Wassaaaaaap boys! Here's your friend Sebas once again writing for you insatiable reading monsters, this time around presenting you the amazing book *enter drumrolls* Asylum! I have to say, from the little time I have from knowing this book it has become one of my favorites, now, you may ask the why of this happening, and the answer resides on how the writer narrates the story, it's scary in all the right places and, for lightening the mood and avoiding what happened to Batman v Superman, it also adds a touch of comedy, not so much that the story starts seeming bizarre but enough to give the characters some humanity, of course, it has an infinite number of other points in its favor, for instance, there are the characters personalities, wich are really interesting, my favorite being, the one that was explored the most, of course, Dan Crawford, the main character, or putting aside the characters, there's the story, wich I'll help you illustrate by leaving somewhere here the synopsis:
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.
And as you just read from the synopsis, the whole story goes around Dan's life during his high school vacation, sort of, is not really a vacation since he is, and let me add the capital letters here, WILLINGLY returning to classes on SUMMER, I mean, that's crazy right? at least I wouldn't do it, but we're not talking about me, as I was saying, is during this summer in which Dan meets the two friends that are going to make him some company during this scary adventure filled with suspense, mystery, twists and pure awesomeness. Then, after some pages dedicated to the introduction of the characters it all goes to hell, just the moment Dan and his friends discover their dorm used to be an Asylum, one that held one of the sickest and most depraved doctors ever, one that tortured his patients for “scientific research" reasons, and is this discovery the one that drives our sweet and lovely Dan mad, and by that I don't mean he gets angry but rather crazy, like really unstable, he starts acting strange around his friends, he's getting this visions from the past, really Charlie from "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" style, you know, the usual. Of course, having a crazy friend would worry the hell out of anyone, so Abby and Jordan get worried about Dan while he's having visions of a doctor torturing a poor criminal psycho as much as you can possibly imagine. All of that, plus the danger of a murderer who has been targeting students from the same dorm our sweet Dan sleeps, there you got your movie, oh wait, there is no movie. Why the hell hasn't anyone made a movie out of this book?!! It would be freaking awesome.
Now, let us talk about the characters, oh the sweet n' lovely characters. In my opinion the characters personalities are as explored as the writer intended them to be, which is not much, but that's a good thing, given that Dan is somewhat an introvert and that's exactly how an introvert would see the world, I can tell that by experience, knowing everything about themselves and their friends, but caring less than a goddamn pickle about everyone else, and that's exactly what you see in the book, If that was what Madelaine was going for, I praise her cause she got it, if that wasn't the intention then I must say I'm a little disappointed because the only characters she gave any actual development are the main ones, Dan, Abby, and Jordan, leaving everybody else as a walking stereotype with it's few exceptions of course, but then again, I don't think that's the case. Talking abut their appearance, and I'm only leaving this here cause I have wanted to get this out of my chest for a while now, I have always pictured this three guys as the same three guys from "The Perks of Being a Wallflower", you know, Emma Stone as Abby, Ezra Miller as Jordan and Logan Lerman as Charl... ahem, Daniel, Dan, Crawford, Dan Crawford, who said Charlie?
I mean their perfect, they not only fit into their characters look, at least in my head, but also into their description, hear me out: there's Dan, the protagonist, shy, not too many friends, until he meets Abby, a girl with who he instantly falls in love with, and her gay super friend Jordan, what the shit? they are the same characters!
The both protagonists even have that same crazy thing with the visions, wait a minute, these are too many coincidences, did Madeleine Roux just ripped off the characters from "The Perks of Being a Wallflower"?
From left to right: Barry Allen, Hermione Granger and Percy Jackson
Rating: 4/5
*the only reason I didn't give it the 5 stars is because of uncertainty regarding the characters personalities, bye bye