Asylum is not only a novel about supernatural occurrences, but also that of friendship and overcoming difficult obstacles. From the beginning of the novel, I was drawn in by how much I was able to relate to the main character, Daniel Crawford. Dan is portrayed as an outsider who has different interests from any of the other kids at his school, which I can relate to. When he first makes it to Brookline via taxi, he notices another student carrying a stack of worn comic books in his arms and thinks to himself, “My People”. I was also able to connect with Dan when he admits that he doesn’t like to take risks and is cautious. I often found it easy to care for the characters of the book as if I knew them. The book often draws the reader in, making …show more content…
Madeleine Roux described everything in the book to her fullest ability, making the scenes of the book come to life in my mind. For example, when Abby is taunting Dan she, “lifted her fingertips and danced them across the air, making an exaggerated booOOOOoooo noise.” The photographs of the novel also help to add to the eerie images portrayed throughout the novel. I was also intrigued by the fact that some photographs featured are from actual asylums. The author does a great job describing past torture methods used on those in asylums, making the book somewhat educational as well. For example, Jordan (friend of Abby and Dan) describes his dream which he’s inside of a cell with doctors dressed in all white looking at him without faces, but with voices and tools. They showed him pictures and then shocked him over and over again, at the same time hearing his parents voices saying, “He’ll be better now. He has to get better now”. Dan remembers that his Professor had once taught his class that they used to administer electroshock therapy to homosexuals in order to “cure” them. Coincidentally, Jordan was homosexual and has talked about his parents objecting him for