Customer Reviews

Asylum

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

What an absolutely fascinating book! A child loses his family and is forced to live with an Aunt he hardly knows. He feels responsible for the fire that took his parents' lives. He catches bits of conversation that he misinterprets and thinks the cops have found out that he killed his parents. He runs away and becomes the equivalent of a church mouse. This book is a heart wrenching look at what it is to be young & alone & coming to terms with your first experience of being loved, which is what you have always wanted anyway. Buy it, love it.

Really, I love this book. I bought it a few weeks ago and now I read a chapter or two everynight. Its a very interesting book, and it is hard to put down after reading for a bit. I just really like it, it has lots of detail and really good story. I would recommend this book to anyone, buy it.

I picked this book up in the library for my weekend read. After I finished it I felt like I had been cheated out of my bingo prize. It is an easy read. It is full of distracting devices that don't really work. We are to believe that a 10 year old raised in the Southeastern USA has never heard of Jesus. The same 10 year old uses oddly adult terms from time to time that are not consistant with his language level.

The religious framework is on virtually every page but is fairly low key. Christians are protrayed as gentle good folk, worrying and praying with each other and constantly eating. On a more troubling note, the book is sexist on a not too subtle level. The star is male (10 year old Ian), the supporting hero figures are male, all the good information comes from males (a homeless man, a second cop, even the church janitor). Women make babies, bake, worry, pray and not much else. Even one woman in a real world role would have improved this story.

While I think this book is a waste as adult reading material, with some minor tweaking it could be a very good movie. Usually movies ruin the feel and flavor of a book, in this case it would improve it. I would probably go see it.