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The Asylum cover art

The Asylum

By: John Harwood
Narrated by: Rosalyn Landor
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Summary

A brilliant new Gothic thriller from the acclaimed author of The Ghost Writer and The Séance.

Confused and disoriented, Georgina Ferrars awakens in a small room in Tregannon House, a private asylum in a remote corner of England. She has no memory of the past few weeks. The doctor Maynard Straker tells her that she admitted herself under the name Lucy Ashton the day before and then suffered a seizure. When she insists he has mistaken her for someone else, Dr. Straker sends a telegram to her uncle, who replies that Georgina Ferrars is at home with him in London: "Your patient must be an imposter."

Suddenly her voluntary confinement becomes involuntary. Who is the woman in her uncle’s house? And what has become of her two most precious possessions: a dragonfly pin left to her by her mother and a journal that contains the only record of those missing weeks? Georgina’s perilous quest to free herself takes her from a cliffside cottage on the Isle of Wight to the secret passages of Tregannon House and into a web of hidden family ties on which her survival depends.

Here is another delicious read from the author praised by Ruth Rendell as having "a gift for creating suspense, apparently effortlessly, as if it belongs in the nature of fiction."

©2013 John Harwood (P)2013 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Creepy doings - certificates of insanity, switched identities, morbid personalities - in and around an asylum in 19th-century England… Harwood certainly makes the atmosphere work here." ( Kirkus Reviews)
"Engrossing… The crisp prose and twisty plot will encourage many to read this in one sitting." ( Publishers Weekly)
"Harwood, master of creeping Victorian horror, does it again in his latest tale of pervasive evil and madness.… Twisted in every sense of the word and wonderfully atmospheric, this dark psychological tale shocks by degree until truth of a sort is revealed, in a style similar to that of Joanne Harris’ Sleep, Pale Sister and D. J. Taylor’s Kept." ( Booklist)

What listeners say about The Asylum

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Sorry. Not for me.

Unfortunately this story failed to engage me. A bit slow to develop, a wee bit obvious and a tiny bit tedious. The female narrator tried but rather too hard and over enunciated. I'm sure others may enjoy it. It did help get me off to sleep with my jet lag so something positive

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

I found it Hilarious But I did listen until the End !

I have been trying different Genres Period Literature I often get the giggles about not so much With The Classics and Dickens , Yes Dickens can be absolutely hilarious,this reminded me of a Victorian Murder she wrote. Especially the crazy Dr are we to believe he’s gone and invented ECT Evil stuff . I did actually enjoy it I think the Narration added to its Comedic response in me and the way Women are treated as if they are Fragile as a. Hot house Orchid.The crazy thing was she had been living with her Tough as old boots Aunt on a Cliffs Edge and Lost it all . I guess she was being Groomed by Mail in a way. I hope the Main Character found happiness with the Person of her dreams .

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

It's OK for a freebie

A good intriguing start. Too much background story. I saw through the conundrum quite early on.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Story good, narrator….well!

The listener is plunged immediately into the plot with absolutely no background, context or pre-amble, which feels odd until you realise why - we are engaging with the story via the main character who has lost her memory - clever! It really immerses the reader into the experience of the main character, her horror and confusion with the situation she finds herself in.
Although the story is well written, original and intriguing, I simply couldn’t get along with the tone of the narrator. To me, she constantly sounds like an elderly victorian lady with an edge of anxiety and hysteria - sometimes that felt completely appropriate to the content, but not always, and increasingly it seemed unnecessarily over-dramatic. It began to distract me from the story, and as a result I have just given up listening to this audio book halfway through. I plan to buy the book, as I was very much enjoying the story - I just couldn’t listen to the audio version anymore.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Enjoyed this story

I got a bit lost at times and had to go back but it was a good story

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

3 stars

Full reviews available via my storygraph gen_williamson or on goodreads/I'mogén.

up and down thought with this one

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

A Little Up and Down

I'm not sure where to start with this one but I'll start by saying that in contrast with some of the other reviews, I liked this ending. It was well done and not too silly nor too crazy. It fit the tone of the story and was believable within its limits.

The story itself was like a rollercoaster of quality and entertainment. The story starts well, the middle part kind of loses steam and the end picks up again but it loses some of that steam due to the mid section of the book.

Having said that, the author does a fantastic job of creating the scene and environment throughout the book. The grimness, the hardships and hopelessness all comes through extremely well and I loved the tone and the setting of the book. It's just in my opinion, the story felt a little stretched, it had a good start and a good end but the journey from start to finish wasn't as well thought out and it made some parts rather dull. I'd probably have given the story 2* if not for the start and end, as those are the parts I'm focusing on and I'm allowing myself to ignore the messy middle part that was so up and down.

Rosalyn as a narrator - perfect. I thought she did this book a wonderful job and she made me connect with it a whole lot more. She has a nice voice, very well spoken and gives characters their own personalities and accents throughout - which I personally love.

A solid performance, a vivid and great scene and tone, but a muddled story that was somewhat dull at times.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

mistake

This book keeps you wanting to know what happens next, first you think you have the gist, then you rethink it, and keep that pattern till the end

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

I was spellbound

Amazing, I can't say enough good things about it, can't wait to start it again

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Gripping

Really enjoyed this audible book.. fabulous narration. Lots of twists and turns highly recommended will definitely look for this author again.

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