Sanctuary by Caryn Lix

SYNOPSIS

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.

Synopsis from Goodreads

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PERSONAL REVIEW

I had no idea what to expect when I picked up Sanctuary. I knew it was going to be some kind of science fiction novel, but I wasn’t sure how much I would end up loving it. I was completely blown away by the story and I’m so excited to find out that there’s actually a sequel coming out next year, because I definitely wasn’t ready to leave this world.

Interesting Backstory
I thought Caryn Lix did a great job creating a science-fiction world that was very much based in our reality, just set roughly 50-100 years in the future. Because of that, it was easy to quickly believe that this world is a possibility, and I wasn’t confused by anything that she introduced in the story. I usually hesitate to read a science-fiction because I’m never sure if I’ll really believe what the author is giving us; in this case, I absolutely did! She gives us just enough backstory to understand how the world has got to where it is in the story setting, and makes it believable enough that I completely understand how this alien invasion is happening. I also LOVED the moment Kenzie and Cage figure out what the aliens want with the prisoners; it was such a great revelation! I’m so excited to see what happens next with this storyline.

Some Deaths Seemed Trite
While death during an alien invasion is highly likely (it would’ve been more unbelievable if no one had died!), one of the character deaths was definitely only there to advance Kenzie’s storyline, and I thought that was a weak point. This character (no spoilers) clearly died to cause Kenzie to fall into a depression in the sequel, which I didn’t appreciate and didn't feel like it was set up properly. The death was rushed and felt very forced to drive the future story, and it didn't feel like this character had the chance to grow yet, so it also wasn't as emotional as it might have been later on when Kenzie developed a deeper relationship with them. It also felt very unnecessary since Kenzie was still trying to recover from what had happened to her mother and will clearly be continuing to deal with that in the next book. We’ll see what happens in the sequel (maybe I’ll change my mind about its purpose) but at this point my biggest disappointment was the wasteful character death in this book.

Compelling Characters
Before I found out that there was a sequel, my originally biggest complaint was that this book gave us so many interesting g characters, but very few of their actual backstories. Now that I’m aware of the sequel, I’m going to assume that’s when we’ll find out more about these gifted teens...because I need to know more:

• How did Alexie and Mia meet?
• Was MIA actually framed?
• What else has Cage done to protect Rune?
• How did they handle their years in prison?
• Give me more on all their abilities! I'm so excited to dive deeper into each of their talents.

I liked Kenzie, but since she’s the narrator, we already know a lot about her. It’s the prisoners that I really want to find out more about and I’m excited to see all of their relationships develop. Cage is clearly a leader, but what are the dynamics of his relationships with the others? And how will he and Kenzie move forward? I can’t wait for 2019!

I normally dislike anything to do with aliens, just because they always become these really evil creature and I don’t understand why we can never assume that aliens are going to reach out to us for friendly reasons. That rant aside, Sanctuary was an excellent science fiction novel and I'm so excited for Containment to come out next year (look at it's cover; we have alien claws!). I'd recommend this book for anyone who isn't sure if they like sci-fi but are willing to give it a try, anyone who does like YA sci-fi already, or anyone interested in an alien-based novel set in the (what seems like) near future.

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FINAL RATING: 4/5