‘Asylum’ by Sarah Hans: review

★★★

A horror novella featuring a run-down asylum, and a gang of squatters and petty lawbreakers. The start of the book was just like any other book, but once Ashleigh and her friends find themselves on the run and discover refuge in an abandoned asylum at the top of the mountain in their own town, the horror elements start appearing. Truthfully, I expected there to be more horror however the unsettling sense of foreboding and suspense in general compensated for this.

The characters and the dynamics between them were nothing too special; they didn’t add that much to the novella. The descriptions and setting were vividly depicted: the mystery around the abnormal number of cats in the derelict asylum was convincing and made me want to read on. Things pick up rapid pace when the squatters are picked off one by one, and it suddenly becomes a matter of survival at the place they thought would protect them from the law.

A quote from this novella:

• This was no way to enter their new home. It felt wrong and her flesh crawled as if in warning. She was too late, though. Connor had already breached the asylum’s skin, and the others were following him.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a review copy of this novel.