'Like all children living at Rose Hill Asylum, Kyle Hampton wanted freedom from the abusive staff and violent residents. When at nine he was adopted into a loving family, he left his younger brother behind and didn't look back. Twenty-eight years later, his choices have returned to haunt him.
'Now a family man, Kyle has hidden his true childhood from his wife, only to stir up the past when, as a lark, he revisits the underground tunnels and the abandoned asylum with a friend. A dark figure wants revenge and emerges ready to destroy Kyle and everyone he loves. But Kyle isn't going down without a fight—he's played in the shadows before. Will his childhood, rooted in terror, be what saves him? '
Kyle was born into Rose Hill Asylum, a home for mental and physically disabled people, as well as the children born to them. He and his brother, Roy, grew up in the frightening, sometimes violent, institution, doing their best to have as normal a life as they could. Despite looking out for each other the two boys would often be on the receiving end of abuse from some of the older children in the asylum, and lived in a state of near constant fear.
When Kyle is adopted by one of the men who volunteers at Rose Hill he thinks that all his problems are finally behind him; but he faces something awful, as he will have to leave his younger brother behind. Afraid that if he were to keep asking his new family to adopt his brother too he'd lose his new home, Kyle and his brother drift apart until finally losing all contact with each other.
Now an adult, Kyle returns to the long abandoned Rose Hill with his lifelong friend, and fellow former Rose Hill resident, Randy, to take a last look through the ruined hallways and rooms before it's sold off to a developer. Seeing the place begins to stir up memories in Kyle, as well as feelings of guilt over having to leave his brother all those years before. Not only that, but it seems like someone has started to follow Kyle and his family; someone who want to hurt him and the people he loves.
Asylum is a stand alone mystery from author Tamera Lawrence that centres around a man as his past comes back to haunt him, pushing his relationships with his friends and family to the breaking point in the process. Lawrence sets the tone for the book early, having the very first chapter of the book set in Kyle's past as he and his brother face violence at the hands of one of the older Rose Hill residents. It's a grim and foreboding start, one that shows that even in the moments where these young children tried to carve themselves out a bit of joy there was always the threat of something awful hanging over them.
This was a feeling that would continue over the course of the book, and would mount as the story unfolded. The reader was never really given a chance to rest, and even the most benign seeming scenes in the book, such as Kyle going to grab a beer with his friend, or him coming home from a long day at work to spend time with his wife and baby daughter, would keep the pressure on as there would be small mentions of trouble that was building, or that you'd see the strain beginning to form within these bonds.
And that's one of the main focuses of the book, the bonds that Kyle has with the people around him. He's upset that his relationship with his brother didn't last, and feels an awful guilt around that. We also see how these feelings of self recrimination have begun to affect his life at home, and how his relationship with his wife is starting to strain because of this and the added stress of having just given birth. Even his relationships with his adopted father gets called into question when Kyle discovers hidden things in his fathers home (though due to his father having recently suffered a stroke he's unable to go into things with him), as well as his oldest friend, who keeps creating conflict as Kyle is having to chose between him and his wife at various times.
Even the villain of the book is all about relationships. At first it's very unclear who this person, simply referred to as Stitches by himself, is and what they might want. But as the book unfolds and we see more chapters from Stitches' point of view we see hints that he's also being driven on to target Kyle and him family because of a personal connections, and a bond that was broken. The book is quite good at playing its cards close to its chest in regards to the villain, and whilst it does feel like it's intentionally leading you to make a wrong conclusion as to his real identity there is enough evidence for readers to figure it out before the climactic reveal.
Asylum was an interesting story, one that kept me guessing, and managed its dark and dour tone well without it feeling too overwhelming. The characters felt a lot like real people most of the time, and I found myself wanting to see more of Kyle and his family as I was hoping that things would work out for them all. With the Halloween season coming up this would be the perfect time to give this dark thriller a go.
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