Thank you to NetGalley for giving me access to this book.

I saw the cover and was immediately like YES finally a scary book. But then it ended with sadness cause it wasn’t that scary.
Everything was rather predictable but the ending felt extremely abrupt. And the ‘ending’ ending was just bad and I wished it was skipped altogether.

The characters were unlikeable and the story was just not interesting enough for me. But at the end it wasn’t BAD. Just not for me.

Having seen the movie Session 9, I was really excited to see where the novelization would take things. I can honestly say I’m so glad I read this, and I truly wish more authors and directors would collaborate on projects like this. We often see books turned into movies, but the reversal of that process is something so intriguing and deserves more exploration—especially within the horror and science fiction genres.

The author did exactly what they set out to do, expanding on the original film while keeping its chilling essence intact. I’d highly recommend watching the movie either while reading the book or directly before or after. It helps you understand the creative choices made in the novel and adds another layer to the fear factor. In many ways, the book feels even scarier, and that’s a testament to how well the author translated something so visual into text without losing the eerie atmosphere.

I especially enjoyed how well the book expanded on the characters, the lore, and the setting. It’s no small feat to take something inherently visual, like a film, and capture that same feeling on the page, but Francis did a fantastic job. While some might say it’s not super scary, I think the fear is subtle—just like the movie. It’s the idea of being in an abandoned mental hospital, knowing the crimes that took place there, and feeling the weight of all that isolation and solitude. Those moments of dread were enough for me.

Just like in the movie, I kept finding myself saying, "Why would they do that? They know they’re all gonna die!" 😂 It was such a fun and thrilling read, and I’d love to see more novelizations like this in the future. Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for a chance to read this.

This book gave me chills, perfect for the spooky season.....

An abandoned asylum, pychotic patients, dark creepy tunnels, an old tape reel from a previous patient, put all this together and you have a perfect creepy story. You will want to sleep with the light on after reading this.

An abatement crew has been hired to remove asbestos from an old asylum building. One by one terrible things start to happen to these guys all the while they are being watched...

The movie has been on my watch list for a while but I prefer to read the book first where possible so I was really happy to see this turned into a novel.

The sentences are short so there isn't any over the top descriptions and it flows very nicely. The characters were great, even in this relatively short book I felt I got to know them. There is just a really creepy vibe to this and I couldn't stop reading, I loved it.

Session 9 is the novelization of the film, which was released in 2001. It seems that the book takes place in a similar year.
I did enjoy the premise of the book. An asylum is always a good start for a thriller or horror tale. The different characters made the plot feel like it was taking place in the real world with real human beings and affecting various lives rather than some fantastical or far-off land.
While there were enjoyable aspects, I think this still read more like a screenplay than a novel. The constant jumping around from character to character while they were all in different settings and experiencing different things made it hard to follow. I could imagine how it would work well as a film, but I don't think it worked well for a novelization. I have not seen the movie, and don't have that to compare to. That said, I did enjoy the creepier parts of the story as well as some of the different twists, but I felt like there was a bit too much focus on the work the characters were at the asylum to do and I wish there had been more background on some of the found files or things to add to the unsettling atmosphere.

"I live in the weak and the wounded."


Christian Francis's novelisation is of the 2001 psychological horror film based on an asbestos abatement crew that take on a job at an abandoned mental asylum, Danvers State Hospital, and uncover the dark secrets and terrors that plague the building.


As this crew begin to work one of the members finds video cassettes of recorderd session of one of the patients of the hospital who struggled with multiple personalities. The interesting thing about this movie was seeing how mental illness is protrayed. The debate on wether it was solely psychological elements or supernatural that caused the horrors they face.


The hospital itself is a huge creepy structure. When the story goes between the cassettes and the experiences the crew are having it makes it all the more disturbing to piece together what the truth is. What makes it even more harrowing is the history behind the treatment of the patients here, how they were experimented on and essentially how different the treatment of mental health was back then from the present day.


Both the film and book give a dark insight into mental asylums of the past in telling this story.

This is a creepy, atmospheric novelisation of a movie I never knew existed. A great cast of characters and a plot that keeps the reader engrossed right up to the final page. I will probably go seek out the movie now.

Thank you NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for this arc in exchange for an honest review. This book was thrilling and horrifying and lived up to the movie. This was a heart pounding ride.

3 stars

A haunted asylum, a desperate crew leader, a dangerous abatement job they are in a race to complete. Gordon owns an asbestos abatement company that is struggling to stay afloat. Gordon is also struggling to keep his family together. His marriage is in trouble and he could lose his wife and infant daughter if he can't pull himself together.

This novelization of the 2001 film Session 9 is a creepy dive into the darkness of an old asylum and the human mind. This is a fast read with a decent payoff at the end. For fans of the movie, this book gives you a glimpse deeper into the motivations of the characters and provides some excellent horror, especially with the final few scenes.

Based on the 2001 film by acclaimed director Brad Anderson, this book is set in Danvers State Hospital, an abandoned mental institution. The local council are looking to renovate the place to use as offices & the company chosen for the job consists of boss Gordon, supervisor Phil, & workers Mike, Hank, & Jeff. Desperate for the work & needing to get it completed quickly for a hefty bonus, the group spend hours at the place but it seems as if they're not the only ones there with a strange figure dogging their footsteps. Slowly each man starts to realise that something is not right with the others, but is it in their heads or is something sinister at work?

First of all I've never seen the film but I've definitely put it on my TBW (To Be Watched) list. It was a fairly short read but packed with tension & the constant drip of dread. I really liked how the issues between the men were subtly played on until the trust between them was fractured. The mostly psychological horror suddenly explodes into violence towards the end & it's almost shocking. I don't want to say any more so as not to give anything away but it was a perfect read for October. Creepy, atmospheric & I was on the edge of my seat all the way through. 4.5 stars (rounded up)

My thanks to NetGalley & publishers, BooksGoSocial, for the opportunity to read an ARC..

"Session 9" has been one of my favorite horror movies for some time now, and I've often wondered what a novelization of the film would be like. Well, I now have my answer, and I'm in no way disappointed! The book expands slightly on the screenplay, not only by providing further details (on the two female patients mentioned in the movie), and omitting certain lines (e.g., Jeff's "Who's Yanni?" in the first scene we see him interacting with Hank), but also by adding some twists of its own (principally, bringing one of the aforementioned female patients into the crew's story). The novel is neither as subtle as the movie, nor as atmospheric, but it manages to tell a scary story of its own, in style and fine pacing. The one huge difference (aside from the presence of the female patient) is the minimal understanding of "Simon" which the novel provides: in my interpretation of the movie, I always thought that Simon was a demon, not an alter personality, and Mary was possessed. The novel weakens this line of thought by separating out the two plotlines which would allow for such a reading. This is not necessarily a bad thing, since it complements the movie wonderfully, and will make one eager to revisit the film and the original story.

4.5*

A crew are brought in to rid the old Danvers State Hospital of asbestos and get far more than they bargained for!

Based on the 2001 movie of the same name, Session 9 is a quick, creepy read and one that is ideal for Spooky October. The building itself is as much of a character as Gordon and crew and is perfectly captured in all its eerie, dilapidated glory in the author's writing.

The book also captures so many tropes that work well for me in horror - The setting of an abandoned asylum with a cast of characters that have a lot of genuine tension between them that helps create a truly creepy and foreboding atmosphere.

Overall the pace of the book was quick but nothing in comparison to the final quarter with the quick changes between character profiles building to an awful and haunting crescendo.

I've never seen the movie this book is based on but based on the storyline here it's something I would watch in a heartbeat based on this book.

A highly effective psychological horror/thriller.

Thank you to NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for a digital review copy of "Session 9" in exchange for my honest and voluntary review.

Release: Oct 3

Genre: I would not classify this book as horror, but more of a psychological thriller

Details:
Seeking a crew to renovate Danvers State Hospital, a former insane asylum. Gordon and his team take on the task and even promise to get it don't 3x faster than any of the competitive bids.

This book is filled with an evil and mysterious past. Aggressive patient abuse, medieval medical procedures and rumors of demonic possession are some of the many dark secrets the hospital holds.

The story takes the reader on a ride through a labyrinth building that seems alive to it's visitors, and forces the reader to resolve for themselves why things are happening to each character.

I appreciate any book that can generate real tension and suspense from imagination and suggestion.

All of the carefully constructed tension and dread is dissipated by a relatively low key ending that somewhat punctures many of the truly terrifying images and theories swirling in the readers mind.

Thoughts along the way:

This place sounds like a perfect location for a spooky story; former insane asylum, Asbestos, mold, rusted gurneys, collapsed ceilings, broken/barred windows, off-limit areas, sour and metallic smells, and a pigeon skeleton

Lobotomies "perfected" there?

Load them up with insulin to put them in a coma?

Getting a "wierd feeling" about Danvers is probably a sign that you shouldn't fuck with it

Moldiest place he's ever been? mold exposure is another sign to get the fuck out

And now a red pentagram. Sure, just ignore that as well.

Poor Gordon is so desperate for the job that he's not thinking rationally about the timeline or what he's about to get himself into.
-Does he resent his child?

Oh Gordon, hurting your wife is a bad move. I hope these apparitions give you what you deserve.
-Our sense of Gordon's subtle, increasing alienation is a testament to his character

His crew includes Mike, a law school dropout who is knowledgeable about the asylum's history; Phil, who is dealing with his grief over a recent breakup; Hank, a gambling addict; and Jeff, who has a pathological fear of the dark.

The sounds that Gordon are hearing could just be exhaustion, or even exposure to hazards, but all the other creepy things happening (hearing footsteps, the photo of the little girl with a shadow following her), I suspect something more sinister is happening
-is Gordon possessed?

Now he's mixing up colors?

The Patricia story?!?!

Electrical interference... Something spooky is about to happen

Creepy ass tapes?
-Mary/Billy/Simon
-She has multiple personalities. One is called "Simon". Simon is evil and got her to kill her brother. Interviews with Mary and her "others" are recorded on Session tapes

LOL moments:
"The USS Dickballs"

*Thank you netgalley for this ARC*

4 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

“I live in the weak and the wounded.”

In Session 9, Gordon Fleming, desperate for money, takes a rushed asbestos removal job at an abandoned mental hospital. His crew includes Mike, a law school dropout fascinated by the asylum's history; Phil, who struggles with a recent breakup; Hank, a gambling addict; and Gordon's nephew Jeff, who fears the dark. While working, Gordon hears a mysterious voice, and Mike discovers therapy tapes of a former patient, Mary Hobbes, who had dissociative identity disorder. As Mike listens to the tapes, the men start experiencing eerie events and Gordon becomes increasingly unstable.

Session 9 is a film that I stumbled upon as a teen when it was first released, and to this day it scares the hell out of me. Overall, Christian Francis did really well with this novelization. Having already seen the movie several times, I will say that there is no new information or noteworthy differences from the screenplay with the exception of the epilogue. To me, the inclusion of this epilogue felt unnecessary and disjointed. Maybe I’m missing something, but I don’t understand why this “twist” was added when it has no meaningful connection to Mary Hobbes. Overall, I was glad that Francis preserved the film in this way and hope to see it on many shelves!

Thank you to Netgalley and to the publisher BooksGoSocial.
My Rating:
3.75 (Rounded to 4)
My Opinion:
I was very excited to see this book because I love the movie. I loved that it still had the same feel as the movie, extremely suspenseful. It takes you back and further between scenes. I do wish the author added more to the story. It felt almost like the screenplay, I wanted the author to add more detail into our characters.

This was atmospheric, and that’s where the positives begin and end. This was just too much…it tried to be psychological, in a haunted place, with red herring disputes…this just didn’t do it for me. The incomplete sentences, one dimensional characters and tangents that lent nothing to the overall story made this seem very amateurish.

This book was a WILD ride. I was literally biting my nails while getting through it! I’m hard to spook especially with books but I couldn’t read this at night because of how terrifying this actually was to me! Another perfect spooky season read!

I confess I have not seen the Movie Session 9, so after reading this I decided to at least peek at the trailer. I don't know that there are too many instances where a book is based off of a movie. The mind is such a powerful thing and I'll admit that the book helped me create a building far more sinister and the characters more colorful.
Brad Anderson had created a really creepy situation for a crew of asbestos cleaning professionals to find themselves in. The situational set up of a desperate crew to even take on such a building with it's history. The coined characters were very apparent with the jerk boss, the junkie and so on. The eerie build, where you know some seriously creepy stuff is going to go down, was fun and engaging. The gore was pretty spot on for the theme. The ending was slightly layered and pretty heart wrenching.
Now, take in Christian Francis' vision of this story and you can add layers of overall serious spooky factor and horrifically palpable nightmare scenes come true. You know something isn't right, something is very off. The basal feel of unease helped this novella give quite a venomous bite.

Electroshock therapy and invasive psychosurgery became one-size-fits-all solutions for noncompliant patients for the sake of ease. 7%

Every step they had taken into the asylum felt like a step into another world, a world where hope was not part of the building's fabric. 16%

'The other patients, they've been here so long, they've forgotten what the outside world looks like. I'm scared I might end up like them.' 37%

It sounded as if hell itself had a voice. All within the small body of Mary Hobbs. 84%

"I know you, demon!" the old woman shouted. 96%

"I live in the weak and the wounded." 98%

Excellent novelization. I haven't seen this film in a while but from what I reme!here's while reading it was pretty damn good switch to book form which is so difficult to pull off. I was spooked from the start and plunged into the eerie, chilling world of this story.

Have you ever wanted a book to be more like a movie?? Completely absorb you into the its world and let the real world fall away - THAT IS THIS BOOK!
What a world you fall in to - dark, eerie, creepy to the max. It kept my heart beating faster, my skin crawl and goosebumps to erupt all over my body in some places. I devoured this book in a day! Loved the writing style, the characters and the world... I need more!

One of my favorite horror movies of all time gets a novel and it's not half bad. Definitely not as good as the film but it does a good job. Loses some of the subtlety of the movie but it still did a pretty good job of keeping it faithful.