Imagine a haunted story about a creepy and isolated asylum. Imagine all of the possibilities, all of the twists you could put on a familiar tale, all of the tropes and expectations you could twist to squeeze every ounce of horror out of a familiar scenario and setting.

Now, don't do any of that, and just write a straightforward, no frills novel that does pretty much everything you'd expect without taking any real chances or trying anything original, and you have "Redwood Asylum".

That's not to say the novel is *bad*, per se, but the author is clearly a capable writer, so the lack of anything resembling an even remotely original storyline or actual developed characters is incredibly disappointing. Everything in this novel is Tell, not Show, and while the asides regarding Redwood's origins and history are occasionally interesting they also suck you right out of what story there is, which is thin and predictable to begin with.

All in all this is a perfectly acceptable novel if what you're looking for is a very familiar feeling horror story without any true scares...but with so many original and compelling horror novelists working the field today, why settle for this?

This book was a letdown, and the first really disappointing read for me of 2021.

This story follows our main character Jessica who is looking for a fresh start. She seems to be running from her past and Redwood Asylum is the perfect place for that. They are excited by her qualifications and hire her immediately, but Redwood has a dark past...and present. They seem to be up to some shady things and have been for a long time.
One of the patients at Redwood, 5B, seems to glom onto her quickly and with desperation.
The asylum is also haunted, like, really haunted.
5B thinks Jessica is his only hope and begs her to help him, but what she doesn’t know is that she is about to get in way over her head. Not only is she going to have to help 5B, she also starts uncovering the many secrets of Redwood.

Stories about asylums are pretty easy to make scary. I feel like everyone already assumes that asylums are haunted and have had/have a dark past.
I think that’s why this story started out so well for me. I knew it was going to have a creepy setting, which is always key in my opinion.
I liked that not only did you have the secrets of 5B and Redwood, you also had Jessica’s secret. I was very intrigued to know what exactly she was running from.
However, I felt like this story wasn’t anything new or different. It had the same elements I see over and over again in horror stories about asylums.
It wasn’t a terrible plot, but it didn’t give me anything new or fresh either.
I also really didn’t like Jessica, she was a very frustrating and irritating protagonist in my opinion. The way she went about things was so unrealistic to me and I felt like she didn’t allow me to make an emotional connection.
The ending was predictable, it again, didn’t differ from your average asylum storyline. The ending was frustrating and I honestly wish it had gone a different direction. The ending does leave room for a sequel or prequel, so I guess that’s something if you really did enjoy the story.

An asylum, in a creepy old building, hidden away in a suitably dark surrounding and with secrets in its past. Some chilling and deeply disturbed residents who are secretly being experimented on by staff who are not all that they seem. Then there are ghosts and mysteries in the past. The final element in the puzzle is a vulnerable and helpless lead character to discover exactly what is going on, to her peril with her own hidden back story. This has all the classic elements of a spine chilling horror story, perhaps a little too cliche for my taste but a good tale of darkness nethertheless.

Thank you so much publishers for allowing me the opportunity to review this copy early.
We are thrust into a story about a young girl who is a nurse who wants to escape a dark past and start all over fresh by working at an asylum. There are some shady things going on at this place, and she suspects this early on. We are repeatedly told over and over again that something fishy is going on here and something isn't quite what it seems. Sometimes the writing felt messy. I felt like a lot of the repeated portions could have been narrowed down and edited more. Mostly pertaining to our main character, Jessica, knowing something weird was going on at the asylum. Like, I get it dude. I enjoyed the portion about our patient in room 5B. His story was what kept this novel moving at a steady pace, and made me want to keep reading.
Also, just as an editing proofreading note, there was a typo on chapter 32, page one.
This novel has some strengths about it. I like the idea. The character Jessica is likable even though she is flawed. However, I was not surprised by anything in this book. I wasn't super impressed. But I was slightly entertained? I guess? It's hard to articulate what I mean, but I hope this review is helpful in some way to the team of publishers the author and anyone hoping to check this one out.
Overall, I think it was ok. I would recommend to anyone who enjoyed spooky haunted stories about asylums.
And thank you so much L.A. Detwiler for allowing me the opportunity to review this novel. I wish you the best of luck in your future writing and hope to check out more of your work in the future.

Thank You to @xpressobooktours and @netgalley for the copy of The Redwood Asylum👌 This book was seriously creepy👻 It follows Jessica, a nurse with a past, finding her new start with a job in the Redwood Psychiatric Hospital. Here she meets patient '5B' who says he has been waiting for her to arrive. Jessica must work her way through his many delusions, meanwhile all is not as it seems in the asylum as patients from the past begin to haunt her and follow her home..
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I was genuinely creeped out whilst reading this one. The alternating short chapters kept me hooked and the storytelling was captivating. Definitely recommend for fans of paranormal horror👌

A slow burn horror story.

Jessica Rosen starts a new job at Redwood in the hopes of forgetting an insidious past. She quickly realizes, however, that Redwood harbors malevolent secrets and beings in every chilly corner.

Very intriguing read, about what's actually going on in this dark Asylum.
It has the right amount of spook and really plays with you mind as you read.

Thank you Netgalley for my first book to review. I am so satisfied with this story. She is an amazing storyteller and I plan to read her previous books. This book had every creepy horror aspects I needed. I had to read it with the light on.. I loved the short chapters and how they incorporate the ghost children story after the 5B story. The cover is amazing.

The dead do talk ... if you’re brave enough to hear their sinister secrets.
This was a really great chilling read and one horror fans!
I love LA books. They are different and that's why I love them.
I did think this one fell a little flat in some ways! But overall its a great quick read!

The dead do talk ... if you’re brave enough to hear their sinister secrets

That is all I needed to read and I was ready to dive right in. There are good book, and there are great books. This is high up on the top of great books. It will scare you to your core and then come back to go for round two.

Jennifer Rosen is starting a new job. One that happens to be at The Redwood Asylum. The asylum has a past just like Jennifer and although Jennifer wants to run from hers, Redwood wants its secrets known. The man in 5b has something he wants to tell Jennifer. His rankings cause her to stop and think about what they mean. There are secrets there and it might be too late to try to run again. This book is well written and is one hell of a thriller. Can you stay to the end and see what Redwood has to offer you?

Thank you to netgalley as well as the author for allowing me to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you #NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to review this ARC from author L.A. Detwiler. Another 5 star chilling page turner, "The Redwood Asylum: A Paranormal Horror" to be released on March 12, 2021.

The main character, Jessica is running from "something" from her past. She accepts a position at "The Redwood Asylum" in Redwood, where criminally insane and disturbed are held. Jessica thinks this new town and new job will help her forget her past. The suspense of what she is trying to escape is nail biting.

If you like reading about spirits wanting redemption, the afterlife, this book is a must read. The characters almost jump out of the pages!

I'm delighted to hear a prequel is in process for this story, I'm so looking forward to reading it. This is the 3rd book I have read by this incredible author.

The Redwood Asylum is happy to hire a nurse as qualified as Jessica and Jessica is happy to escape her past by working in the halls of Redwood. Assigned to floor 5, the most difficult floor, Jessica meets Mr. Essic who is known to the staff as 5B. 5B feverishly draws children, always in a single color and in various states of horror. According to 5B these children torment him and he is sure that Jessica is here to make them stop. One night 5B convinces Jessica to take some drawings home and her boring, simple life or work, sleep, tv, repeat is turned upside down.
I enjoyed Redwood Asylum. The description of "little red' was especially effective, scampering around with her head flailing back and forth, wobbling around atop her neck. So vivid and creepy..
#Netgalley #TheRedwoodAsylum

Another freaking creepy book by L.A Detailer! I don't recommend reading this in bed at night hahah. I was glad the story of Redwood got its own bok! After reading The Christmas Bell I wanted to know more!

There was definitely something very odd happening in this asylum from the beginning. I would also probably be listening to the patients over the staff. Knowing how bad mental Health hospitals are these days this honestly doesn't surprise me at all.

It definitely would be extremely creepy to be seeing ghosts of dead kids at the hospital and then at your own house.

I don't want to spoil the ending but I highly recommend this!! Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me to read this!

This was an interesting story but I didn't find it riveting or edge of your seat reading. I just didn't feel any intensity in the scary scenes and I was really just reading it out of curiosity to see where it would end up. I wasn't reading urgently or excitedly at all. The actual storyline has merit and I believe it could be quite powerful if written differently. Greater scene setting and character development such as can be found in abundance in Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir could lift this from being an average read into a must-read.

I received this arc from netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

"Not all madness gets locked up. Sometimes the maddest are left free, stalking about the world sucking up life."

Redwood Asylum was every bit the thrilling and horrifying read the title promises. Like many horror movies with a similar plot, how things will end is always unclear. Redwood is set in a remote town surrounded by a truly secluded forest where even the towns residents turn the other way. The heroine Jessica is on the run from her life and needs somewhere to lay low. Redwood fits the bill to the T. As a trained nurse, Redwood hires her on the spot and seems to fully appreciate her skills. However as you read on each page delivers a horrible sense of foreboding and you just want her to run. Unfortunately Jessica gets sucked into the life of Redwood and it's residents. She wants to help them however she can, ghosts be damned. Even the employees acknowledge the existence of ghosts at Redwood and basically tell her to keep her head down and they'll leave her alone. Haunted by her own past Jessica just can't let go and it'll either be her downfall or salvation. Time will tell!

"Some sins can't be cleansed by helping another. Some sins are ours to carry."

Every other chapter is told from Jessica's POV. At others it's as if Redwood itself is telling a story. Bit by bit pieces of it's history come to light and the more you learn the scarier it all becomes. Even Jessica wants to deny the questionable ethics occurring at Redwood. But it's 2020 and in modern times the asylum behaviors of the past can't possibly still be happening today can they??? This was a really great chilling read and one horror fans will truly appreciate. Aside from a few editing mistakes I have no complaints and really enjoyed the book.

There are few more perfect genre locales than an asylum. Asylums are so naturally creepy they practically do most of the job for the authors. All the authors have to do is throw an original spin on the story and write it down well. And Detwiler did that. More or less.
I mean, it isn’t that original, it has ghosts, tons of ghosts, all over the place. Well, duh, of course it would have ghosts. Redwood has been around for a long time and, in fact, the most striking thing about it is that it’s been maintained very much like a facility of a bygone age, the same concept…the wealthy locking away their embarrassments, the same style of therapy…the wrong backwards kind, the same creepy goings on.
But it’s a job and our protagonist, 26 year old Jessica, needs one, having left her previous situation somewhat abruptly with nothing much outside of a plan to get away as far and as quickly as possible. At Redwood no one asks too many questions or check too many facts prior to hiring, a fact that in itself should raise questions, but…needs must and all that.
Now Jessica is stuck working on the violent criminal floor and there are ghosts all around and they seem to be zeroing in on her…for some mysterious reason. Is she going to mind it? Is her mind going? It’s a puzzle that needs solving and she is determined to do just that, at any cost. Which is really a terrible approach to puzzle solving or a variety of other things.
So what worked, what didn’t. Well, first and foremost it’s a coherent, competently written ghost tale. Very heavy on ghosts. The descriptions are quite good, Redwood and surrounding areas are very atmospheric and appropriately creepy. Jessica is a decent enough of a protagonist. The pacing…needed something. It doesn’t seem like enough of a story for the page count and might have been more effective as a shorter work. The main detractor…there’s something about the writing, something that makes me think of both YA and romance (this is the opposite of a compliment), something that’s somewhat overwrought and overwritten, maybe even goth is a way. It isn’t overwhelming by any means, but it’s there and for me it prevented the story from reaching its maximum potential. Which is to say, it should have been scarier by all means, In even read it at night, but instead it just made me sleepy or sleepier.
So expect paced and measured and somewhat mild thrills and you’ll be pleased enough, it’s getting a prequel it seems too, because of course, why leave a perfectly good fictional ghost laden asylum alone.
Decent, decently entertaining, nothing special, nothing terrible and reads pretty quickly, can easily be done in one sitting. Fans of supernatural fiction heavy on ghosts might enjoy this. Thanks Netgalley.

Redwood Asylum is probably the creepiest, scariest, most terrifying story I have read in a very long time!

This was an up all night book because I couldn’t put it down, and honestly, I was to creeped out to turn off the lights!

The whole book had a vibe of sinister that was so disturbing! It gave you that not right in the stomach feeling!

Jessica is starting over and her new job is at Redwood. It’s a psychiatric facility that once was an insane asylum for the rich and powerful. It has a history of being haunted which is kept quiet by those who work there. It is full of secrets, and has an air of shadiness about its day to day operations.

Jessica is tormented by the ghosts of the resident in 5B, and others that roam the halls of Redwood. You are taken on a horrifying ride as Jessica unravels the secrets of the living and the dead.

This was an exceptionally written tale. There is something about the tone and the writing that is so unique. L.A. Detwiler’s words gives you those heart pounding moments that make you want to hide and read on at the same time.

If you are a fan of horror, ghosts, and being creeped out, you must read Redwood Asylum!

Redwood Asylum is available March 12th 2021.

I was home today for a snow day and I was thrilled to learn my request had been granted an ARC of The Redwood Asylum: A Paranormal Horror. I couldn't wait to dive in as I'm a sucker for anything asylum related. It was a morning well spent!
I read this book in it entirety in one sitting. It was fast paced and pretty darn creepy. I'm not normally a paranormal horror reader but I loved this book. Jessica, the main character, was likable and relatable and the characters she encounters and the asylum itself made my skin crawl. Several parts made me pause and look away. I hope I never see any of these people/ghosts in my dreams, I might need a room myself somewhere.
The ending was not what I'd hoped for but well done nonetheless. I feel a few loose ends were left untied but not enough to ruin the book. I will definitely be reading more books from L.A. Detwiler.
Thank you to Xpresso Book Tours and Netgalley for this ARC in enchange for my honest review.

When Jessica decided to take up the nurse's position at Redwood Asylum little did she know the horrors that await her inside.
Jessica is teamed up with Anna a lady that had worked at Redwood for years as her mother before her.
Starting on floor five which is where the most 'insane' patients are housed Jessica becomes attached to 5B the man that is residing there.
When Jessica is given pictures that the man has drawn little do she know that she will be taking home the horror of what he has drawn.
The ghosts of children start appearing before her wanting answers for their deaths,slowly Redwood gets its claws into Jessica but will she escape unharmed?

This is one of my favorite genres. I was excited to read by description alone however it didn’t hit the mark for me. I am sure for others they will enjoy I just had a tough time of it.

First, my thanks to NetGalley and the author for allowing me to read an advance copy of this work.

Unfortunately, I cannot recommend it. It’s so very badly written. I confess, I could only get through the first 20%.

Billed as a “spine-tingling page turner,” there is absolutely nothing spine-tingling about it. I wasn’t scared, or even worried, not once. That’s because I was never drawn into the story, much less invited to suspend my disbelief. The author was too busy telegraphing, signaling, even telling me I should be scared. But she never once created or put me in the middle of a scene that evoked any sort of fear.

Part of the problem is that the characters, their reasons for doing things, their dialogue, the back-stories, even the asylum itself are all thoroughly unbelievable. Characters repeatedly say and do things that just don’t make sense. The history of the asylum doesn’t make sense. And the author’s research into asylums, mental hospitals, and care-giving seemed woefully inadequate.

Another part of the problem is the author’s failure to create characters we care about. Here, our protagonist is a nurse with some sort of skeleton in her closet who has come to the asylum ostensibly to get away from it all. That’s just not enough of a hook to keep us going. We’re never told what she looks like, or what she wants out of life, or what she really cares about.

Plus, the writing itself—the choice of words, the construction of sentences—is plainly sub-par. Filled with awkward phrasing, the overuse of adjectives, passive voice, and endless repetition, it left me feeling I was in the hands of an amateur, rather than the “USA Today Bestseller” touted by the cover art. (So amateurish, in fact, that in my Kindle version, on the Kindle cover page, “Asylum” is spelled “Asyum.)”

There’s just nothing about this novel to recommend it, so it gets one star.