Wow, really?  That’s right, folks.  I wrote, like, two pages more on Dreamwalkers!

But what I’d really like to talk about today is how freaking excited I am for the new season of American Horror Story.

While I am disappointed that many of the major characters from Season One are not returning, nor will the haunting take place at the same house, I am thrilled that this season will be taking place in an asylum.  There is nothing I love better than a good old-fashioned story about mental hospitals.  It doesn’t even need to be a horror story – because being crazy is horrific in and of itself.  This is the whole reason I majored in psychology my first time through college!

So many of my favorite novels take place in asylums, I decided to make a list:

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

The ultimate book about going crazy… Compared to many other books (some below) that were thinly veiled memoirs, The Bell Jar is easy to follow, full of poetic imagery, and makes it seem almost normal to be crazy.

I Never Promised You a Rose Garden by Joanna Greenberg

The narrator of this story is so insane she has created a complete universe inside of her head, full of barbarians with their own language.  No wonder she has some difficulty talking… The movie version of this book was really well done and helped make the narrative a bit clearer.

Faces in the Water by Janet Frame

Yet another book about a woman in a mental hospital in the 1960s, with all kinds of fascinating treatments.

Cut by Patricia McCormick

The first and only modern mental hospital on my list!  This story about a girl who cuts herself and refuses to speak to her therapist actually focuses on the mental illness rather than the cruel, inhumane treatment of the mentally ill.