Review: Asylum (Asylum #1)

Asylum, Book 1 in the Asylum Series by Madeleine Roux

Published By: Harper Teen
Publication Date: August 20, 2013
Date Read: October 26, 2025
Genre: YA – Horror / Thriller
Source: Bought
Format: Paperback
Pages: 311

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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.

“No great mind has ever existed without a touch of madness.”

Asylum is probably the book that has been on my TBR the longest. This has been sat on my TBR for at least 12 years, and there was just something always putting me off starting it. I was absolutely determined that this year would be the year that I finally read it. I’m so happy that I have finally picked this one up however I did end up being a little bit disappointed in this one. I don’t know whether I bigged up how creepy this one was going to be over the years, but it just felt a little bit lackluster for me.

As a Psychology teacher, I was really excited about the whole asylum aspect of this book. One thing I absolutely loved about it is that it was a mixed media book and it had lots of images from real life asylum’s that the author had used to help inspire her story. I actually loved this and found myself spending a lot of time looking at those pictures. I do love that they added a lot to the story. I do however, feel like because we had these images to focus on, the characterisation of our main characters wasn’t quite up to calibre for me. I felt like I didn’t really connect to them so much, and felt like the relationships between them I was being told about them, rather than me feeling these connections. It just didn’t feel ‘real’ to me.

I was really expecting this book to be spooky and creepy. I know it’s a YA novel, but I’ve read some really spooky YA novels in the past that have genuinely chilled me… however this one? There was maybe one or two scenes at the start that I was like ‘ooohhh that’s creepy’ but then it just kind of died of. This may be because of my expectations going in, but I found this was more about the historical elements of Asylum’s and the mystery of what happened there. There was a little bit of a murder mystery going on, but I was just a little disappointed. I really wanted to be creeped out by the ghostly goings on in the asylum, but that just wasn’t there for me. While I really did enjoy the historical elements, I was definitely expecting more from this book. In addition, there were elements that felt very ghostly/paranormal but really were not explained at all. Maybe this is something that would be explored more in future books but it just made me feel like the book wasn’t wrapped up very well.

I am so glad I finally read Asylum, and I did enjoy it and find it entertaining. However, I definitely wouldn’t re-read it, and I’m unsure if I will continue the series. Maybe I’d have enjoyed it a lot more if I had in fact read it when I was younger when I first bought it. I just feel like the cover gives off super creepy ghost vibes, and the inside of the book just didn’t deliver that creepy vibe I was expecting. If you’re a fan of Psychology and the history of mental illness, I would definitely recommend giving this one a go. I feel like the pictures alone make this book worth a read. Just don’t go in expecting super creepy haunting vibes as that is not what you will get with this one.

“Insanity is relative. It depends on who has who locked in what cage.”