by Susan Vaught
Hardback: 384 Pages
Publication: February 18, 2014
by Bloomsbury USA Children’s
Never, Kentucky is not your average scenic small town. It is a crossways, a place where the dead and the living can find no peace. Not that Forest, an 18-year-old foster kid who works the graveyard shift at Lincoln Hospital, knew this when she applied for the job. Lincoln is a huge state mental institution, a good place for Forest to make some money to pay for college. But along with hundreds of very unstable patients, it also has underground tunnels, bell towers that ring unexpectedly, and a closet that holds more than just donated clothing….When the dead husband of one of Forest’s patients makes an appearance late one night, seemingly accompanied by an agent of the Devil, Forest loses all sense of reality and all sense of time. Terrified, she knows she has a part to play, and when she does so, she finds a heritage that she never expected.
With her deep knowledge of mental illness and mental institutions, Susan Vaught brings readers a fascinating and completely creepy new book intertwining the stories of three young people who find themselves haunted beyond imagining in the depths of Lincoln Hospital.
Lincoln psychiatric hospital in Never, Kentucky, attracts all sorts of occult and paranormal activities.
Forest has just aged out of the foster-care system and is now working at Lincoln Psychiatric with the hope to earn enough money to go to college. Darius is also working at Lincoln for the same reason, and his girlfriend Trina has left college to intern at the same place. Levi was murdered and brought back to life by his Imogene grandmother. He haunts the halls of Lincoln, helping the recently dead to cross over and keeping tabs on all of the malevolent spirits. Although all of them live in different times, they all experience a series of paranormal adventures, linked by their connection to the eerie, haunted Lincoln.
The story is told from the multiple perspectives of Forest, Darius, and Trina. All three of them introduce a different paranormal story, and they overlap and share characters. However, the transition is confusing, as the story moves from one perspective into another without warning before we really get to know any of the characters; on top of that, the perspectives are all told in the first person. It’s difficult to tell when the POV is changing because it’s all told in first person. Also, it’s disappointing that we don’t get to know about the past of Forest, Levi, Darius, and Trina, and why they are haunted beyond imagining in the depths of Lincoln Hospital.
Insanity thrusts readers into a world of mystery, ghosts, demons, and among other forms of paranormal activity. There is darkness, rage and dark magic brewing. There is the paranormal knack that comes with the Madoc blood, and there is also witchcraft and plenty of evil. I am a kind of disappointed about the book, as we never are given a satisfactory explanation for why the characters are drawn to Lincoln or why it is such a magnet for ghosts, haints, and shades. Basically, it tells the story without giving the keys that we need to fully understand it. If you don’t care about all these things and are just looking for a quick, dark, paranormal read, however, then you may enjoy this one.
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Author: alice
Alice is a stay-at-home mom of two children. Her favorite books are those send icy tingles down her spine, such as a good mystery or thriller, but she also enjoys a good hear-throbbing romance. She enjoys listening to music and drinking a cup of tea while reading and working.
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