Inside the Asylum
A Kathy Ryan Novel #2
by Mary SanGiovanni
Genre: Supernatural Horror
Pub Date: 5/7/19
From “master of cosmic horror” (Library Journal) Mary
SanGiovanni, comes the latest terrifying novel featuring occult
specialist Kathy Ryan . . .
SanGiovanni, comes the latest terrifying novel featuring occult
specialist Kathy Ryan . . .
A mind is a terrible thing to destroy . . .
Kathy has been hired to assess the threat of patient Henry Banks, an inmate
at the Connecticut-Newlyn Hospital for the Criminally Insane, the
same hospital where her brother is housed. Her employers believe that
Henry has the ability to open doors to other dimensions with his
mind—making him one of the most dangerous men in modern history.
Because unbeknownst to Kathy, her clients are affiliated with certain
government organizations that investigate people like Henry—and the
potential to weaponize such abilities.
at the Connecticut-Newlyn Hospital for the Criminally Insane, the
same hospital where her brother is housed. Her employers believe that
Henry has the ability to open doors to other dimensions with his
mind—making him one of the most dangerous men in modern history.
Because unbeknownst to Kathy, her clients are affiliated with certain
government organizations that investigate people like Henry—and the
potential to weaponize such abilities.
What Kathy comes to understand in interviewing Henry, and in her
unavoidable run-ins with her brother, is that Henry can indeed use
his mind to create “Tulpas”—worlds, people, and creatures so
vivid they come to actual life. But now they want life outside of
Henry. And they'll stop at nothing to complete their emancipation.
It's up to Kathy—with her brother's help—to stop them, and if
possible, to save Henry before the Tulpas take him over—and
everything else around him.
unavoidable run-ins with her brother, is that Henry can indeed use
his mind to create “Tulpas”—worlds, people, and creatures so
vivid they come to actual life. But now they want life outside of
Henry. And they'll stop at nothing to complete their emancipation.
It's up to Kathy—with her brother's help—to stop them, and if
possible, to save Henry before the Tulpas take him over—and
everything else around him.
Inside the Asylum is the newest book in the Kathy Ryan series. It is a standalone, but I'd definitely suggest reading the other books too, just to get a feel for Kathy and what she does. I first discovered her in Behind the Door, and I absolutely loved that book.
In this one, Kathy is called in to deal with some really strange happenings at a mental hospital. Not only is there a patient there who may have information about the cults she's been investigating, but other patients are dying because of him. Also, her brother is locked up there, so...yeah.
Henry, the patient in question, has powerful abilities. He can create worlds in his mind, and one of those worlds wants to become reality and take over our world. His "friends" are dangerous, as is this other world, and it's up to Kathy to stop this other dimension from bleeding over and becoming the new reality.
This story is dark and creepy, and I really enjoyed it. There's a lot going on, but it's all contained within the one location. When Henry's other world/dimension starts taking over, and the weird creatures start roaming the halls of the asylum, it's pretty crazy. I liked how they were all different, unique beings. It showed just how intense Henry's powers of the mind really were.
Kathy is definitely a fun character to read about and follow along with. She gets into some really scary, wild things, and that's what makes her a great character. She's unique.
If you're a fan of horror, supernatural elements, and/or stories involving other dimensions, you should give Inside the Asylum a whirl. You just might enjoy it.
4.5 stars!
In this one, Kathy is called in to deal with some really strange happenings at a mental hospital. Not only is there a patient there who may have information about the cults she's been investigating, but other patients are dying because of him. Also, her brother is locked up there, so...yeah.
Henry, the patient in question, has powerful abilities. He can create worlds in his mind, and one of those worlds wants to become reality and take over our world. His "friends" are dangerous, as is this other world, and it's up to Kathy to stop this other dimension from bleeding over and becoming the new reality.
This story is dark and creepy, and I really enjoyed it. There's a lot going on, but it's all contained within the one location. When Henry's other world/dimension starts taking over, and the weird creatures start roaming the halls of the asylum, it's pretty crazy. I liked how they were all different, unique beings. It showed just how intense Henry's powers of the mind really were.
Kathy is definitely a fun character to read about and follow along with. She gets into some really scary, wild things, and that's what makes her a great character. She's unique.
If you're a fan of horror, supernatural elements, and/or stories involving other dimensions, you should give Inside the Asylum a whirl. You just might enjoy it.
4.5 stars!
Behind the Door
A Kathy Ryan Novel #1
Occult specialist Kathy Ryan returns in this thrilling novel of paranormal
horror from Mary SanGiovanni, the author of Chills . . .
horror from Mary SanGiovanni, the author of Chills . . .
Some doors should never be opened . . .
In the rural town of Zarepath, deep in the woods on the border of New Jersey and
Pennsylvania, stands the Door. No one knows where it came from, and
no one knows where it leads. For generations, folks have come to the
Door seeking solace or forgiveness. They deliver a handwritten letter
asking for some emotional burden to be lifted, sealed with a mixture
of wax and their own blood, and slide it beneath the Door. Three days
later, their wish is answered—for better or worse.
Pennsylvania, stands the Door. No one knows where it came from, and
no one knows where it leads. For generations, folks have come to the
Door seeking solace or forgiveness. They deliver a handwritten letter
asking for some emotional burden to be lifted, sealed with a mixture
of wax and their own blood, and slide it beneath the Door. Three days
later, their wish is answered—for better or worse.
Kari is a single mother, grieving over the suicide of her teenage daughter. She made a
terrible mistake, asking the powers beyond the Door to erase the
memories of her lost child. And when she opened the Door to retrieve
her letter, she unleashed every sin, secret, and spirit ever trapped
on the other side.
terrible mistake, asking the powers beyond the Door to erase the
memories of her lost child. And when she opened the Door to retrieve
her letter, she unleashed every sin, secret, and spirit ever trapped
on the other side.
Now, it falls to occultist Kathy Ryan to seal the door before Zarepath becomes hell on earth . . .
Amazon
* Apple
* B&N
* Google
* Kobo
* Kensington
* Apple
* B&N
* Kobo
* Kensington
In the town of Zarephath,
Pennsylvania, just past the Pennsylvania-New Jersey border and northwest of
Dingmans Ferry out by the Delaware Water Gap, there is a Door.
Many stories about it form a
particularly colorful subset of the local lore of the town and its surrounding
woods, streams, and lakes. Most of them relate the same essential series of
events, beginning with a burden of no small psychological impact, progressing
to a twilight trip through the southwestern corner of the woods near Zarephath,
and arriving at a door. Numerous variations detail what, exactly, must be
presented at the door and how, but ultimately, these stories end with an
unburdening of the soul and, more or less, happy endings. It is said “more or
less” because such endings are arbitrarily more or less agreeable to the
individuals involved than the situations prior to their visit to the Door of
Zarephath. More times than not, the “less” wins out.
There are some old folks in town,
snow- and storm cloud–haired sept and octogenarians who sip coffee and
people-watch from the local diner or gather on front porches at dusk or over
the counter at Ed’s Hardware to trade stories of Korea and Vietnam, and in one
venerable case, World War II, and it’s said they know a thing or two about that
door. The old-timers remember the desperation of postwar addictions and
nightmares and what they used to call shell shock, of families they couldn’t
help wearing down or beating up or tearing apart, despite their best efforts to
hold things together. They remember carrying burdens, often buried but never
very deeply, beneath their conscious thoughts, burdens that crawled their way
up from oblivion and into nightmares and flashbacks when the darkness of booze
or even just the night took over men who had once been children and who were
expected to be men. They remember late-night pilgrimages through the forest on
the outskirts of town, trekking miles in through rain or dark or frost-laced
wind to find that door, and lay their sins and sorrows at its feet. And they
remember that sometimes, forgetting proved to be worse.
The old women too remember
bruises and battered faces and blackouts. They remember cheating husbands and
cancers and unwanted pregnancies and miscarriages and daughters being touched
where they shouldn’t by men who should have protected them. The old women
remember the Door in Zarephath being a secret, almost sacred equalizer that
older women imparted to younger women, a means of power passed from one group
whose hands were socially and conventionally tied to another. And they remember
watching strong women fall apart under the weight of that power.
And these old folks remember
trying once to burn the door down, but of course, that hadn’t worked. The Door
in Zarephath won’t burn because it isn’t made of any wood of this earth,
anything beholden to the voracious appetite of fire. It had an appetite of its
own that night, and no one has tried to burn it down since. Rather, the
old-timers have learned to stay away from it, for the most part, to relegate
the knowledge of its location and its promises to the same dusty old chests in
the mind that the worst of their war stories are kept. There’s an unspoken
agreement that as far as the Door in Zarephath goes, the young people can fend
for themselves. While the folks in Zarephath won’t stop a person from using the
Door, they aren’t usually inclined to help anyone use it. Not in the open, and
not just anyone who asks about it. Behind some doors are rooms hidden for good
cause in places human beings were probably never meant to know about—rooms
meant never to be entered—and the old folks of Zarephath understand that for
reasons they may never know, they were given a skeleton key to one such room.
There’s a responsibility in that, the kind whose true gravity is maybe only
recognized by those with enough years and experience and mistakes left behind
to really grasp it.
People often say the old-folks’
generation were stoic, used to getting by with very little and largely of a
mind frame not prone to histrionic anxiety or useless worry. People say it has
to do with surviving the Depression and growing up in a simpler, more rugged
time. But for the old folks in Zarephath, the strength of their fiber comes
from what they remember—and from what they have come to accept forgetting. It
comes from what they no longer choose to lay before the Door.
Mary SanGiovanni is the author of the Bram Stoker nominated novel The
Hollower, its sequels Found You and The Triumvirate, Thrall, Chaos, Savage Woods, Chills—
which introduced occult security consultant Kathy Ryan—as well as the
novellas For Emmy, Possessing Amy, and The Fading Place,
as well as numerous short stories. She has been writing fiction for
over a decade, has a masters in writing popular fiction from Seton
Hill University, and is a member of The Authors Guild, Penn Writers,
and International Thriller Writers.
Hollower, its sequels Found You and The Triumvirate, Thrall, Chaos, Savage Woods, Chills—
which introduced occult security consultant Kathy Ryan—as well as the
novellas For Emmy, Possessing Amy, and The Fading Place,
as well as numerous short stories. She has been writing fiction for
over a decade, has a masters in writing popular fiction from Seton
Hill University, and is a member of The Authors Guild, Penn Writers,
and International Thriller Writers.
Follow the tour HERE for exclusive content and a giveaway!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please try not to spam posts with the same comments over and over again. Authors like seeing thoughtful comments about their books, not the same old, "I like the cover" or "sounds good" comments. While that is nice, putting some real thought and effort in is appreciated. Thank you.