Sanctuary

 Author: Caryn Lix

 Release Date: July 24, 2018

 Publisher: Simon Pulse

Format: ARC

Source: Simon & Schuster Canada

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 Summary:

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. (Goodreads)

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Review:

*I received an advance copy of this book from Simon & Schuster Canada for this blog tour in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion.*

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from a space thriller when going into this books but I can now confidently say that I.Am.Here.For.It! Sanctuary gave me outer space, excitement, feels, and adventure.

The plot threw me for a bunch of loops while reading which helped a very thick book feel like it flew by. Just when I thought I knew exactly where things would be going for the rest of the story something would throw a wrench in that and my heart would be racing all over again. The plot was interesting but also exciting. If this ever became a movie I would probably jump out of my skin 20+ times. I also love how open the ending is and having seen that it’s listed as Sanctuary #1 I can’t wait to read more!

The characters also grabbed me from the very beginning. I really connected with Kenzie’s desire to excel at everything she does and wanting to perform well at all that those around her expected of her. I was the same way in high school and totally related to her stress. I also ended up really loving the prisoners’ development once they become main players in the story. They were all so distinct and vibrant that I became just as invested in them as I was Kenzie.

Sanctuary is the complete package. It gives you all the sci-fi vibes you could want with tons of adventure and the complexity of human nature and relationships mixed in. There are characters you can’t help but care about and a plot that gets your heart rate up every time you think there’s finally a moment of safety.

AUTHOR GUEST POST

If you could cast your book with any actors and actresses, who would play the leading characters?

I have such a tough time with this question! The idea of Sanctuary on the screen seems so far away that it doesn’t even feel real. I don’t really have a dream cast or any specific actors and actresses in mind, but I do have specific images in mind for a lot of the characters, although I tried not to project that too much into the story, because I want readers to be able to fill in the blanks with their own imaginations. That said, I think the coolest thing in the world would be to see Sanctuary animated, maybe in anime style like Kenzie’s beloved Robo Mecha Dream Girl 5!

The only character I ever strongly considered in terms of an actor was Kenzie, and for her I would say Saoirse Ronan. When I picture Kenzie I always thought Ronan had the features I would want for that character. And of course, Mia is based on a character I used to roleplay in a Pathfinder game, so when I think of her, I always picture a slightly elf even though that’s not remotely how Mia is described! That’s the funny thing about creating characters. You turn them loose in the world and even though they’re all a part of you, you relinquish aspects of them – who they are, where they come from, their appearance – to your readers. And I think that’s a really cool thing, because it’s what makes writing a collaborative experience. I may have written the book, but it’s the readers who give it meaning.

All of that is a really long winded response to the question! To sum up, I don’t really have an ideal cast in mind, but I think it would be incredible to see readers’ interpretations of the characters in response to that question.