4.5 of 5 stars
My Five Word TL:DR Review : Still Thinking About This Book

This is one of the most unusual books I’ve ever read and I’m still thinking about it even now whilst writing my review. Of necessity, I think this will be fairly short because I don’t want to give away any spoilers and there’s a lot of potential to spoil this for others.

So, this is a gothic horror story, a story of asylums at their worst, a story of having choices taken from you in the most insidious way. It’s also a psychological thriller with a good dose of mystery that keeps you literally glued to the page. On top of that it’s the most curious mix of possibly slightly futuristic setting offset by the oddest 50s style feel to the asylum. I couldn’t help thinking of a curious mash up of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (a female only version) and The Stepford Wives.

This is a tale of two sisters. Morgan, the surviving sister feels guilt over her sister’s death and is determined to get to the bottom of it, so much so that she dons a new persona in order to infiltrate (by which I mean she intends to have herself committed) to the asylum where her sister spent her last months. Morgan has a troubled background of substance abuse and her sister Hadleigh usually rallied to the cause. The two were close until Hadleigh became involved in a relationship and their easy going banter dried up leaving both feeling a little stranded.

The setting is predominantly Hollyhock Asylum, a privately run institution that uses an impressive and modern facade to showcase its work whilst behind the curtain lies a totally different and much more sinister story. The place has a long history and ghosts and spirits of the dead definitely play a role. On top of this the director, Althea Edevane, is a very unusual character. Sinister in her calmness and with her own ulterior motive. The asylum has this weird (as I mentioned above) 50s feel. There are home rooms and craft rooms where the women are encouraged to clean and knit and undertake other domestic duties while wearing headphones that provide a strange diatribe that runs on a constant loop.

In terms of the characters. We pick up a picture of the relationship between the sisters through text messages and the odd flashback of events. On top of this we have the character of Charlotte. Charlotte is the fake persona that Morgan assumed in order to be admitted to the asylum. This is a facade that she has been wearing for a good year and is about to become problematic. Given Morgan’s past she is a somewhat unreliable character in some respects and her addictive nature perhaps leads this double identity she’s living to lead to a real crisis with Charlotte becoming the more dominant player. This aspect of the story becomes a central focus with Morgan frequently being unaware of her own actions and learning of events in retrospect.

I loved the writing and the style of story telling using police reports, text messages and flashbacks. This is a style that works really well for me although I would advise patience because it takes a little while for things to play out and I would say that for the first quarter of the book I felt as though I wasn’t grasping everything totally, but you need to press on in that respect.

I would also say that this book might not be for everyone. There is a good dose of horror and also the underlying corruption of the asylum and what the director is trying to achieve could be triggering for some readers.

That being said this is a fascinating story but it’s not the type of book that you put down and say it was fantastic because it’s so mind bending and also a little worrying. I found myself putting this down and having a long hard think about the underlying message here which for me revolves around women’s rights and the current trend that seems to be one of regression. Here we seem to have flipped back to a more Victorian state where husbands could have their wives committed on a whim if they were becoming troublesome. That’s why these inmates are force fed this banal domestic routine whilst being served up a dose of brain washing at the same time. It makes you stop and really think. The author isn’t trying to bash you over the head with this, you can simply read this for the story it delivers but for me it was so much more and I think I will probably continue to think about this for a good long while.

Gothic goodness, creepiness aplenty, mind bending psychosis, horror and gore and a strange story involving the mystery of two sisters.

I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.

Wow! What the hell did I just read!?

This was such a wild ride, part mystery, part horror I had no idea going into this what I was in for.

Morgan Bright blames herself for her sister’s untimely death and believes Hollyhock Asylum had something to do with it. To say she gets in over her head is a bit of an understatement.

The exposition in this was masterful, it appears to take place in multiple eras and the way the story unfolds is SO appealing. Definitely some WTF moments as well.

This is definitely a book that, once you get into it, is impossible to put down. It’s told through prose, interviews, and text messages and I loved how all three came together.

Get this one on your radar!!

3.5 stars

Thank you to Angry Robot and NetGalley for my review copy.

This book was fun. Straight away, it drops you into a place where you can't quite tell what is going on. Hollyhock is a weird place, with an amalgamation of decades leads you to be unsure when this story is set.

It's slightly slow to start to unravel the mystery of what exactly is going on, but I found this compelling as it was intertwined with breadcrumbs as to what is happening and I really enjoyed trying to pierce together what exactly was happening from what I had read, and what information I got in the blurb.

The horror in this is a mix of body horror, psychological horror and kind of almost eldritch horror and to me, it is a brilliant mix of the three.

I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would and it was a very engaging read.

A big thankyou to NetGalley and Angry Robot for my Arc of this book!

Fewer buildings hold the levels of mystique and terror than that of the abandoned psychiatric hospital. It is no secret that the methods involved in mental health treatment have drastically changed for the better over the years, and it is also no secret that the majority of treatments administered to past patients are utterly unfathomable today. Old treatment methods are dark relics of the past, held within the asylum, and thus old asylums exist today as a conduit for the unimaginable… until they are on the page. The innate horror of ‘The Redemption of Morgan Bright’ is multifaceted. Through dredging up and breathing terrible life into the horrors of the past, Chris Panatier masterfully draws attention to very real horrors in our present.

Chris Panatier’s novel follows Morgan Bright, a woman who infiltrates the asylum in which her sister Hadleigh was at first committed, and then fell victim to. Morgan takes on the fake name and persona of ‘Charlotte Turner’, but as the mystery of Hollyhock asylum grows and mutates into something unexpected, so too does the personality of Charlotte. The doubling of identities and personas is not a new phenomenon in horror, and there are various previous examples of this being exploited. The same cannot be said for Panatier, who I found to be careful and respectful. Morgan and her constructed persona Charlotte are diametrically opposed, and this manifests itself in fears that I had never really considered. In particular, the idea of acting in a way so inherently different to your core values but then later having no memory of it, and the heightened effects of imposter syndrome in a place that strips you of your core identity. Hollyhock asylum is a place of disorientation and exploitation, and this acts as fertile ground for conversations around autonomy and personal identity.

The novel falls into three distinct and interchanging formats: Morgan in the asylum, investigative transcripts involving Morgan and detectives following the destruction of Hollyhock, and text message transcripts between Morgan and her sister Hadleigh that take place months and years before the events of the story. Sometimes I struggle with alternating character perspectives or timelines, but I felt that this worked particularly well with this novel. Our time spent in the asylum begins in mystery and slowly devolves into madness, and these interludes give much needed missing information and/or respite from the asylum.

Hollyhock is a woman-only asylum and without going into spoiler territory, the gendered aspect of the hospital is front and central. Many of the women incarcerated are held with a condition known as ‘domestic psychosis’, an indiscriminate illness based on ‘delusions’ and ‘hallucinations’. The likeness to hysteria, an archaic ‘condition’ used purely for the control and manipulation of women, seems obvious and deliberate. Even while science and medicine progress for the better, the misogyny infused in the politics of it all remains as present and rampant as ever.

Indeed, the novel’s relevance to the world today is perhaps the most frightening aspect of the novel. We would all love to lock away the dreadful experimental treatments that patients have endured, we would all love to move past how mental illness has been weaponised as a method of manipulating women and their autonomy, but this is not the reality. Panatier exposes the dreadful reality of our present by releasing the ghosts of the past, showing that redemption is still far far away.

Okay, this book was amazing. It was just... unputdownable, frankly. I was so curious about so many things! None of which I can tell you about! So I will do my best to highlight what I loved that I can tell you about:

►The format! Oh, how I love when authors change things up. In this one, the story is told through typical storytelling fashion, but also through the use of interviews, which I dig. A lot. Especially considering the mystery element.

►The setting and atmosphere were perfectly on point. I mean, we all know that the midwest can be a little... iffy, especially in the middle of nowhere. But add an old, sketchy "asylum" to the mix and you know it is going to deliver.

►There is a website in the book that is a real website you can visit! You have no idea how happy this made me. I'd read the book first for context. But it's kind of the best.

►The commentary is fabulous. I mean, sure, come for the mystery and creepiness, but very much stay for the extremely relevant real talk about... actually no it might be spoilery to give you the details, just... it's going to make you stabby but that is the point.

►I really, really felt for Morgan. I mean, she has been through it. Both her past and present pull at the heartstrings, and she is a surprisingly complex and well developed character, especially considering the genre, and the fact that we spend a chunk of the book with not-Morgan at the helm!

►There is just so much absolutely bananas stuff going on, I just could not stop reading! There were a lot of twists and surprises and "oh shit!" moments that made this book so, so readable.

There may have been one or two tiny points I had wished had been expanded on a bit at the end, but that is me being way too nitpicky, honestly. I can't even take off a half star for it, so yeah.

Bottom Line: This book needs no redemption, for it was awesome.

Well okay then. That was a RIDE! Trigger warnings: all? Most for sure. This is a dark, twisting, madhouse of a book and appropriately so. I didn't like any of the characters, and yet I loved every second of watching them play out this story - proof that you don't need likeable characters to make a truly great story. Panatier has won a new fan with this story and with his moving afterword where he explains his reasons for telling a tale so female-centric (which he does remarkable well I might add). I had to read this in small bites to digest everything that was happening, and I never had any issues picking it back up. I gave a daily synopsis to my partner just to try and talk through the insanity and genius of the storytelling. Seriously, if you can handle the content, pick this up. It's amazing.

**Thank you NetGalley and Angry Robot for the eARC**

A huge, huge thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC!

The halls of Hollyhock Asylum house secrets of the darkest variety, including the truth of what really happened to Hadleigh Keene. To uncover these truths, her sister Morgan voluntarily commits herself to this place that seems to covet so much darkness. Only, to do so, she cannot be Morgan, she must be Charlotte Turner, a woman who suffers from a seemingly perplexing condition in this day and age. Of course, nothing is as it seems, a reality that becomes glaringly obvious as Charlotte becomes more than just a cover, and Morgan must fight tooth and nail to keep herself grounded in reality.

At first glance, The Redemption of Morgan Bright sounds very much like a psychological horror novel given the key setting is that of an asylum. However, as events transpire, it becomes abundantly clear that the horrors of Hollyhock exceed this plane of existence by tapping into fears of the abstract. Questions of identity, presence, and culpability thrive in the treatment of patients at Hollyhock, which are unorthodox, to say the least. While horror surrounding mental health is not a new endeavor, Panatier manages to exaggerate our mistrust of unconventional mental health institutions, bringing the terror to a whole new level.

All of this is possible through the use of repeated disorientation. The structure of this novel is formed through a series of interview transcripts and recollections of events at Hollyhock from the witness being questioned police. While we may think we understand who is being interviewed and the various elements of the setting, our expectations are frequently subverted, breeding room for copious amounts of unease and uncertainty. This disorientation makes each scene of gore, inhumane treatment, or cruelty infinitely more frightening given that the reality of Hollyhock remains elusive. Compounded with this very active, external conflict, Morgan battles inner strife; her past is filled with trauma that also calls into question how reliable of a narrator she really is, especially through the creation of Charlotte. As Morgan’s disorientation and distrust of Hollyhock grows, so does her mistrust of her own mind. What is more frightening than a self you no longer recognize, know, or trust?

While all of these aspects of internal conflict, external conflict, and confusion create a mysterious narrative, the defining feature of this novel is the encapsulation of sheer, unbridled fear that women face in the present day. With Morgan losing her grip on reality, we also experience her loss of autonomy. She can no longer make sense of the world around her yet is subject to various acts and practices that ultimately revoke her sense of choice. These ideas are explored through scenes of visceral horror, exemplifying just how terrifying the loss of control over one’s own body, one’s own mind, can be. Give Chris Panatier his flowers now; Morgan’s plight for truth and survival reflects the deepest universal fears women in this country share now and our greater fight to remain in control of our own selves.

A novel that delivers on the deepest of corporeal and psychological terrors, The Redemption of Morgan Bright is a masterful achievement in fear that exceeds that of the individual. Morgan’s search for the truth functions as a compulsive mystery that descends into sheer madness as she comes to understand the bleak reality of her situation. The effort and research Chris Panatier has devoted to Morgan’s story is not only evident but profound, especially in a time such as this, where the fears exemplified in this novel are synonymous with the fears of our own reality.

Excellent, simply excellent! This book hooks you from the very first page, when things make absolutely no sense, keeps your head spinning through amazing revelations and twists, and takes you deeper and deeper into an amazing and intricate plot till the very end! Marvelously written, masterfully paced, it's an engrossing read simply asking the reder to go blind into it and guarantees an immersive experience. The mystery is palpable, the cultish overtones extremely well-done, and the brilliant epistolary-like style fits the novel like a glove. I really wish I had NOT read the synopsis: it gives too much away; on the other hand, I meant it when I said that in the beginning things make little sense and, unless, you have some idea where this is going, you may give it up. Stick with it: 20 pages in and you won't be able to put it down. It's not a slow-burn, not a fast-paced adventure either, some parts are quite cerebral, others subtly violent, but never grossly so (well, only a bit; check triggers). If you need a label, this is feminism horror, combined with some very strong supernatural elements you have to figure out for yourself. I highly recommend it!

What an excellent read. I loved how dark and twisted this was. I do believe Morgan suffered from a mental break at the hands of Enid, which helped to 'birth' Charlotte. It's as the doctor said, Morgan was already assuming the role of Charlotte, so it made it easier for her to disappear into the character she'd made.

This book showcases just how badly women suffered at the hands of institutes because, despite some of the more unrealistic things that happened in the book (the supernatural aspects) history doesn't lie. So many women died in places like these simply for having an opinion, or for failing in the eyes of their husbands to be a good, subservient, housewife.

Also imagine being annoyed that the author brought up Roe vs Wade in his afterword. Imagine hating an author using his platform and books to speak out on something that is so dehumanising to women and how horrible it is that their bodily autonomy is so easily taken away because of the government. I'm thankful to have not been born in America because that is some Handmaid's Tale shit right there.

What a mindwarp of a story! I loved the structure, with the multi-media aspects. It’s a creepy, unsettling, terrifying, disturbing, nightmare-inducing, psychological/paranormal horror. Especially considering that much of what the book is based on are things that actually happened in asylums. It kept me hooked and the reveals were brilliant. It will probably be one of my favorite horror books of the year. It definitely shook me and left me thinking, wtf is going on here, in the best way possible. This one will insert itself into your brain and never let you go.

The Redemption of Morgan Bright is an unsettling, psychological horror novel. It follows Morgan Bright and her decision to infiltrate an asylum in order to seek out the truth regarding her sister's death.

I found Panatier's writing style to be very enjoyable to read. I found myself eager to return to the book despite how unsettling it was and even when I wasn't reading it, I was mulling over what I had read over and over again in my head and discussing it with others in my every day life. The one thing I would have to say is that some of the language within the book was jarring to read and I found myself Googling or querying exactly what a word meant. Therefore I would say it can be quite a disruptive read in some areas.

The story as a whole was intriguing. I was very intrigued by the scenario which the blurb had set up - a woman infiltrating an asylum to find out why her sister had died? Who wouldn't be interested in that? However, I did find that I had more questions than answers towards the end. I felt as though everything was more of a fever dream and you never really found out what happened to anyone within the story.

Following on from that it is a very disturbing read. There was moments which made me very uncomfortable and I had to give myself a couple of moments before returning to the book. I am not usually a horror genre fan (be that films or books) so I am sensitive to it, others might find this very basic. For me though, it did nail the horror aspect.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, Angry Robot Books, for allowing me the opportunity to read and review this eARC.

This book had me hooked from page one. The writing style is so captivating and the inclusion of different perspectives, interviews, text messages and research all add to the story in a brilliant way that leaves you fighting to keep up with everything you're being told so that figuring out the next step seems impossible. The further I got into this story the more it felt like I was becoming unmoored and I was unravelling but I couldn't put it down.

Right from the start you know something really strange is happening and the switch from one perspective to another so quickly is incredibly jarring. It gets darker and more twisted as the book goes on and I have to admit that I did not see that ending coming at all!

The book does deal with some difficult topics including sexual assault, homophobia, mental illness, mistreatment of patients, forced birth, death, and self-harm. However it deals with these things well and there is no violence for the sake of it.

At the end of the day, this book and story was not what I was expecting and it was all the better for it.

I'd advise going in almost blind to this one - I think the summary given on Goodreads (and many of the reviews on here) give away far too much that isn't revealed that close to the start of the book. Here is my own spoiler-free summary (sorry, I'm not an author so it's not going to be great!):

In the near future, after a change in Nebraska law, a wife can be involuntarily committed to a mental health institution by her husband if she has been diagnosed with “domestic psychosis”. Charlotte is one such patient. Eager to heal her mind and desperate to have a baby, she embraces the lifestyle at Hollyhock, but her strange lapses in memory may be obscuring deeper issues.

Review:

This novel is a feminist horror with supernatural elements, reminiscent in some ways of Don't Worry Darling, Stepford Wives, Handmaid's Tale, and Delicate Condition.

I loved the epistolary sections between chapters, consisting of the notes made by one of the characters, texts, and interviews - they did a fantastic job of propelling the mystery onwards and introducing new threads and questions that surprised and intrigued me! I also really appreciated the inclusion of real facts about the methods and equipment used in old asylums that served to make the whole thing feel more realistic and horrific.

There were lots of serious themes touched on in this novel, and dealt with very sensitively, including addiction, guilt, mental health, and feminism. There are other content warnings relating to this novel that I won't list here because I think they may give away too much of the plot, but see my Goodreads review and click on the spoiler tag if you would like to know what they are.

This is a nightmare onion of a book, where every layer you peel away reveals something even more disturbing.

The DSM is now in its eleventh edition and the medical model’s pathologisation of mental health is alive and well. Flavour of the edition is domestic psychosis, proving once again that, no matter how far in the past the 1950’s are, there will be groups of people intent on replicating the worst parts of it.

Morgan Bright has recently been diagnosed with domestic psychosis so she’s the newest patient at Hollyhock. Charlotte Andrew Turner arrives that day too. Their relationship is … complicated.

“But I’m telling you, there’s something off with her.”

I read 35 books between my first and second reads of this book; the reread was even better. I agonised over this review for months, trying to figure out the best way of shoving this book in your face and hollering ‘Read this!’ without including all of the things I need to talk about but can’t because spoilers. I have turned myself inside out over this, so much so that I’m convinced I can never visit Nebraska, just in case someone from Hollyhock finds me.

I loved trying to figure out Charlotte. This is probably the only time in my life that my thought process will be ‘Dissociative Identity Disorder? Nah, too easy. Tulpa?’ The fact that DID could ever be the easy option should give you a hint of the horrors that await you at Hollyhock.

“This isn’t the type of thing you just dump on someone. I wouldn’t want your brain to collapse.”

It’s all the more horrifying because the majority of the evils perpetrated against women in this book are committed by other women. This somehow makes it worse. If you see Enid in your travels, please be sure to take a cleansing breath and punch her for me.

This book is guilt, grief and paper dolls. The body horror is sublime and oh so squishy.

“It’s beautiful in that way.”

If you’ve read even a couple of my reviews, it’s likely you’ve heard about how I sent an email to the address listed in the book and it bounced back. Or that I visited the website only to discover it doesn’t exist. You may have witnessed me mumbling to myself about missed marketing opportunities. And if I ever write a book… And maybe one day…

Well, I’m here to tell you that one of my longest standing bookish dreams has come true! There’s a website mentioned in this book and it actually exists, and it’s glorious! Every time I think about it my smile becomes as wide as the women photographed on its pages. And I’m fine. Really. This is not an indication that you need to refer me to Hollyhock. Please don’t send me to Hollyhock!

So, is there a happily ever after? Why, yes, the book does have an ending. Thank you for asking.

Welcome to Hollyhock. Come for the food.* Stay for the twirling. We hope you enjoy your stay.

Content warnings include addiction, death by suicide, mental health, self harm, sexual assault and suicidal ideation.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Angry Robot for the opportunity to read this book.

* BYO coffee.

This book is horribly creepy!!! Stars and Stripes but I had chills. The cover is beautiful, belying the unsettling content within. You want to keep reading to find out what happened, but at the same time are also scared of what’s to come. So happy I was privileged enough to receive an arc of this novel.

What would guilt make you do?

A blend of a mystery with horror. A story of trauma and guilt a well thought out plan that goes wrong set in a psychiatric hospital Hollyhock Asylum the story of Morgan Bright and her alter ego Charlotte Turner told through mixed media (police interviews) and pov from Morgan and Charlotte.
This book sucked me in straight away. It left me feeling slightly confused at time's but also wanting more.

I finished this one today and even though I rated it three stars, I wouldn’t call the book bad, it just wasn’t for me.
Things I did like:
- the writing style was honestly formidable and draws you right in, very captivating way of storytelling
- The change of normal chapters with excerpts of the interview with the main character

I liked the story in the beginning and where the author was going with it, I couldn’t stop reading it but then things kind of took a sci-fi turn about 75-80% in which I wasn’t the biggest fan of hence the three stars rating. It’s a great book, it just isn’t for everybody.


Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher, Angry Robot, for providing me with this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Holy shit this was a wild ride. The "cold open" style beginning hooked me immediately and established the sense of unease and amnesiac confusion that really helped put me in the protagonist's shoes. The author held NOTHING back in the buildup to the weird-ass final reveal and I absolutely LOVED it! I wish more books would double down on the weirdness and terror like this one. Morgan was a wonderfully complex and morally grey (at best) protagonist, and the story was an (unfortunately) very timely scenario to explore in a post Roe v. Wade country that is rapidly moving backwards on women's rights.

Through skillful storytelling, Chris Panatier blends elements of psychological horror and mystery in “The Redemption of Morgan Bright,” creating an immersive and unsettling world of psychiatric care gone awry.

The story follows Morgan Bright, who sets on a dangerous journey to uncover the truth behind her sister Hadleigh’s mysterious injuries and subsequent escape from Hollyhock Asylum. With the help of her friend Darius, Morgan infiltrates the asylum under false identities, delving into its dark secrets and confronting the horrors lurking within its walls.

Panatier’s narrative is intricately woven, alternating between standard prose and epistolary content such as police interviews, articles, and texts, which add depth to the story’s unfolding mysteries. Through these diverse perspectives, readers are drawn deeper into the intricate web of relationships and secrets that drive the narrative forward.

At the heart of the story lies the complex dynamic between Morgan and Hadleigh, fraught with bitterness and heartbreak, as well as the enigmatic relationship between Morgan and her alter ego, Charlotte. Panatier masterfully blurs the lines between reality and illusion, leaving readers questioning the true nature of the protagonist’s identity.

Set against the backdrop of Hollyhock Asylum, a relic of the past with its antiquated and sinister practices, the novel explores themes of manipulation, control, and the blurred boundaries between sanity and madness. Panatier’s descriptions are so vivid, they give you the creeps and stick with you even after you finish the book.

“The Redemption of Morgan Bright” is a thought-provoking exploration of grief, guilt, and love, navigating through the darkest recesses of the human psyche. While the narrative may feel choppy at times, Panatier’s evocative prose and compelling storytelling make for a captivating read that will leave you questioning the boundaries of reality.

With its atmospheric horror, “The Redemption of Morgan Bright” is a must-read for fans of psychological thrillers and Gothic fiction. Despite its unsettling and unresolved questions, the novel provides a fulfilling and contemplative experience that will stay with you well beyond the last page.

I am in utter awe of what I just read. mind twisting and horrific in all the right ways, I was engrossed and on the edge of my seat for most of the book, regardless that its not my typical read. I feel this book will appeal to a broad variety of horror readers (and a lot of thriller readers too) in a way they may not expect while browsing the shelves