Book Review
Title: Asylum Archives Case Study Vol.1: True Accounts From The Insane
Author: Jaron Briggs, Richard Dutcher, David Farland
Genre: Crime/Thriller/Psychological
Rating: *****
Review: This book was suggested to me after I finished the Dr. Harper Therapy series which I loved, and it sounded interesting as all the short stories are based of real asylum cases. Like the I’m a Therapist series I will talk about each of the stories individually and if they connect together, I will also discuss that towards the end of the review.
The first story is The Dead Inside by Richard Dutcher, it follows twelve year old Eric as his grandfather dies on his 12th birthday and he knew about it because he had seen it in a dream a few nights before. After his grandfather’s death, his mother’s boyfriend Randell seems to be forcing his way into the hole Eric’s grandfather left and he doesn’t like it. Eric doesn’t like Randell as he is abusive towards his mother and makes some sexual advances towards Eric and his younger brother, Matthew. That night he opens the present his grandfather had got for him to be greeted with a hunting knife although he doesn’t know why his grandfather gave him that. By the time the funeral and wake are over, Eric has accepted his grandfather is gone for good, but he meets his ghost one night on the porch while smoking one of his grandfather’s pipes. His grandfather explains that he is going to have to do something soon to protect his family, but it will set him apart from them forever. That night he sneaks into his mother’s room and threatens to cut Randell’s throat with the knife his grandfather had given him, and scared Randell leaves never to return. The story ends with Eric smoking a pipe on their porch and his mother watches in silence. There is a really unsettling tone around this story but nothing beyond the realm of what could happen in real life and it was a great start to this novel.
The second story is Folie a Deux by Jaron Briggs was a brilliant story as it follow a demonic cat. We first meet the cat when Harold has a car accident due to driving drunk. The cat knows things like when people are going to die but there is more to it than that. The cat explains to Harold that he is going to lose his leg and that he needs to keep it, advising him every step of the way on what to do. Two months later, the cat is returned to Harold and the cat explains that Harold needs to eat his leg in order to regain the vitality he lost and to make himself whole again and he does. However, the chef he employed ate some of the “meat” and stole the vitality and the cat tells Harold he needs to kill the chef and while he tries Harold is killed and the chef is trapped beneath the fridge and the cycle begins again. It seems that the cat feeds off violence moving from person to person after they have died. I loved this story more than the first due to its paranormal element and I can’t wait to see what the final story has in store for me. I also appreciate the irony of the title as folie a deux means a madness shared by two which is central to the story.
The final story is Death Toll by David Farland belongs to Darcy and her daughter, Kat as they witness their neighbour commit suicide and die despite Kat’s efforts to save him. Afterwards, they try to provide comfort to the family he left behind but they don’t seem to want it and they soon learn that the eldest son has also committed suicide before the family move away for good. The teen, Sonny, used to be a close friend of Kat’s and even asked her to marry him when they were children and these memories begin to plague Kat, causing her shrink from the world and withdraw into herself worrying her mother. One day Darcy meets a mysterious man in her shop buying a rose for a young girl who turns out to be her daughter. That night Kat tells her the neighbour is taking her somewhere where she can transcend the pain of this life for another one and asks for her mother to let her go and Darcy agrees if she can come too. In the early hours, the three stand on the bridge where their neighbour died, and Darcy watches her daughter commit suicide and seemingly transform into a bird before flying off as she prepares to take her own leap. However, there are hints that Kat actually died trying to save their neighbour and the rest of the story has been Darcy’s mind unravelling after the loss of her child, but it is left to you to decide which version is the truth.
These stories aren’t connected like the case files in the I’m a Therapist series which made them a lot quicker to read and each was wonderful in its own way. My personal favourite would have to be Eric’s story because it was so realistic that it completely pulled you in, but I also loved Folie a Deux. I would highly recommend this novel and I can’t wait to get into Volume 2 as soon as I can.
Buy it here:
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
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