Book Review: Asylum by Madeleine Roux

Title: Asylum

Author: Madeleine Roux

Publisher: HarperTeen

Publication Date: August 20, 2013

Length: 310 Pages

Buy Asylum: Amazon | Barnes and Noble | The Book Depository

Asylum is a thrilling and creepy photo-novel perfect for fans of the New York Times bestseller Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.
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 Review

Looking for something dark and creepy enough to make your skin crawl for Halloween, then Asylum is the book for you. Creepy photos to add to the atmosphere of the book also accompany the story. As an ARC, I did not get to see all the photos but the ones I did fit perfectly into the story. Asylum is defiantly not a book to read alone in the dark. 

Dan is excited to attend the prestigious New Hampshire College Prep program. When he makes new friends, Abby and Jordan, he feels like NHCP could not get better. Students are staying in former Asylum converted into dorms for the college program. The three friends sneak into the old office and remaining closed off sections of the old Asylum. They come across old documents and when stuff starts happening Dan is convinced someone is coming after him. 

Madeleine Roux creates such an atmosphere in Asylum, I found myself covering up with blankets to cover my goose bumps while I read. Dan is trying to understand what happened at Asylum and why it is linked to what is happening now. As he delves further into the mystery the less, he seems to know about the Asylum and himself. 

I know that Asylum is constantly compared to Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, but since I have not had the chance to enjoy Miss Peregrine’s. I have nothing to compare it too. I know that if you like to read something not outright horror but something that starts unnerving and quickly builds to a nerve-racking creep, then Asylum is the book for you. 

**Unabridged Bookshelf received this book from the publisher, in exchange for an honest review**

Thank you for visiting Unabridged Bookshelf!