Description
by Brynn Chapman
Synopsis from Goodreads:
Patient Twenty-nine.
A monster roams the halls of Soothing Hills Asylum. Three girls dead. 29 is endowed with the curse…or gift of perception. She hears messages in music, sees lyrics in paintings. And the corn. A lifetime asylum resident, the orchestral corn music is the only constant in her life.
Mason, a new, kind orderly, sees 29 as a woman, not a lunatic. And as his belief in her grows, so does her self- confidence. That perhaps she might escape, might see the outside world.
But the monster has other plans. The missing girls share one common thread...each was twenty-nine's cell mate.
Will she be next?
A monster roams the halls of Soothing Hills Asylum. Three girls dead. 29 is endowed with the curse…or gift of perception. She hears messages in music, sees lyrics in paintings. And the corn. A lifetime asylum resident, the orchestral corn music is the only constant in her life.
Mason, a new, kind orderly, sees 29 as a woman, not a lunatic. And as his belief in her grows, so does her self- confidence. That perhaps she might escape, might see the outside world.
But the monster has other plans. The missing girls share one common thread...each was twenty-nine's cell mate.
Will she be next?
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Review
Two girls. One, patient twenty-nine in Soothing Hills
Asylum (that is anything but soothing
as it dehumanizes its patients). The second, the esteemed daughter of the
Asylum’s head doctor. Both have catlike eyes and hear whispers of words in the
music they see everywhere. But there are more problems going on their bizarre
connection. There is something killing some of the other women in the asylum,
all of whom were roommates with patient twenty-nine before their deaths. And
the head doctor has a dark side only his daughter and the servants are aware
of.
The Requiem
Red by Brynn Chapman is just as dark and bizarre as the one other book I have
read by Chapman, The Violet Hour. Words
hidden in music. Monsters in the night. Hair changing from brown to white
overnight. The patients might not be the only insane ones. Then, throw in a
couple whirl-wind romances…
I can’t quite figure out whether or not I like
this book. It was so weird and dark but yet so interesting. It pulled me in and
kept me interested in the tale of these two ladies. I figured out a couple of
the mysteries, but not all. And the ending was a complete surprise. It left me
hanging, and I’m not even sure there will be a second book! So frustrating. I
didn’t like some of the darker elements, though they added depth and danger to
this tale.
One thing is for sure, though. I will never look
at insane asylum’s the same way again. Back in the early 1900’s and before,
asylums were more like a prison than a place of healing. People were hospitalized
for a variety of ridiculous and reasons, including when husbands wanted an
excuse to remarry. The Requiem Red
did an unforgettable job of showing life inside one of those asylums. Makes me
feel even sorrier for my great-grandfather who was entered in an asylum around
the turn of the twentieth century for stealing his family’s car (and escaped a
couple of times) … but that is a story for another day.
The Requiem
Red was as fascinating as it was bizarre. I recommend it to lovers of the
weird with a dose of YA romance.
I received a free copy of this book from the
author in exchange for an honest review.
I will be looking forward to it, then.
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