Book Review -Sanctum (Asylum #2)

Book: Sanctum by Madeleine Roux (Asylum #2)

Genre: mystery fiction, horror, paranormal, YA

Warning: Possible spoilers ahead.

I was expecting way too much from this book because the first one left me with some questions that I want some answers. If you are interested to know my thoughts in regards to the first book of this series, here is the book review : Asylum (Asylum #1)

If the first book gave me this whole AHS: Asylum vibes, this one gave me the AHS: Freak Show vibes, and I am honestly hoping for something as messed up as that said show. Before I continue, this is what the book is about:

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. (Goodreads)

Now, if you guys don’t know, this book (and the first one) incorporates photos in majority of its chapters. I guess the main purpose of those photos is to add creepiness to the story. The photos in the first book worked a bit but on this one? Not so much. The first few photos where effective given that it has something to do with what will happen with the story. It actually made me look forward to what will happen. Sadly, the story started to bore me. Also I started to hate the photos included. This is maybe because I am comparing the photos to the macabre stuff that I saw back when I was researching about human oddities.

Putting the photos aside. Let me talk about the actual story. At the beginning of this post, I said that I was expecting too much from this second book given the fact that the first one left me with more questions than actual answers. Good thing thid book answered majority of those questions. The phasing in the beginning is good but it halted after around the first five chapters. The story started to pick up its phase again around chapter eleven, when Dan started to hallucinate. The ball kept rolling to that point. Sadly, despite being labeled as horror, I didn’t feel it. The only twisted thing I like in this story is the warden’s childhood. It is creepy to read those monstrous thoughts in a kid’s journal.

Now, do I recommend this? Honestly, yes and no. Yes, if you managed to finish the first one and you want some answers. No. If you DNF the first, please don’t try and finish it just because you thought the second book is interesting. I honestly, almost DNF this because for me it was boring. The only saving grace I had was Jordan and his wittiness. After reading this, I just went straight to writing this review then I decided to continue reading A Feast for Crows.

That is it for now. I didn’t expect this to be a long one, so thank you if you are still reading this. I want to know, did you read this book? What do you think of it? Please let me know!

Have a great day guys and as always, I’ll talk to you on my next blog.

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