Chapter by Chapter

I didn’t know what to expect from The dollhouse asylum by author Mary Gray. I knew that it was supposed to be good but apart from that I only vaguely knew what the novel was about and was very eager to jump into the story. I have to admit that what I found in The Dollhouse Asylum was nothing like what I expected. It was insane. Fast-paced until the very last sentence. Totally awesome.

The Dollhouse Asylum takes place after a pandemic brings the world close to its edge. Eighteen year old Cheyenne isn’t sure what will become of her in this world where the infected become ravenous with a hunger for living, human flesh. Then she finds herself in Elysian Fields—a strange area that is untouched by the virus but comes with a price to live in it. It’s there that she is reunited with her lover, an older man, Teo Richardson.

But Theo isn’t what he seems.

Teo has created Elysian Fields and is keeping seven other couples in Elysian Fields with the promise of giving them the cure to the virus if they manage to pass his tests. At first everything seems fine, perfect even. Cheyenne has Teo again and they can finally be together again. Everything changes when Cheyenne is renamed Persephone and witnesses Teo murder two innocent people for his own amusement, quickly discovering that he has a far darker agenda in mind. To pass Teo’s tests is to gain the cure, to fail them is to be killed.

The Dollhouse Asylum was non-stop until the very end. Honestly I managed to read the book in one whole sitting, it was nothing but action scene after action scene after unexpected plot twist after murder after murder. It was just crazy. Honestly with every chapter I had higher and higher expectations for what would happen next and content wise my expectations were definitely met. The Dollhouse Asylum has a description that promises something that will keep your head spinning and it definitely delivers.

Apart from being intrigued by the plot I was also really interested in the protagonist Persephone/Cheyenne and Teo. Cheyenne was your typical girl, blinded by love and her wanting to please the boy she loves—but Teo was everything a villain should be. He was evil, remorseless and completely obsessed with Cheyenne. His obsession with Cheyenne was creepy and the way it was written just made everything seem way more intense. However I did have a few issues with the novel.

I did feel that a lot of the romance between Teo and Cheyenne or Cheyenne and another character who will go unnamed for spoiler purposes was very forced. There wasn’t a lot of growth between characters which made the story feel very wooden and unnatural. As for the expected deus ex machina—well let’s just say it wasn’t what I expected. Apart from all these things they didn’t distract me too much from the novel and the way the plot turned out.

I would recommend The Dollhouse Asylum to readers who are looking for a novel with a lot of obsession, a dystopia that is unlike any other and readers who are looking for a novel that they can get through in one sitting. Definitely worth checking out if you want a romantic, thrilling and scary dystopic read.