Sanctum

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

In the chilling second book in the New York Times bestselling Asylum series, three teens must return to the asylum that still haunts their dreams to end the nightmare once and for all. With the page-turning suspense and horror that made Asylum such a standout, and featuring found photographs from real vintage carnivals, Sanctum is a mind-bending reading experience that's perfect for fans of the smash hit Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.

Dan, Abby, and Jordan remain traumatized by the summer they shared in the Brookline asylum. Much as they'd love to move on, many questions remain, and someone is determined to keep the terror alive, sending the teens photos of an old-timey carnival, with no note and no name. Forsaking their plan never to go back, the teens return to New Hampshire College under the guise of a weekend for prospective students, and there they realize that the carnival from the photos is not only real, it's here on campus, apparently for the first time in many years.

Sneaking away from sample classes and college parties, Dan and his friends lead a tour of their own--one through the abandoned houses and hidden places of a surrounding town. Camford is hiding a terrible past, and the truth behind Dan's connection to the asylum's evil warden is more terrifying than Dan ever imagined.

Don't miss Madeleine Roux's all-new gothic horror novel, House of Furies.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

School Library Journal Review

Gr 9 Up- Dan, Abby, and Jordan are forced to revisit their traumatic past at Brookline Asylum when mysterious photos draw them back to town and to dark secrets. This is a seriously spooky tale; purchase this series where quirky horror is popular. (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Booklist Review

The sequel to Asylum (2013) lacks the potency and freshness of the first title, partially because of the need to summarize previous events and circumstances, but primarily because even creepy carnivals can't begin to compete with haunted abandoned madhouses. High-school seniors Daniel, Abby, and Jordan return to New Hampshire College, ostensibly on a college tour, but really to follow the clues poor possessed Felix gives them to solve the mystery of Brookline Asylum's insane warden. This time the scary elements are a traditional carnival (a campus tradition revived for the visiting prospective students) and a tour of various haunted houses. With plentiful old photographs of carnival acts, Roux works the creepy verisimilitude that made Asylum such a page-turner. The haunted-house explorations are especially cinematic and spooky. While the side plot involving a secret society is more than a little hard to believe, Roux knows how to keep the action rolling and the reader hooked. A confusing and abrupt ending promises a third volume in the series.--Carton, Debbie Copyright 2014 Booklist

Kirkus Book Review

The eerie atmosphere of Asylum (2013) has a hard time making itself felt in this sequel.After Dan Crawford and his friends were nearly murdered at New Hampshire College, the site of a former mental hospital, they find themselves haunted. Abby and Jordan receive cryptic old carnival photos, and Dan is urged by the boy who almost killed him to return to NHC and "follow" the photographs. Dan, Abby and Jordan pose as prospective freshmen, arriving to find crowds of unrealistic college students and a bizarre mess involving hypnotism, a mysterious stone and a cult called the Scarlets. Plagued by what might be ghosts or hallucinations, Dan uses his vague mental connection with the asylum's former warden to investigate the Scarlets and discovers that he's not the only one with ties to the asylum. The plot meanders, and the characters develop very little beyond a romance between Dan and Abby; Dan's possible relationship with the warden remains unexplored, and his own mental illness is so unspecific that it's unclear whether he's possessed or hallucinating. Mock photos of carnival performers are interesting but don't always match the text, so they feel disruptive. The ending delivers a disturbing moment with creepy implications, but the disorganized buildup still reduces its impact.Fans of Asylum will want to read this, but they shouldn't expect a logical continuation of the first book. (Fiction. 14-18) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.