Asylum

August 26, 2013
Horror author Roux makes a strong YA debut with this creepy tale of a haunted asylum and the teenagers who are drawn to it. When Dan Crawford attends a summer program at New Hampshire College, he ends up housed in Brookline, a former asylum now being turned into a dorm. Along with fellow students Abby and Jordan, he starts exploring the basement of the dorm, where (conveniently) old records are stored. As they investigate, the students are plagued by horrifying dreams, and Dan starts to have blackouts, discovering strange unsent texts and emails and learning about conversations that he doesn't remember. Students are being attacked in the dorms, and as Dan begins to unravel his own ties to the asylum, he wonders if he might be responsible for the crimes. Roux (aided by unsettling photo illustrations of abandoned asylums and tormented patients) creates an entertaining and occasionally brutal horror story that reveals the enduring impact of buried trauma and terror on a place. Open questions at the end invite a sequel, though there's also a good sense of closure. Ages 14âup. Agent: Kate McKean, Howard Morhaim Literary Agency.

February 1, 2014

Gr 9 Up-Dan is thrilled to be spending the summer before his senior year at the New Hampshire College Prep program, where he'll have a chance to meet other studious teenagers. He doesn't mind that his dorm, Brookline, was once an asylum for the criminally insane. In fact, Dan is curious about the institution's history and begins exploring Brookline's old passageways at night. At first, Dan and his best friends at NHCP, Abby and Jordan, think it's fun to sneak around in the dark and look at old patient records, but soon the things they find begin to frighten them. Dan starts receiving ominous notes, and he is plagued by nightmares in which he sees Brookline as if he were really there, all those years ago. When people start dying, Dan is convinced that the killer's identity is buried in his dorm's darkest history and that his own strange connection to the institution may be the key to stopping the murders. Eerie black-and-white pictures throughout the book add to the creep factor of this story, but unfortunately many images are redundant photographs of Dan's notes, while others seem unrelated to the text. The plot drives forward too quickly, with some circumstances and events feeling forced. Dan meets Abby and Jordan on his first day, for instance, and within hours they carry on with the rapport of lifelong friends. Mystery lovers will be disappointed with the lack of answers and explanations here. Hand this one to horror fans who don't mind a few loose ends.-Liz Overberg, Darlington School, Rome, GA

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 15, 2013
Roux's first teen novel uses horror staples--spooky corridors, tight-lipped townspeople and convenient coincidences--to predictable but page-turning effect. New Hampshire College Prep is a haven for gifted students: a place where kids actually want to do their homework. Its Brookline dorm is also a former psychiatric hospital whose past remains prominent not only in town, but in its own abandoned wings. Dan, anxious and awkward, is fascinated by its most infamous inpatient: a serial killer dubbed the Sculptor. His classmates have their own troubles; Abby struggles with family tensions, and Jordan's parents reject his sexuality. When they find old patient records and receive ghostly emails, they begin an investigation that ends in murder. The mock photo illustrations are eerie and occasionally disturbing, depicting the callous treatment methods of Brookline's time. A hollow-eyed, scarred child begs for her own story, as do notes from a surgeon convinced he can eradicate insanity. In contrast, the teens' back stories are more plot devices and heavy foreshadowing than character development, but their friendship is convincingly volatile. Real and ghostly elements mix clumsily and muddle the ending somewhat, but the pictures linger--a tighter focus on the photos' subjects could have made a truly haunting story. Fans of "found footage" horror will enjoy this familiar but visually creepy take on the haunted-institution setting. (Suspense. 14-18)

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September 1, 2013
Grades 7-10 Sixteen-year-old Dan Crawford is thrilled to be attending the summer program for gifted students at New Hampshire College, but he's shocked to find that he's been housed in a dorm that was formerly an asylum for the criminally insane. Although Dan's roommate is a bit odd, he makes good friends with attractive, spunky Abby and acerbic Jordan, and together the three investigate things that clearly should be left alone, including the forbidden areas of the building, to which Dan finds himself irresistibly drawn. Roux's cinematic story includes genuinely creepy black-and-white found photographs of decaying abandoned asylums as well as unsettling drawings and altered photographs. The plentiful illustrations both advance the story line and immeasurably contribute to the spooky atmosphere. With its abundant jump scares, horror readers and fans of the TV show American Horror Story will delight in the fast-paced (if predictable) plot. Although it feels a little forced, the diversity among the characters (Asian, Latina, gay, rich, poor, rural, and urban) is a nice touch. Short sentences and many cliff-hangers will appeal to reluctant readers.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)