Asylum

Asylum by Kristen Selleck

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This was a really creepy read. I wish that I had saved this one for Halloween becuase its such a great ghost story.

Sam and Chloe end up as roommates in college. Both are trying to leave behind bad experiences in highshool and at home but are dealing with their problems very differently. Chloe had issues with mental illness while in high school and is trying to move forward and leave it behind. However, she discovers that the college dorm was built to be a mental hospital before the school was founded. School begins pretty normally with college freshmen doing as most do alot of drinking and partying and foolish dares. Sam and Chloe were dared to take a Ouija board to the bell tower and thats where the ghost was first contacted. Things tend to take a turn for the weird at this point. Alot of strange things start happening like writing appearing on the walls and lights turning on and off. Chloe's new boyfriend, Seth, doesn't believe in the paranormal and tries to explain it all away til he's forced to see what is really going on.

As with anything, there were things that I liked and didn't like about this book. It was definitely a fun easy read. It was a eerie ghost story with a dash of romance thrown in. The characters themselves were not all that strong, however. I kept expecting them to run away screaming and not look back. Chloe was the weakest of the three and there were times you just wanted her to open her eyes and not be so down on herself. Sam was also quite a mess. She drank way too much and thought the worst in everybody, especially men. So this story didn't start out with a strong female character, altho I guess that's not a requirement for a good book. But toward the end Chloe did get a bit stronger and started to see what life is really about.

You really learn alot about the treatment of mental illness today as well as throughout history. The author did a really good job of weaving a ghost story around this as well. This really added to the creepiness of the story as we hear about the tortures that took place in the old asylums.

Overall, I did really enjoy the book. The editing did need some work, I found alot of spelling error and one spot a name was completely different from what it should have been. But these errors didn't really take away from the story. The ending was a bit on the hollywood side. It seemed a bit out of place from the rest of the story and more like what you might see in a movie. However, even with a Hollywood ending I am still curious to see how this will continue in the next book. I will definitely continue this series, at least for now.



View all my reviews