This book had all the makings of a great mystery and completely fell flat. I've seen the "twist" before with the same type of character. As a matter of fact, I read a book earlier in the year that did the twist and the character yet I still loved it. I wanted more about the Sleep Room and the patients in the room. Instead I got story story story wait for it wait for it wait for it twist end. Bah I Say. ( )

A lot could have been edited here. ( )

A young psychiatrist gets the chance to work with his idol at an isolated asylum out in the countryside. He is especially interested in The Sleep Room, where young women are kept in an almost-perpetual state of sleep in an attempt to cure their seeming neuroses. But when mysterious things keep happening all around him, he is forced to consider that there may be more than meets the eye in this world.

This is one creepy, suspenseful book! I'm automatically interested in ghost stories, and when they are set in an isolated asylum, especially one with a mysterious room, I'm doubly interested.

And the last chapter is mind blowing! It's one of those that made me gasp out loud when I read it.

The ending was amazing, but the rest of the book was just okay. It moves a little slowly, and then the last few chapters (besides the last one) feel rushed on their way to a conclusion.

This is by no means a bad read, it's a good one, just not a great one until the very last chapter. ( )

A well told story of a psychiatrist in an out of the way hospital. It seems that science can't explain everything that happens there. Or maybe it can. ( )

From Amazon:

When promising young psychiatrist James Richardson is offered the job opportunity of a lifetime by the charismatic Dr. Hugh Maitland, he is thrilled. Setting off to take up his post at Wyldehope Hall in deepest Suffolk, Richardson doesn’t look back. One of his tasks is to manage Maitland’s most controversial project—a pioneering therapy in which extremely disturbed patients are kept asleep for months. If this radical and potentially dangerous procedure is successful, it could mean professional glory for both doctors.

As Richardson settles into his new life, he begins to sense something uncanny about the sleeping patients—six women, forsaken by society. Why is Maitland unwilling to discuss their past lives? Why is the trainee nurse so on edge when she spends nights alone with them? And what can it mean when all the sleepers start dreaming at the same time? In this atmospheric reinvention of the ghost story, Richardson finds himself questioning everything he knows about the human mind, as he attempts to uncover the shocking secrets of The Sleep Room.

My Thoughts:

I enjoyed reading the book. The atmospheric setting of an old asylum on the windswept coast of England in the 1950's with unusual goings on and one lone doctor was a winner for me. However, I hate to admit this, but I did not understand the ending. Maybe I was more distracted than usual while reading this, but I was thrown for a loop at the end. I would give it 3 stars, but since I could not understand the ending, I have to take one away.
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