Freakhouse

FREAKHOUSE

Welcome to Lantham County, your safe-haven from the pain and uncertainty of the ever-growing economic crisis. Thanks to the revolutionary developments at the Dr. Julius Ellis Lantham Institution, you will want for nothing as you live comfortably and securely in our guaranteed family-safe neighbourhoods. Lantham, a place for everyone!

And everyone in their place…

Dotan Abbott has spent the past five years as inmate 001014126. His crime? Being orphaned as a teenager in a world where everyone needs a proper place to belong. Now on his twentieth birthday, Dotan enters into a new role within the Institution known as the Freakhouse. In here, all adult inmates contribute to the greater good of society by assisting medical research as test subjects. While it isn’t the best birthday present, it is an initiation that will bring him closer to his friends and roommates, making him a Freak just like the rest of them. But an unexpected encounter from his past leaves Dotan to reconsider where he truly belongs.

PARISH

The Freakhouse story continues….

After five years as inmate 001014126, Dotan Abbott has caused his last problem in the Freakhouse – or at least that’s what the Institution is trying to ensure.

Stripped of his free and pampered life in D46, Dotan is taken into the very bowels of the Institution where the adult criminals are kept – Zero Block. In here, Dotan must find his place among a new gruesome group – his very survival depends upon it. If only he were as concerned about his own survival as his Docs are.

The once gentle-spirited Blanky is now a broken man, barely keeping afloat – and barely wanting to. If his Docs want him alive, they’ll have to give him a reason to live.

News

Cover reveal on Monday February 27th, I will send out a backers only message for those who have pledged to the project by then! They will get the first view of the new cover.

Cover reveal on Thursday March 2nd, I will send out a sneak-peak email to my newsletter subscribers.

Parish, the sequel to Freakhouse, will be released Summer 2017

What's Been Said

I'm biased, I wrote it, and if nothing else, I'll always be glad that I accepted a new challenge into my life, that the creation of it moved me, and that the reading of it moves others.

Ashley Newell
May 17, 2014

Ashley Newell's newest publication, Freakhouse, may be a dystopian drama, but for some reason the theme isn't what will stick with you once you've reached the last page. That isn't to say that it's weak; on the contrary, the world of the Freakhouse with its human experimentation and prison-like construction will definitely get you thinking about human rights and the things society will do to fix an "economic crisis." Even more so you'll think about just how much people will accept in terms of outrageous strategies so long as they work for the people who aren't on the wrong end of the syringe. And in an enlightening twist Newell shows us life before and after entering the Freakhouse, and just what it means for those who have to make a life there. All that being said, what really stood out for me were the relationships.

The protagonist, Dotan Abbott, aka inmate 001014126, aka "Blanky", builds a lot of relationships throughout the novel; some good, some bad, and some just way too heart-wrenching to put in words. Between his family, his friends, and his (pseudo-)romantic interests Dotan really makes you feel the things he's feeling. The genius in this is the first-person present-tense narrative. We don't know anything Dotan doesn't and we learn it as he does, with exception to a necessary flashback section. This means that when he experiences the pain of the Freakhouse, whether directly or indirectly, we know exactly how it feels; when he goes through the emotions related to his relationships we feel the full rollercoaster of feelings he experiences. In fact, we feel this so acutely that the multitude of literary twists at the end will leave your heart in absolute tatters. I would say spoilers, but without giving it away I think it's fair to say that a dystopian drama taking place in an experimental institution won't be all fun; even so, it's Dotan's life and he makes the best of it he can even if sections will leave you in absolute tears. And I promise, you will be crying, because from the moment Dotan starts his narrative you feel just like one of the Freaks right until the very last word. - Caitlin Perry, May 18, 2013 (Customer Review from Goodreads.com)