"Tales From An Asylum" gives a human look into a place full of those society might deem misfits, might consider only by our labels of them- and, he tell their stories, reminding us of their humanity. Each story within the novel introduces us to someone, almost glaringly, and allows us to get to know them. Each allows us to step into the room of a place many will never have to, but many will, and must understand.

This "memoir" is unlike any other, as the book title states. It follows the life of the author from 1940-2043. It has a lot of interesting history thrown in there with some glimpses into what our future may look like in a few decades. This was a very immersive book and it was fun to read about the author's life from the perspective of 12 different characters. I was expecting this to stories from an actual asylum, but was not disappointed.

This book was so easy to get into. Your sucked right in from the start with all the personalities. Great easy read.

Unfortunately a dnf for me. I couldn’t get in with the non linear writing style. Interesting but not for me.

Enjoyable read, went in not with expectations but was pleasantly surprised, enjoyed the narrative and story.

I was intrigued by the premise of this book. It sounded unique and interesting, but unfortunately for me, it didn’t work. I found it hard to wrap my head around what was going on and it just made the enjoyment of the book non existent. Not for me, but I’m sure this book will find its readers. Thank you to Netgalley, the author, and publisher for a chance to read and review this book.

I really wanted to love this one but i just couldnt get into it. I loved the idea of it and the style of writing is really interesting and different but it just didnt fully work for me,,

Unfortunately because of the formatting of this book on my kindle I could not concentrate. There were constantly random sentences popping up on the screen and page numbers and I had to DNF at 10%. I was enjoying it and was really interested to see how this memoir panned out. Thank you Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to review this book.

Tales from an Asylum is a memoir of one person who is the old man reliving a number of personas in his head over 100 years. These people are not all the same, some are women others are men, some are children and others are adults, some have names while others do not.

I was given a ARC of this book kindly my NetGalley in return for my honest review. However I was unable to read much of this book due to the layout and font issues (listed below). Therefore I will not be rating the story of this as I was not able to finish the story. For what I managed to read I give the story 3 out of 5. It’s a bit confusing but I think that is more to do with the difficulty I had in reading it due to the reading and editorial errors. I hope the author see’s the issues and fixes them before releasing the book to buy.

I have had a lazy day today due to to a fibromyalgia flare up so have spent a fair amount of the day trying to get through this book. However the format is awful. On my kindle there is writing that is big then small, words that are spit such as chapter 3 (three weeks later) just under where is says Cambridge dictionary it says e-e-e- followed by 6 upper case E’s under this it says ‘Th nd? Under this just the number 1 on its own, a gap then the letter T bellow it on its own gap again and on next page says hree weeks have passed (missing the T that’s as a couple of lines up on its own).

I really tried to preserve with this book as if sounded so interesting but the lay out with the words and letters being spread out, not making sense, words squashed together then massively spaced out made it impossible. It was driving me mad.

Tales From an Asylum is touted as a memoir of one person (the old man) reliving a number of personas in his head that span 100 years. These personas range from children to adults, men to women, some with names and some without, and a variety of themes from politics, to travel, to being in education or the navy, sports and board games.

When it comes to reading a book, I always believe it’s polite to leave a review, especially when it comes to self-publishing. So it’s seldom that I don’t finish a book as it’s important to be able to give feedback on the whole thing. Unfortunately, this counts as one of my DNF’s at 65%. I tried. I really tried a number of times to keep pushing through, but I was eventually skipping sections of text to try to make it to the end.

Before even looking at the story, the big issues were the formatting and the editing. It looks like the print version was uploaded instead of the eBook as there were still pages numbers in the ToC and random headers kept appearing. The chapters were divided into numbered sub-sections, which were also confusing in a fiction book. Some areas were edited well and then you’d get half sentences tacked onto the end of a full sentence with no space between or sentences repeated for no reason.

As to the story. Because of the cover and the idea of an asylum, I had it in my head that we would be introduced to a character in an asylum either dealing with DID or actual memories. But there is no setup. You are thrown directly into someone’s story and then into the next. Some are long and some are short. Some end and you go back into them later. Lots and lots of factual info about a number of topics bombards you and takes away from the story aspect.

I kept pushing on and hoping it would tie together and make sense but I just couldn’t go any further. I did jump to the end (it’s quite a long book) to see if the epilogue could help me out, but found appendices, and an interview, and when I read the last bit of the epilogue, I was in as much confusion still. It’s a pity, as the main idea behind it had promise.

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to review the book.

I was disappointed in reading ‘Tales From An Asylum’ as I had expected very different content. I appreciate that the novel is a memoir but I had to abandon reading after having read almost 70% of the book as it was not for me.

We live in a world of stereotypes, engraved into our minds, passed on from adult to child to friend to media. In this, we lose touch with the empathy and understanding needed to truly, and with the greatest sense of humanity, consider others. Steven Leshays, "Tales From An Asylum" gives a human look into a place full of those society might deem misfits, might consider only by our labels of them- and, he tell their stories, reminding us of their humanity. Each story within the novel introduces us to someone, almost glaringly, and allows us to get to know them. Each allows us to step into the room of a place many will never have to, but many will, and must understand.
I loved the perspective, in its multiple forms, given to readers in picking up "Tales From An Asylum".

I liked this book.I think it has a good premise and it kept my attention. I think the story was unlike anything I've read before which I liked. I had to zoom in on the NetGalley app to be able to read any of the text because the book was scanned 2 pages at a time which wasn't ideal but that's my only complaint. If you have a print copy or that issue gets fixed, I would reccomend this book. 9/10 and a reccomendation. Special 'Thank You' to the author, publisher and NetGalley for allowing me a complimentary copy of the E-Book in exchange for an honest review.

Received this arc on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I didn’t hate it…..but I was a little let down. I applaud the author for such a creative idea of creating a memoir. The narrative was driven with different characters/personalities hence the “asylum” part, but if you aren’t paying close attention it is very hard to understand what is happening. I had trouble engaging with this biography, and I just really needed time to form a really honest opinion.
I thought the lack of proper e-book formatting did it such an injustice for me, because I actually enjoyed bits and pieces of the writing.
This had the potential to be better. The reason why I was drew in was the premise. I was fascinated by the idea of Patient 719, the Old Man, Butch, The Sailor, Hercules, Steven, Tex, Nevets, Big Brother, Doc, the Commander, etc and etc.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I’m sorry, this one just didn’t do it for me. This sounded right up my alley on the type of book it is but it didn’t deliver. #TalesFromAnAsylum #NetGalley

Unfortunately did not enjoy this book, I could not finish it, it didn't intrigue me at all which I am disappointed about as I normally enjoy this type of book

I have not a clue what this is or what I just tried to read. I saw the reviews but my curiosity still got the better of me. Is this fact or fiction or a mixture of both? I have no idea. Don't look to me for answers 🙃 It's definitely strange, so if you like strange books then you might like this one.

I love reading memoirs. Everyone has a story and it great to be able to peak in side someone thoughts, memories, dreams, imagination....But this to me was overwhelming. The bouncing from the present and back. I greatly appreciate that this is what he actually lives through, but, for me it was too much. This being said I do believe he is a brilliant, well accomplished and very detailed man.

I like the idea, but think it would have been better written as complete fiction and with one main character. That's just my thought.