Asylum Lake [Kindle Edition]

R. A. Evans (Author), Doree Colon (Editor)

Book Description

Memories are like water. Some float on the surface bright and clear. Some lie deeper - blurred by time and distance. Others rest far from the light in the depths of the darkness. These memories are best forgotten. At the bottom of Asylum Lake the unremembered are growing restless.

After the sudden death of his wife, Brady Tanner moves to the small Michigan town where he spent summers as a youth. But he soon learns that small towns can be stained by memories...and secrets too. As Brady is drawn into unearthing the secrets of the town and of the abandoned psychiatric hospital on the shores of Asylum Lake, he discovers a new love in an old friend. But there is an evil presence lurking beneath the waters of the lake. What is the source of this evil--and what does it want with Brady Tanner?

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A taut tale liable to raise significant goosebumps!"  
                                              -- Ray Walsh, Lansing State Journal

"Asylum Lake is a good old-fashioned horror novel - accessible, creepy and eminently readable."
                                              -- HorrorNews.net

"Few books have the power to send shivers down my spine, but this did. Evans is a brilliant writer of horror. A mysterious lake, ruined lunatic asylum, brutal murders and Scrabble that writes its own warnings. Evans creates a real sense of uneasiness and explores the psyche. If you like horror as it should be, you'll love it."
                                              -- Steve Emmett, author of Diavolino

From the Author

Asylum Lake has become an Indie smash after spending weeks on the Kindle Top 100 lists in both Horror and Occult genres.  A fun blend of dark humor and chills, Asylum Lake is fun, hip, and scary as hell. 

Dive deeper into the mind of R. A. Evans on his blog at raevanswrites.me and follow his tweets of fear @raevanswrites.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• File Size: 1060 KB
• Print Length: 208 pages
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Publisher: Chapbook Press (July 30, 2010)
• Language: English
• ASIN: B004DUN1TK
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Enabled
• Lending: Not Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #207,284 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 35 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A Wonderful Read August 21, 2011

By Kmoaton

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Asylum Lake by R.A. Evans is one of the first horror stories that I have read in a long time that totally captured my attention and my imagination. Mr. Evans has deftly woven the past and the present into a completely believable tale. I could not put Asylum Lake down until it was completely finished. I found it captivating and scary with some humor entwined within the story.
We meet Brady Tanner, headed to his childhood summer home after the death of his father. Brady is a depressed, broken man, mourning the loss of his wife and unborn child. He hopes visiting his old home will help him break out of his state of depression and begin to live life again. Little does he know what he will face when he arrives in Bedlam Falls. From the beginning, R.A. Evans pulls you into the emotions of the story. From the beginning, you feel Brady pain from his loses. You feel the underlying fear when weird things start to happen. Evans makes the reader feel as if we are watching everything happen and not just reading words on the page.

The novel flows quickly and with the addition of each quirky character, the story never misses a step. Instead, the characters blend into the weirdness of Bedlam Falls and the story. I also loved the way Evans integrated the stories from the past into the present day story to allow the reader to begin to piece together what really happened at the Asylum along with Brady.
The horrors of the asylum permeate the town and provide a chilling backdrop to events from the past and the forthcoming events from the future. Even though it has been closed for years, the asylum still haunts the lives of the people who live there. It is creepy enough to keep thrill seekers away. I think the thing that sent chills down my spine the most was the Scrabble board that kept appearing around the house with different words spelled out!

This story is a stage for a thrilling supernatural adventure. There are hauntings, possessions, the creepy asylum, along with murders and other atrocities of the past. These are all the elements of a great horror! I strongly suggest reading this one with all the lights on!

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Great thriller! July 25, 2011

By kds

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Asylum Lake is a super thriller. It is fast moving and the main characters are believable and fleshed out. I really enjoyed the author's writing style - enough detail that you can connect with the characters and their lives and emotions, with humor really greasing that wheel. May sound contradictory to have humor in a thriller/suspense novel, but it works well.

One thing I was impressed with in the first half of the book is the editing as far as typos - you see so many in ebooks and the first part of Asylum Lake was blessedly free of them so that the reader wasn't jarred or left reading sentences several times to try to figure out what part of a sentence was left out, words that don't make sense due to spell check, or just simple misspellings. The 2nd half of the book, though, had enough to jar me. Fortunately, the writer's content kept pulling me back in to the book.

I also liked the way the author laid out the story in complexity, going back and forth between the various years the story unfolded to different generations. The time changes in story were clearly marked, easy to follow, and when woven together made a much better story than if he had just started from the 1950s and told the story chronologically.

The events unfolded at a good clip throughout the story, with the end perhaps being a bit rushed. Would have been nice to have some more time spent on the ending events.

All in all, a great read - very interesting and suspense filled with super writing!

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Awesome horror story, ending falls short though. December 9, 2010

By JournalStone

Format:Paperback

I do love a good horror story, and Asylum Lake fits the bill. It reels you in while developing the storyline and main character and then slams it home with one of the more horrific murder scenes I have read in a long time. Hello, has anyone seen the twin's hands and feet lately. Try looking in the kitchen sink if you have the stomach for it. All that being said the book itself falls short with more grammatical errors than something I would have written, and an ending that left me as a reader flipping through the back pages wondering if I had missed the climax.

Brady was an ace reporter; this is in the past tense since he seemingly has moved on due to the death of his fiancé. She died in a freak accident that defines being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Brady's only true friend is his dog Gruff, and the two of them decide to venture up to Bedlam Falls, MI where he had spent many a summer relaxing by the lake as a child. Brady's parents, both recently deceased, had a cabin which had been remodeled into a home away from home. What better way to forget about the past than dredging up old memories from your childhood.

The only problem with Brady's plan is the damn scrabble game is acting like an Ouija Board. Remember that little circle with an eye and the hole in the middle that allowed you to talk to spirits. Damn, it still creeps me out thinking about it, and now thanks to Mr. Evans I might not be able to play scrabble again. Apparently there are a few spirits meandering about the old cabin and we really are not sure if they are friendly, or plan on consuming Gruff and Brady for dinner.

So Brady begins poking around and come to find out his father, a former detective had found some clues about an old murder and was doing his best to figure out what happened. Throw in an old flame, April, and you have the mixings for a perfectly formed romantic death trap. As I said before, the storyline was really impressive and I did find myself flipping through the pages rather quickly in order to find out what was going to happen next.
As always I try not to give away too many details and I strongly believe with this book the story is the punch line, so if you want more insight you will just have to read it. I will now bring up a few shortcomings of the book and things that will hopefully change in volume II.

Brady's dialogue was just not believable. The guy is a reporter for a major newspaper and at times he talks like he didn't graduate high school. I could have done without the tampon scene; it is just too stereotypical to bother writing down. The lack of editing had me scratching my head in wonder. Granted Mr. Evans did tell me my copy was an advance edition, but it really needed a lot of re-work. I know, I know, how many people say that about my writing as well, but I have to put it in here if it is what I believe.

My biggest disappointment was the ending, or really lack thereof. The book just kind of stops after building up your tempo to the highest point possible. It would be like licking that lollipop and when you decide to take the final bight, anticipating that tootsie roll center, only to realize it was hollow. Nothing there. Empty. I think part of the reason I was so disappointed in the ending was because the rest of the story was so damn good. If the author would decide to re-write the last couple of chapters, or add in a chapter with some sort of climax this book would go from being ok to being awesome.

Anyway, even with the negatives the book is definitely one of the more entertaining reads I have picked up in a while. I would suggest perusing through it with grandeur expectations on what Mr. Evans would be writing for a sequel. He is very talented and I for one will be keeping up with his work going forward.

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