Words I Write Crazy: Week 34 Reviews: Escape from Asylum, Asylum, The Scarlets, Sanctum, The Bone Artists, Catacomb, The Warden, The Asylum Novellas

Saturday, August 25, 2018

Week 34 Reviews: Escape from Asylum, Asylum, The Scarlets, Sanctum, The Bone Artists, Catacomb, The Warden, The Asylum Novellas

From Goodreads:
In this prequel to the New York Times bestselling Asylum series, complete with spooky found photographs, a young teen is wrongfully committed to the Brookline asylum and must escape before becoming one of the evil Warden's experiments.

Long before Dan, Abby, and Jordan ever walked the hallways of the Brookline asylum—back when it was still a psych ward and not a dorm—sixteen-year-old Rick Desmond was wrongfully committed, against his will.

In this prequel novel set many years before the events of Asylum, Rick finds himself trapped in the asylum at the height of the sinister warden Crawford's regime. As Rick learns more about the shocking treatments—and experiments—that are happening at Brookline, he realizes he needs to get out before he is "cured" forever. With the help of a sympathetic nurse, Rick must plan his escape from the inhumane hospital, and soon. Because either Rick is actually starting to go mad, or else the asylum is haunted by much more than dark memories...

From Goodreads:
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.

From Goodreads:
When Dan and his friends meet Cal in Sanctum their impression of the privileged New Hampshire College student is less than stellar. But Cal wasn't always the cold, sarcastic guy he is now. In this digital original story preceding the events of Sanctum, we meet Cal when he is experiencing college like any other kid with a group of close friends and a dad who piles on the pressure. Only, when the pressure starts getting to him and Cal accepts an invitation to meet a selective group of students and alumni known only as the Scarlets, the course of Cal's life changes forever. And the price of joining the Scarlets might be higher than he can pay.

With plenty of twists, turns, and thrills, The Scarlets is an exhilarating installment in the Asylum series that can stand on its own for new readers or provide a missing piece of the puzzle for series fans.

From Goodreads:
In this haunting, fast-paced sequel to the New York Times bestselling photo-illustrated novel Asylum, three teens must unlock some long-buried secrets from the past before the past comes back to get them first. Featuring found photographs, many from real vintage carnivals, Sanctum is a mind-bending reading experience that blurs the lines between past and present, genius and insanity, perfect for fans of the smash hit Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.

Dan, Abby, and Jordan remain traumatized by the summer they shared in the Brookline asylum. Much as they'd love to move on, someone is determined to keep the terror alive, sending the teens photos of an old-timey carnival, with no note and no name. Forsaking their plan never to go back, the teens return to New Hampshire College under the guise of a weekend for prospective students, and there they realize that the carnival from the photos is not only real, it's here on campus, apparently for the first time in many years.

Sneaking away from sample classes and college parties, Dan and his friends lead a tour of their own—one through the abandoned houses and hidden places of the surrounding town. Camford is hiding a terrible past, and the influence of the asylum runs deeper than Dan ever imagined.

From Goodreads:
In this bone-chilling digital original story set in the world of Madeleine Roux's New York Times bestselling novel Asylum, a Louisiana teen tries to make tuition money working for a sinister organization but finds that leaving comes at a terrible cost.

When Dan, Abby, and Jordan meet Oliver in Catacomb―the third book in the Asylum series―he is a mysterious young antiques dealer with a dark past. But before he was stuck in America's most haunted city, he was a teenager with a bright future ahead of him. In this story, we find Oliver saving up to attend his dream college in the fall and leave behind his family's New Orleans antique shop for good. And if his job just happens to involve robbing graves for a group calling themselves the Bone Artists, well—money is money, and it's only for now. But Oliver soon learns that the Bone Artists don't take kindly to deserters. And there are some debts that can never be repaid.

With a mounting sense of dread that builds to a terrible end, The Bone Artists is a thrilling installment in the Asylum series that can stand on its own for new readers or provide a missing piece of the puzzle for series fans.

From Goodreads:
Sometimes the past is better off buried.

Senior year is finally over. After all they've been through, Dan, Abby, and Jordan are excited to take one last road trip together, and they're just not going to think about what will happen when the summer ends. But on their way to visit Jordan's uncle in New Orleans, the three friends notice that a black muscle car appears to be following them. And Dan starts receiving phone messages from someone he didn't expect to hear from again—someone who died last Halloween.

As the strange occurrences escalate, Dan is forced to accept that everything that has happened to him in the past year may not be a coincidence, but fate—a fate that ties Dan to a group called the Bone Artists, who have a sinister fascination with notorious killers of the past. Now, Dan's only hope is that he will make it out of his senior trip alive.

In this third book in the New York Times bestselling Asylum series, found photographs help tell the story of three teens who exist on the line between past and present, genius and insanity.

From Goodreads:
In this thrilling and creepy digital original story set in the world of Madeleine Roux's New York Times bestselling novel Asylum, a young nurse starts work at the Brookline asylum—and quickly discovers that there's more to its sinister warden than meets the eye.

When Jocelyn and her best friend, Madge, arrive at the gates of Brookline sanatorium—fresh out of nursing school—they are eager and excited to start their new careers. But from their very first meeting with Brookline's austere warden, they can tell their new boss will be . . . difficult. Then Jocelyn wakes up in her room one night to the sound of screaming, and she starts to wonder if the treatments in this asylum are entirely humane. But the warden has his eye on Jocelyn—and the treatment of patients should be the least of her concerns.

With page-turning chills and a shocking final twist, The Warden is a short and terrifying installment in the Asylum series that can stand on its own for new readers or provide a missing piece of the puzzle for series fans.

From Goodreads:
Three teens are pushed to the edge of their sanity in these chilling novellas set in the world of the New York Times bestselling Asylum series, featuring terrifying found photographs and a sneak peek at a new prequel novel, Escape from Asylum.

Before Dan, Abby, and Jordan ever stepped foot inside the Brookline asylum, its legacy of terror stretched far and deep. Enter the twisted world of the New York Times bestselling Asylum series with these three spine-tingling novellas starring supporting characters from the novels, available in a print bind-up for the first time.

In The Scarlets, Cal is drawn into New Hampshire College's twisted secret society—one with a deadly initiation.

In The Bone Artists, Oliver tries to make a little extra money for college by working for a seedy organization that traffics in human bones.

In The Warden, a young nurse starts a new job at the Brookline asylum, but soon becomes suspicious of its unorthodox procedures.…

Be careful where you go digging in history. Sometimes the past is better off buried.

This edition also includes a bonus sneak peek at Escape from Asylum, a prequel to the mind-bending novel that started it all.

My Review:
I really enjoyed reading this series! It was dark and creepy, and really enjoyable to read! Chilling is a good word for this series, this is mystery/horror, and yeah, there were some pretty intense moments! I mean, an asylum that was run by a pretty evil dude, and being related to that dude? Creepy!

The first two present day books dealt with the asylum, and then the final book dealt with the mysterious group in New Orleans that was mentioned in Sanctum. It was a really great, we got to deal with one bad guy, and then there was the kinda connected bad guy who was connected.

There was a thing or two that confused me. In The Bone Artists, there's nothing about the whole, the bad group want to take out his family. So it felt like there was a disconnect between the short story and Catacomb.

Another was the whole idea of punishment of those that had harmed them, the mentality of the New Orleans group. It's like, you did wrong, and now it's coming back on you, you awful people! But that made it more awesome to have them taken down!

Finally there was the rescue Dan had in Catacomb after he had his finger taken. I don't know if I read it too quickly or the details were a little murky, but I had thought that the bad guys had dropped him off, not that he'd been rescued, until he was talking with his mom. Yeah.

This series was so great, and I enjoyed reading it so much!

Author: Madeleine Roux
Series: Asylum #0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5
Read: August 23rd, 23rd, 23rd, 24th, 24th, 24th, 24th, 24th, 2018
Source: Edelweiss, Own
Reason Why: Sounded really great! And they're Prequel & Sequel Challenge 2018 Books! And Escape from Asylum is a Historical Fiction 2018 Book and a WoW Book!
Publisher: HarperCollins, Epic Reads Impulse
Published: June 14th 2016, August 20th 2013, August 5th 2014, August 26th 2014, August 4th 2015, September 1st 2015, February 2nd 2016, February 2nd 2016

Escape from Asylum: