As you all know if you’ve been following us for awhile, I am a moderator in the Facebook book group TBR & Beyond. Every month we have group reads and Sanctuary by Caryn Lix is one of the August group reads. I finished Sanctuary and really want to recommend this book to everyone!
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.
Review
I’m normally not a big fan of Science Fiction, but it has been growing on me lately. When I started Sanctuary I went in blind. I read the sypnosis when it was announced as a group read, but didn’t know much more than that. I am so glad I picked up this book!
It starts off with the main character, Kenzie, reading manga. That had me sold from the start. I love when characters are reading or are a bit “geeky” like I am. Kenzie is still thinking about some news she got from her parents and how that it going to change her life. At the moment, Kenzie has been busy training on the ship.
That’s when an alarm sounds and things start to get interesting. Sanctuary is action packed from the start. Sanctuary is a ship that can almost do everything on its own. They need humans to do certain things, but other than that no worries. That’s why the ship gives them random drills. See how they handle certain situations. This drill doesn’t feel right though. Even when it’s all good, Kenzie has a bad feeling.
There are prisoners with abilities on this ship (Sanctuary is a prison) and Kenzie knows that they’re dangerous. When Kenzie is taken hostage when the prisoners try and break out her whole world turns upside down. I felt bad for Kenzie though. Her training kicks in of course, but when her mother (also her commanding officer) chooses protocol over Kenzie she starts thinking.
I understand her mother, but I felt so bad for Kenzie. I don’t know how I would feel if my mother chose a ship over me, but that’s not where things end. There is another threat on this ship they never expected. Cary Lix keeps us on the edge of our seat and just when I think things will calm down something else gets in their way.
Kenzie’s whole view of the rules and protocols changes when she realizes the prisoners are real people and not as bad as they are made to be. What if her world isn’t as perfect as she thought? This is made harder when she realizes her parents hid things from her. Another thing I loved is that the author didn’t make the prisoners trying to escape the main threat. Things got a whole lot more complicated and interesting by the threat none of them ever expected.
I loved the characters in this book, the pacing of everything and the author’s writing style. I couldn’t put Sanctuary down and when it was over it left me wanting more. Even though it ends leaving us with questions, I am mostly happy with the ending.
I have been thinking about my rating for this book and because of certain aspects it would’ve been a four star rating for me, but because I couldn’t put it down and was so invested with the story, it got five in the end. My only issues were the insta-love between Kenzie and a character. While I understand it can happen in certain situations it felt a bit out of place right from the start. Also, I really would’ve liked to have learned more about the prisoners. We got a glimpse of them, so I am hoping we get more in the next book.
If you love science fiction or want to give it a go, but don’t know where to start, I definitely recommend Sanctuary!
