Desperate Asylum

by Fletcher Flora

Lisa Sheridan—a beautiful woman, alone and unfulfilled, driven by unnatural desires…
Avery Lawes—only half a man because he had never loved a woman…
They met, and each saw in the other a chance for escape. And so, in a frantic flight for normality, they were married. But they could not know the terrible depths into which their union would plunge them.
Desperate Asylum is the gripping story of a marriage made in Hell.

Paperback

First published January 1, 1955

About the author

Fletcher Flora was born in Parsons, Kansas in 1914. Flora began writing soon after returning from World War II. His crime and mystery short stories and novels were published in magazines like Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Mr., Cosmopolitan, and in Alfred Hitchcock’s mystery anthologies. He received the Cock Robin Mystery Award for his first hard cover novel, Killing Cousins in 1960. Flora wrote over 150 short stories and 13 novels during his writing career. Three of his works are published under the house name, Ellery Queen. Timothy Harrison was also a pseudonym for his work, Hot Summer.

Reviews

[Angie · Rating 3 out of 5]

If I had read this book up until a few years ago I would have absolutely despised it and had nothing but bad things to say. As it is there ARE mostly bad things to say about Desperate Asylum, but I cannot deny that Fletcher Flora (a very underrated writer) got some things right and there were times I was reading this I became convinced he must have written under a pen name during his career as a writer. If you are of a certain age (or live in an area that is still very much behind the times in accepting lgbtqai+ people) many parts of Desperate Asylum (especially the self-hatred gay men and women constantly can live with) will ring true for you.

If you have been blessed enough or strong enough and have never lived with feelings of intense self-loathing then there really is nothing here that will resonate with you. Desperate Asylum is a never-ending flow of outdated ideas and beliefs and is not at all ready to accept gays or lesbians as anything but abnormal. And it does not help that one of the main characters, Lisa, is a walking, talking stereotype and not at all likable.

[Salazarsa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story is very addictive.

[Edwin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Desperate Asylum is a will written and fairly interesting entry in the 1950's Lesbian Pulp pantheon. Unfortunately the author fails to make the unsympathetic main character Lisa the least bit likable. I suspect it was the era in which the book was written, where lesbianism was discriminated against and misunderstood.