SANCTUARY stayed in my TBR for far too
long. I mean, teens with superpowers, in a prison…in space?! Hello up my alley,
much? And with Halloween around the corner, it fit in well with my desire for
supernatural reads with a healthy side of mayhem. Because one can never have enough
mayhem, right?
The back jacket, from Goodreads:
Kenzie holds one truth above all: the company is
everything.
As a citizen of Omnistellar Concepts, the most powerful
corporation in the solar system, Kenzie has trained her entire life for one
goal: to become an elite guard on Sanctuary, Omnistellar’s space prison for
superpowered teens too dangerous for Earth. As a junior guard, she’s excited to
prove herself to her company—and that means sacrificing anything that won’t
propel her forward.
But then a routine drill goes sideways and Kenzie is taken
hostage by rioting prisoners.
At first, she’s confident her commanding officer—who also
happens to be her mother—will stop at nothing to secure her freedom. Yet it
soon becomes clear that her mother is more concerned with sticking to
Omnistellar protocol than she is with getting Kenzie out safely.
As Kenzie forms her own plan to escape, she doesn’t
realize there’s a more sinister threat looming, something ancient and evil that
has clawed its way into Sanctuary from the vacuum of space. And Kenzie might
have to team up with her captors to survive—all while beginning to suspect
there’s a darker side to the Omnistellar she knows.
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SANCTUARY was one of those marvelous, totally immersive
reading experiences. The on-point world building had me sliding right into the
story, and it wasn’t long before I was holding on for the ride. A riveting plot, every possible area for tension was taken full
advantage. I cannot stress just how much happened in SANCTUARY, and the added
alien element upped the stakes to such a degree, I gasped aloud while waiting
in my local Honda car service area. Because as if the teen prisoner breakout/Lexie’s hostage
situation weren’t enough, the unpredictable alien madness took the already-swift pace and strapped it to a rocket ship.
Cover design by Sarah Cresch
Like, I’d be white-knuckling pages as the
prisoners forced Lexie to reveal security codes when—ALIEN SURPRISE AHHH—turned
everything on its head in the most bananas of ways. Similar to a rush of nitrous oxide in a drag race, without the aliens, the story could’ve held its own,
but with the aliens, I never knew when the action would crank up to
100. And considering it rested at a solid 80, I can’t understand why SANCTUARY
isn’t on everyone’s TBR. Seriously. Why isn’t this a bestseller yet?
The superpowers themselves included a few fan
faves, but also some unique ones that I’ll forever associate with this series
(yay!). Lexie’s struggle in reevaluating her training (which also meant going
against her mother) had me feeling for her, and when the plot exploded, she had
no choice but to follow her gut. Impulsive decisions in high-stress situations
don’t always result in the best choices, but Lexie was one smart space guard,
and her open mind—a trait not admired by Omnistellar—allowed her to roll with
the punches, of which there were many.
As for the rest of the cast, I loved the lot. I credit Lix’s ability to get me to care for other characters as
deeply as Lexie without a third-person narrator, because when certain
characters died, a rush of feelings kicked me in the gut. Because oh yes, fellow book fiends.
SANCTUARY is kind of like Game of Thrones. Not everybody gets out alive, and
there’s no way to predict which ones won’t make it to the end. *spindles
fingers while cackling*
Real talk: what else could you want?! This
review is already on the long side and I’ve barely scratched the surface of SANCTUARY’S
pure awesomeness. So please read SANCTUARY this very minute and then we can gab
about all the insanity. Sound good? (For serious. Stop what you're doing and go buy this book. I'll wait.)
Big thanks to Simon & Schuster Canada
for an ARC!
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This mani kind of got away from me, with all of the angles and colour blending--and lately the lighting has been terrible so these are flash shots--but I did my best and used:
FingerPaints - Paper Mache and Black Expressionism
OPI - Fearlessly Alice, Give Me Space, and matte topcoat
China Glaze - Chroma Cool and Haute N Heavy
Glisten and Glow - Mother Wind
So Nailicious - needle brush
