To be honest, I don't usually read horror fiction. Mostly because my imagination is really fertile which sometimes leads to rather horrifying nightmares and sleepless nights because of it.
So me, reading this book, came somewhat as a surprise. I did have a nasty feeling that it was going to be chilling and creepy, just by looking at the cover, and I'm not quite sure what compelled me to read this today (and finish it all at one shot) but perhaps sheer and utter boredom.
Or that I was waiting to get Breaking Bad Season 4.
Anyhoo. What can I say about this book? That it's about 300 pages on an iPad and I finished it all in one day across the span of... hmm... 3 hours. Even my boyfriend was shocked when I told him that. To save me the agony and mental brainfreeze of needing to rehash what I thought about this book, allow me to copy and paste my review on Goodreads.
The title is creepy and the illustrations that followed it, creepier still. Normally I don't read horror fiction and not quite too sure that only boredom would compel me to do things I normally don't.
Of course, I usually start off reading books with very low expectations. Especially from authors I'm not familiar with. I have to say that Asylum was an interesting piece. In my brain there were parts that seemed as if they were a little haphazardly fleshed out. Rushed here and there with sudden leaps from one scene to another, but that could just be me. The chill was quite real and I felt my hair stand at some parts. Where the flow is concerned, I would say it was pretty decent and had a nice build-up. I did wish that there was more research that went into the depth and foray of exploring the history and background of the Asylum and the lead's connection to it. Sure enough that bits of it filtered out at the end like slow-drip coffee but there were still so much questions that I wish were answered. I don't believe there's a sequel to this book and perhaps if it was longer and allowed for a greater exploration into the connections and histories of the different characters, I would have been happy. At some parts, I did think that the sudden appearance of different characters seemed too convenient, as if just thrown in for the sake of ending off the book.
I do have to applaud Roux for writing a compellingly chilling horror fiction that even got me writing this review (why bother writing reviews on something that isn't worth it eh?).
Now to read the others.
If horror fiction with twists (although I do believe that most if not all books have twists) are something you dig, try reading this. Could be finished in a day or two. I'm sorry I'm a fast reader but it means something when I do finish the book in one seating. Because it means that despite some of its shortcomings, it was still riveting enough to catch my otherwise flighty attention.
This means I keep quiet and don't bug my boyfriend whilst he's online and busy with stuff.
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