Book Review
Title: Asylum Archives Case Study Vol.2: True Accounts From The Insane
Author: Jaron Briggs, Richard Dutcher, Jenni St. Giles
Genre: Crime/Thriller/Psychological
Rating: *****
Review: I read the first book in this series in less than 30 minutes so I had to jump straight into the second book, and I will be following the same review format as I will review each story individually as they don’t tie together.
The first story is Borderline by Richard Dutcher which follows David as he awakes one morning to find his wife Andrea has committed suicide. We learn that Andrea had Borderline Personality Disorder and that in the time they had been together, she had made herself so dependent on him that he couldn’t leave her even if he wanted to. After her death he was freed from that and began to rebuild his life and start a new relationship with Jessica who he began to fall in love with, but he is plagued by Andrea’s voice, the image of her corpse and horrible nightmares. Pretty soon Andrea possesses Jessica’s body and kills David so they can be together forever, even in death as he can’t leave the home binding him to her forever. This was a brilliant story to open on and it explored how someone’s madness can infect other people and change them without them even realising.
The Dead Rise by Jenni St. Giles follows three siblings all gifted with psychic abilities, Eva is a police office who has visions like her brother Devin, but their sister Iris has had her mind hijacked by a serial killer and he is getting stronger. Eva knows there is a connection between the killer and the old asylum but there is a real possibility that the killer is dead, so they decide to contact their aunt for help. In addition to all this Devin has seen a vision of Adam, Eva’s sort of boyfriend dying to save her, and she also wants to prevent that from happening. Eva follows her visions to try and uncover who the killer is and stop them before their visions come true which she is able to do and she is able to keep Adam alive as well but the ending is very dark as we learn through Iris that even though the killer is dead, he is gone for long and will be back to raise some more hell in the future. The Dead Rise reminded me of the Dead Zone and would be amazing as a full-length psychological thriller.
The final story is Bounce by Jaron Briggs belongs to Richard who is being held in an asylum after supposedly murdering his wife and 4 others including a police office and a child. However, we get flashbacks to the past where Richard and his wife complain to their neighbour about someone using their trampoline at 4 a.m. and when they go out to investigate there seems to be something invisible on the trampoline. After finding the neighbour’s dog had been butchered, they call the police who investigate, and they see a huge creature there which attacks them. In the present, Richard has his attorney looking into it before she is killed in a car accident and even seeing the autopsy report, he knows his wife is alive, but he is being set up. The story ends with Richard still in the asylum with no way out, but we know he is innocent for the flashbacks. The ending of this story was dark and bleak and would also be amazing a full length novel.
I loved both instalments of the Asylum Archives and there is apparently another instalment coming which I will be picking up as soon as it becomes available. I highly recommend this series along with the Dr. Harper Therapy files as they are short and can be read quickly but they are extremely dark and gripping.
Buy it here:
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Also see: Asylum Archives Volume 1
Comentários