I'm giving this book two stars because it certainly wasn't a bad book. But it also did absolutely nothing for me. For a book that's marketed to look like it's creepy and horrifying, I guess I didn't find it to be either. Then again, I am not the target audience, and I have read some truly scathing books in the adult genres that quite honestly put this book to shame. But maybe that was never this book's intent. YA books are not meant to have the kind of horror and suspense that keeps you up all night because you're afraid of the shadows. But part of me wonders if maybe the author could have added a little more heavily to the atmosphere. Either way, I felt more or less nothing while listening to this book, and I don't think it had anything to do with the narrator either.

Here's the thing. Asylum was a book that I desperately wanted to read back when it first came out. I remember going to my local Hastings, perusing the YA section, landing my eyes on this iconic cover more times than I can count. Even back then, as a young teenager, I was absolutely riveted by talk of asylums, psychology, and mental health. Explains why I ultimately took the career path that I did. So naturally, I wanted to read this. The premise sounded excellent to my teenage ears. And even as an adult, the premise didn't sound bad. It could make for a harrowing story. But alas, young me never did get to read this book, probably because I prioritized buying so many other things on those rare occasions where I had money to spend. And I guess I never much used the library, nor do I think they had much of a YA selection at the time anyway. I feel like YA has come a long way since then, at least insofar as popularity and accessibility goes.

Anyway, fast forward to almost a full decade later, and I guess adult me still wanted to give it a try, even though I have repeatedly told myself, "YA just doesn't do it for you. Stop reading it." But then I read a different YA book a few weeks prior to this and I got it in my head that, "Not all YA is bad." Which is true. I'm just not the targeted audience, so I tend to find more flaws in those books, or I at least have a significant lack of interest for the tropes they explore. And I don't really know why a newer YA book got me in the mindset to read an older YA book, but I guess it did. I just so happened to come across it accidentally on Hoopla, and decided, "Why the hell not?" It was spooky season, and I was in a slump, and it seemed...easy. Plus, I occasionally get this whack idea to read the YA books that were popular when I was a teen (think Hush Hush, Beautiful Creatures, Fallen, Vampire Academy, etc). And while I don't usually act on the impulse (I tend to realize, almost too late, that I'm chasing after this unattainable feeling of nostalgia and that, in all reality, I didn't actually like these books back then when I WAS the target audience either), this time I caved. I wanted to give my younger self the chance to explore the book she coveted for I don't even know how long. So I did.

And then I put it on hold. And then I put it on hold again. And then I almost put it on hold a third time, only to realize that there was no reason to continue because I wasn't getting the impression that I'd ever continue with the series because THIS particular book just wasn't doing anything for me. Don't get me wrong, it reminded me a lot of YA fiction circa the late 2000s/early 2010s. The tropes were all so familiar to me. But instead of finding some perverse enjoyment in that, and instead of rolling my eyes, I just felt...nothing. I didn't really care about the story or the characters. So little of it was believable. There were good things, to be sure, and I don't think this is a bad book, necessarily. But I've outgrown books like this. I need something more satisfying. I need something that sets my nerves on fire and puts me on edge. This wasn't it. I may have enjoyed reading this more if I'd read it back when I was a teen. At least then there'd be more familiarity to it, beyond just the typical tropes that we saw in almost every YA book in existence during that period of time. The nostalgia might have actually been there. But since I didn't, it felt more and more like a waste of time the more I continued.

I really don't have anything specific to point out that I disliked about the book. It's more just the lack of feeling in general. I couldn't tell you the names of the characters anymore. I don't think of the things that were meant to be particularly shocking held any shock value at all. In a way, some aspects almost seemed to...age poorly. Back in the 2010s, having that token gay character was all the rage. Now, it's more annoying than anything. I think this book may have tried to include elements that were less accepted back then and show it in a positive light, or at least in an entertaining one, but it didn't really do that. Everything just fell flat.

Do I think younger readers might like this? It's hard to say. YA has evolved so much since this period of time. And while I'll always look back on these kinds of YA books fondly because they were MY YA books, I don't know if a YA reader today, with different interests and different technologies at the tips of their fingers, would appreciate a book like this either. I give the author and the book credit for trying. This could have been a great book, and I think it worked for what it was back then. But I don't think it's all that memorable. I don't know if even younger me would have liked it much, come to think of it. But I suppose I'm glad that I gave it a try. And for free, no less.