Lots of action and some young, insta-romance and an all-powerful corporation lording over the solar system. SANCTUARY by Caryn Lix deserves to stand on its own merit as fresh and not be compared to books that have gone before!

Kenzie believes the corporation is everything. She has spent her lifetime training for one goal, to become an Elite Guard on Sanctuary, a penal facility for super-powered teens. When a routine drill becomes a hostage situation for Kenzie, she will learn that blood may not be thicker than corporate loyalty, as she is left to fend for herself.

Has she been fooled by Omnistellar’s public face? Has the entire solar system? Kenzie will go against all she thought she knew in order to survive as an ancient evil permeates Sanctuary. The enemy of her enemy will become her unlikely allies as she must choose to stand with the prisoners in order to survive.

After a well-defined world is created, strap in and hang on tight for some fast-paced action and a chaotic bid for survival as Kenzie sees the truth behind the corporate Kool-Aid, discovers an unlikely romance at the worst time and fights evil in its most terrifying form.

Definitely a younger YA read! When the action starts, it is non-stop tension and movement, wonderful for holding a younger reader’s attention! More mature readers may clamber for more character depth or some more dirt on the corporation, but the target age is going to find this magnetic and I am all for grabbing readers while they are young!

I received a complimentary ARC edition from Simon Pulse!

Publisher: Simon Pulse (July 24, 2018)
Publication Date: July 24, 2018
Genre: Teen/YA Scifi
Print Length: 480 pages
Available from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble
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I stayed up until midnight finishing this book because I couldn’t wait to see how it ended! SANCTUARY gripped me from start to finish. I’m not usually a big science fiction reader, but Caryn Lix deftly handles the world-building in a way that makes the book approachable, even for non-sci-fi readers, crafting characters and conflicts that I was eager to follow. I was immediately drawn in to Kenzie’s struggle. Few books hook me in quite the same way SANCTUARY did – it feels “big” to me in the same way The Hunger Games or The Fifth Wave did. I would not at all be surprised if this book takes off like those series in a huge way. SANCTUARY has “blockbuster movie” written all over it. I hope there is a sequel coming soon because I will be first in line to buy it!

Think Alien and X-Men rolled together and dropped into a space prison.  I'm asking myself why it took so long for someone to come up with this scenario.  

The author provides more than adequate world-building to understand the rules of this world and how these characters arrived at the positions they're in, but omits just enough to allow speculation and mystery, and I liked that.  I formed all kinds of theories, but have to wait until the next book to see if I'm even close.

Kenzie is an admirable protagonist, and has to deal with some hard truths, but never curls into a ball of self pity and bemoans her situation.  The girl is a fighter.  What I really enjoyed was the diverse cast of supporting characters.  All are well-drawn, with unexpected traits that make them seem more realistic.  None are there for decoration - they all play integral parts in the plot.

At 480 pages, this is a long novel, but with the tense action scenes and near constant fight for survival, the pages flew by for me.  A lot of information is given in this book, but I feel like we've barely scratched the surface of what's going on in this world.  Highly recommend!  

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Sanctuary is a new science fiction release that I received from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Sanctuary follows Kenzie, a teenage gaurd of a space prison that holds humans with superpowers. When a routine drill goes wrong, Kenzie is taken hostage by said humans, and the story kicks off. What Kenzie doesn't realize is that she'll have to work with the prisoners she despises to fight against an even larger evil.

Once I read the synopsis of Sanctuary, I knew I had to request it from Netgalley. I love YA sci-fi, so this was a no-brainer for me. Though I didn't fall in love with the book, it was thrilling. At first, I had a hard time getting invested into the world. There is a chunk of exposition where the book didn't capture my attention, around 70 pages. However, once Kenzie is taken hostage, my attention was piqued. Once the real antagonist comes aboard the space station, though, is when the real fun begins and when I was hooked. I couldn't put the book down after that.

Full review to come shortly! 4 out of 5 Stars.

Loved this. Just totally loved it. I love that while Kenzie joined the guard because she wanted to help, but when she was confronted with her own privilege and biases, she did the right thing. And what's more, it was a really cool invasion story.

I’m sorry but I didn’t see this wasn’t available on my kindle.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me a digital arc of "Sanctuary" by Caryn Lix. After only reading the first paragraph I knew I would be buying this book for the library. I have a student in mind who this is perfect for. The main character is very real. I felt at first like I was reading a contemporary. The science fiction is amazing. This book is going to be very popular!

Pretty good - I was definitely invested in the book, but less so in Kenzie, more so invested in the background stories of the company life itself and the Sanctuary prisoners. Kenzie became more interesting over time, which made it easy to continue reading the stories. I look forward to reading where the story goes in the future.

I separate SANCTUARY into two acts, and I’ll explore my thoughts on the story separating these two halves of the book. I really enjoyed the fast-paced, blood-rushing action, but the thing about large amounts of action (which is definitely fun and exciting) is that it sacrifices relationship exploration, characterization, and world/story-building to make up for everything else that's going on. Because of this, I think certain interesting aspects of the story weren't drawn to their fullest potential. Despite that, sci-fi lovers who are itching for an Alien-like story of survival will definitely devour this one. I certainly did!

Act One: Corporatism

In this act, Kenzie’s first person POV explains how she’s been raised to become a guard on Sanctuary, a space facility for kids that have superpowers called anomalies. She shows intense loyalty to the company that provides for her and her family, Omnistellar Concepts. She’s dedicated her life to working for the company and ensuring that the kids in Sanctuary are isolated so they don’t endanger society. However, a partly successful prison break attempt makes her hostage of these mysterious prisoners and at their mercies. Readers are then introduced to a flurry of characters and an emerging internal conflict within Kenzie about the values she’s believed in growing up.

"Where did my loyalties to the company end and my loyalties to humanity begin? Every nugget of truth I gave them about myself was against company regulations, but if there was a chance I could help, I had to take it."

Plus points for a Taiwanese love interest! Asian love interests do not get the love and page time they deserve in YA, I find. (Although that’s shifting recently!) However, most of the characters introduced (and there is quite a lot) did not have distinct personalities, and the few with personalities were added weakly, in my opinion. For example, Tyler, an escaped prisoner, gets perhaps three main scenes total in this book that put him in the spotlight. Alexei, another anomaly, comes out as rough and as the muscle man, but nothing else to really like him as a character. Seeing as we’re in Kenzie’s head, I did become attached to her. Her internal struggle between the loyalties of Omnistellar that Kenzie grew up with and the newfound knowledge that the anomalies was well-written and expanded upon.

"Just a few days ago, my world had been this straightforward, clear-cut place. Now, I wasn't sure of anything anymore."

However, the exploration of Omnistellar’s deceit and lies becomes abandoned during Act Two. Yes, the company is bad and Kenzie now realizes this. But where is this rooted from? How did they develop in this future? How can the characters combat this? Perhaps we shall never know because hey look! There are now aliens in the plot. The history of the Earth and how it came to its current state is summarized in a page or less.

Act Two: Alien Entity

Once the prisoners’ plans succeed and they take over Sanctuary, they soon realize that they’re not alone - an alien has boarded the facilities and is hunting them for unknown reasons. From then on, the story turns into a game of survival. It was very fast-paced, and throughout the book there was never a dull moment. Remember how I mentioned that some parts of the story weren’t quite used to its fullest potential? Here’s an example: We have kids with superpowers that are trapped in a space facility with aliens. That should be exhilarating and refreshing. But the superpowers weren't even used that often against the aliens, with the kids being more in favor of guns and technology in regards to actual combat (versus defensive abilities like invisibility). In addition, there is a marked focus on only seven or so kids and their abilities, making the rest of the prisoners almost irrelevant to the story.

The romance between Cage, the Taiwanese love interest, and Kenzie had a basis of instant attraction and was also as fast-paced as the rest of the book. I do like how both characters recognize this speedy progression of feelings and decide to embrace it though. This kind of justification for a fast romance fits neatly into the plot and I for one am a fan.

"Something in Cage called to me, and I really hoped I was going to get the chance to explore that something before my life ended in a flash of screams and claws."

Personally, my qualm with survival stories is that when trying to stay live is the most immediate conflict, this gives very little to what readers are reaching for. Am I continuing this book to see kids end the hegemony of companies on planets? Kill all the aliens? Now that Kenzie realizes Omnistellar is bad, what is she going to do? So many interesting things introduced, so little motivation to resolve any of it.

SANCTUARY is very action-orientated, sometimes to the degree of cutting off details about the world and characters. But this also lends it a lightness that will definitely attract readers looking for an entertaining time. It’s highly reminiscent of the Alien film series, as the main characters are dealing with unknown entities that are threatening their lives. I did like the constantly shifting plot, but a lot of the more unique parts of the story were left on the sidelines in favor of this action. I’m hoping that the sequel (because it does leave readers with a cliffhanger) will give more inspection about the world and a tighter focus on characterization, because I will be sticking around for it.