I don’t know what to think about The Asylum by Karen Coles and published by Welbeck. The blurb sold it to me. Maud has been imprisoned in Angelton Lunatic Asylum for 5 years. A new doctor shows up, bringing with him a new practise of hypnosis. He uses this on Maud and gains her trust by giving her a notebook and a pencil. The methods of hypnosis and journaling seem to be peeling back the layers of Maud’s past, the reasons for the why that lie behind her ‘traumatic amnesia’

Nothing feels real and the story has a jagged, disconnected feel to it. I liked in the flashbacks to Maud’s past, and in the present, her character is very distinct in the two and you are aware of the differences between her younger and present self. The characters in The Asylum have dubious motives and there is not one you feel that you can trust, a shadow seems to loom over the story. You get sucked into it. I also liked the theme of the marsh, flowers and nature in The Asylum.

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