had all grown-up in the same town together when in fact they had all just met. The dialogue was weak; I didn't believe the teens would talk to each other that way; Jordan was snarky from the get go and the things that came out of police officer's mouths were hilariously unbelievable, in the real world. So this put me off, not caring about any of the characters. However, I did read the book to the end and didn't once think of putting it down as the plot was quite creepy and it isn't too often I come across a real horror story aimed at YA. The horror works, this is not a book for under 14s and the photographs certainly add to the atmosphere. This is a horror that falls into the paranormal subcategory and the ominous atmosphere kept me absorbed. So, to conclude, cheesy dialogue and unbelievable situations put me off but a macabre plot kept me entertained.
    • 2/5
      Sixteen-year-old Dan Crawford is excited to spend his summer taking part in the New Hampshire College Prep program - he'll finally be around people who care about their particular academic interests as much as he does about his.Students in the program will all be staying at the Brookline Dorm, which used to be a psychiatric hospital. Dan and two new friends of his, Abby and Jordan, slip into one of the closed off areas one night and discover abandoned equipment, photographs, old patient files, and more. Dan has always had issues with weird blank spots in his memory, but he suddenly finds the problem getting worse. He has visions of being one of the patients at the hospital, and he feels an odd connection to the hospital's warden. Abby, too, discovers that she has an unexpected connection to this place.It's all just creepy and unsettling, until the murders start. Is one of the students the killer, or is it one of the former patients, somehow back and getting revenge for the horrific things they experienced at the hospital?The best thing about this book is the photographs it's illustrated with, some of which are from actual asylums and some of which are custom creations for this book. They have all the creepy, chilling atmosphere that the book itself unfortunately does not.This was supposed to be a YA novel starring a 16-year-old boy, but it read like stiff Middle Grade starring a younger character, Dan's laser-like focus on Abby notwithstanding. All of the potential creepiness was muted at best. Also, I don't know whether the author intended readers to dislike Dan, but I definitely did. It felt like he became friends with Abby primarily in the hope that she'd date him, and the instant he met Jordan (who Abby had become friends with prior to meeting Dan), he became annoyingly jealous. Dan, Abby, and Jordan were supposedly an inseparable trio of friends at the start of the program, but I doubt Dan would have been half as friendly towards Jordan if Jordan hadn't mentioned that he was gay, and therefore not interested in Abby that way.Overall, this wasn't as good or as creepy as the wonderful cover image had me hoping it'd be. I'm glad I didn't buy the second book along with this first one.(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)
    • 3/5
      Dan Crawford is spending 6 weeks during the summer between his junior and senior years in high school involved in the New Hampshire College Prep Program in history and science. The regular dormitories on campus are being renovated, so the students are staying at Brookline, which is the former psychiatric asylum on campus. Right after Dan arrives, he meets his strange roommate, Felix along with Abby and Jordan who he spends time with. Felix tells Dan of strange pictures he found in the other wing of Brookline and practically dares Dan to go and look. Dan, Jordan, and Abby find the strange pictures along with lots of other documentation left there from when the hospital was still open. Not only are the pictures horrific, but the documentation describes horrible experiments performed on the patients. Abby is drawn to the picture of a girl who has apparently had a lobotomy. After leaving, all three begin to act strangely, and when one of the dorm monitors is murdered, they begin to suspect one another.

      Asylum is a creepy book filled with found photographs from actual insane asylums that are very scary. The author did a good job of incorporating those photographs as part of the background in the story. Although the book is light on character development, the unique story is enough to keep the reader interested. Overall, a creepy tone in a scary story, ending with a bit of a cliffhanger leading into the next book in the series.
    • 3/5
      A friend in Slowly app mentioned this book.
      Until the end, I keep on wondering what's the point of this story.
      It's like spending hours trying to figure out how you got involved in a mess.
      There's more to this story, but I don't want to waste my time in slow-paced books.

      It's still useful in the 2020 PopSugar Reading Challenge: a character with vision impairment/enhancement
    • 2/5
      This book was ok... just ok. I had high hopes for this book given the reviews, but honestly feel very disappointed. The premise behind the book was great: student attending a summer program in an old asylum, but I felt the author did not get to the ‘good stuff’ until the last THREE chapters of the book! I feel that the last three chapters is what made the book, but that isn’t saying much given the book is over 300 pages long! I will read the next books in the series with hopes of not being disappointed, so we shall see!
    • 3/5
      The forboding settings & truly strange photographs helps make this otherwise ho-hum horror/mystery story truly creepy: 16 yr old Dan Crawford shows up for a summer institute at New Hampsire College, and discovers all the summer students will be housed in Brookline, one of the older buildings on their campus, once a mental institute. Requisite side kicks/love interest: artistic and sweet Abby, & her new friend, math enthusiast (gay, of course) Jordan. Besides after hours sneaking around to explore the old offices and basement levels of Brookline, Dan has discovered a photograph of the former director of the mental institute; it haunts him - he's determined to find out more; then he begins receiving cryptic messages from someone. Then throw in his strange roommate Felix, and a murder, then an almost murder: a summer institute college helper found dead in a eerily similar pattern of the once notorious "The Sculpter", a killer once housed at Brookline--- great pick for fans of ghost stories, with a driving question-what is madness? can a murderer or insane person really be cured?
    • 3/5
      writing wasn't that great, but still ended up being a creepy story
    • 4/5
      Dan Crawford is looking forward to a summer at a prestigious Prep School. When he meets Jordan and Abby --esp. Abby!-- it seems it will be a summer of learning, love, and adventure. He soon learns however that their dorm is a former psychiatric hospital. Pictures of patients, doctors, inhumane treatment are coupled with weird messages and sightings. Secrets abound and trouble ensues. Flat pacing and a predictable bad guy ruins a great concept --at least for this reader.
    • 4/5
      Creeptastic!
    • 5/5
      This book was addicting. I just could not put it down once I started reading it.
    • 4/5
      This story is definitely creepy and spooky. With the well written novel accompanied by the ghoulish photos it provides an excellent scary novel. Even though this novel was seriously creepy I didn't want to put it down. I am looking forward to getting my hands on the sequel.
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed this book! I got lots of creepy vibes while reading it. There were a few predictable moments but the big twist I did not see coming.
    • 2/5
      I would be lying if I said it wasn't predictable, especially the ending, but the writing flowed and was enjoyable enough.
    • 3/5
      I read the poor reviews of this book, but as I read it the more I liked it. My thinking was that reluctant readers would like it, especially since there were both strong female and male characters with definite personalities. I was excited for it all to be explained, but felt cheated when it didn't. I would have been good with ending the blow with the creepy note, if the other loose ends had been explained. I realize she left it open god a sequel, but I don't think I'll be going there.
    • 3/5
      The book was nice, I'll give you that. Sure, it has its 'OMG!' moments, but this book makes for almost a light read. I was surprised at myself that I took this quick to finish this book.

      The adventures of the protagonists didn't go as deep as I thought it would, and Brookline's history was not completely revealed either (intentionally or not, I'm not sure). There were a lot of loose ends still surrounding the mystery of the sanitarium that Madeleine has also not covered in this book.

      Also, the climax of the story wasn't really... well, climax-y. It ended a bit too easily and quick if you ask me. However at the end of the book, Madeleine proves that there will be more to come.

      Let's hope that all loose ties will finally come together in her sequel, Sanctum.
    • 4/5
      Pretty quick read. It kept me reading until the end but also slightly predictable.
    • 3/5
      I borrowed this book from the library on a whim. I was looking for an audiobook to listen to while I worked. The story has a lot of promise, but I wasn't blown away by it. I can see where a young teen might be intrigued by or enjoy the story much more than I did. I liked it enough to read the second book in the series though! It's a quick read, so if you're interested, you won't waste your time.
    • 4/5
      This novel, from the very beginning, is a dark, creepy and dramatic book about a young man who lives in a renovated mental hospital and finds that after mysterious circumstances that his dorm has developed a life of its own. Dan Crawford is a typical teenager who spends too much time involved in his studies of science and history but jumps at the opportunity to experience college life at the prestigious New Hampshire College prep program for the summer. He finds that the school was just what he was looking for and immediately starts to make friends with fellow students, Abby and Jordan. One night, they decide to investigate the abandoned basement of their dorm that used to be Brookline's main office and holds case files of the asylum's infamous residents. After their midnight excursion, strange things start to happen with no logical explanation and Dan finds that some secrets should have stayed locked away in Brookline's abandoned rooms.

      Even though it is listed as a YA book it is a good scary, creepy read for any age. Once it gets its hooks in you, you'll feel like you're right there in those dusty corridors. The ending points toward a possible sequel. We can only hope.
    • 4/5
      I liked this book, but I didn't love it. I found it entertaining and the pictures were pretty good. It wasn't too long, but I did feel some parts were too long winded if that makes sense? It's an easy read though and some parts are for sure really creepy and I got goosebumps. I will be continuing this story to see what happens. 4.5 out of 5 stars. I would recommend this book.
    • 4/5
      "Sometimes, Dan, friends have to take a stand and say: Hey, idiot, we're here for you no matter what. We're not going to disappear when you get grumpy or angry. We're in this for the long haul. We're in this for each other."

      A college dorm in a building that used to be an asylum for the insane, including the criminally insane? A group of high school students visiting for 5 weeks of summer school? What could possibly go wrong? Well, the asylum was run by a warden who performed experiments on the patients and when authorities found out, it was shut down. Brookline was a place of much suffering and evil and that has left an impression. From the beginning the kids can feel that something is creepy about the place.

      Dan is there to spend time with other kids who want to learn. He is tired of being a social outcast. He forms a quick friendship with Abby and Jordan; they become sort of like the three musketeers. The three of them can't resist checking out the creepy off-limits office on the first floor of the Brookline dorm. But by going in there, have they opened the door to the truly creepy? The experience is intense and afterwards, Dan begins having visions. What did the three of them get themselves into?

      I don't want to give anything away. This story was great fun to read and it had me on the edge of my seat. It was scary and mysterious. I didn't know what was going on until the very end. And the second I finished it, I downloaded the sequel to my iPad.

      Recommended to:
      Young Adults & Adults who enjoy scary stories with twists and turns.
    • 4/5
      A copy was given to me, free, in exchange for my honest opinion. Creepy as hell! When I finished reading this I still wasn't sure what was going on. And it's not over - not yet. I guess you could say that I was expecting a ghost story; something that was scary and just right for Halloween. I am not sure if I would classify this as a ghost story or a story of possession. Does this tiny detail matter though? No, at least I don't think so. There were some awkward moments. The first one being Felix. But, he was an awkward character to begin with so. . . I guess I should have expected that. The other awkward thing was how quickly the friendship between Jordan, Abby and Daniel came together and then came apart. Yes, the program is only 5 weeks, but still! I guess it was how quickly it came apart that really bothered me. Other than that, I really enjoyed this one. Books that leave with more questions than answers always bother me. While this book was intriguing enough for me to want to get my hands on book 2 as quickly as possible, if I don't get the answers that I need I am not sure if I will continue past book 2. 4 stars ****
    • 4/5
      A teenager travels to a secluded college in New Hampshire to attend a five-week college preparation program. A shy orphan with a mild memory disorder, he is pleased to find himself making friends with two other students, a pretty artist and a gay mathematician. Their friendship is poisoned when the three are subtly led into exploring the closed wing of their dormitory. Their current abode used to be an asylum for the criminally insane. The patients weren't the worst people there, however, for its last warden was a madman who tortured and killed patients while trying to cure them. He was imprisoned, the asylum closed, the patients sent away -- save for one, a serial killer who was never accounted for.The three discover secrets in and under the dormitory / asylum. The gay retreats into himself. The girl becomes obsessed with the photograph of a very young lobotomized girl who may be her aunt. The hero realizes that he may be related to the mad warden. He begins to suffer very frequent memory lapses while being tormented by written notes left in his personal spaces and strange messages sent FROM his phone. Worst of all, a series of attacks in the dorm leads him to suspect that someone is channeling the missing serial killer. He fears that person might be him. He is wrong, It is his relative who is trying to possess him. The killer has possessed someone else, and he is out for revenge on his old tormentor.This book is a mix of genres. It is very effective as a psychological thriller and as a Gothic horror tale. The latter especially is helped by the illustrations, which are custom photographs based in part on former mental patients, their healers, and the terrible equipment use to 'treat' them. Where it falls down a little is as a mystery, which the reader can see halfway through the story and spends the rest of the yarn wondering while the kid can't figure it out.
    • 4/5
      All I know is that I am officially scared of hospitals. The characters were really interesting and I will pick up the next book Sanctum soon.
    • 2/5
      Originally seen on Emily Reads EverythingBook TalkDaniel has been accepted to a prestigious summer college prep program held at a university in New Hampshire. Unfortunately the normal college dorm is closed for renovations. This summer the students are being housed in an older building on campus, that just happens to be an old mental hospital. Daniel and his two new friends must race to figure out what secrets the building holds before someone else gets hurt. This is the first book in a trilogy.ReviewThis book reminded me, and everyone else, of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. Asylum makes use of creepy black and white photographs and hand written notes that just add to the unsettling feeling the author is cultivating. However, unlike Miss Peregrine, this book is not paranormal. Everything that happens is caused by natural means.Asylum is rated YA but I would place it a little younger than that. The characters are still in high school. That doesn't automatically make it appeal to a younger audience but Daniel and his friends were immature. There was a little romance that was sweet, innocent and at odds with the horror theme that the author was going for. Nothing says horror like young love and first kisses. I just didn't connect to this book the way I wanted to. I didn't like the characters. I wasn't scared. When the friends were doing something unwise, at no time did I ever think they were in actual danger.Asylum was a quick read. I finished it in one evening. It seemed like a complete story with all the loose ends were tied up and no cliffhanger, which is odd for a series. I'm not sure where the author is going to go in the next book.Read this book if you like the idea of horror but scare easily.