ARC Review: Sanctuary by Caryn Lix

Title: Sanctuary  
Author: Caryn Lix
Genre: Science Fiction 
Source: Edelweiss 
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Publication Date: July 24th 2018

Summary: 

Alien meets Alexandra Bracken’s The Darkest Minds in this thrilling debut novel about prison-guard-in-training, Kenzie, who is taken hostage by the superpowered criminal teens of the Sanctuary space station—only to have to band together with them when the station is attacked by mysterious creatures. 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.

I love The Darkest Minds series. I love Aliens. Sanctuary pitched for fans of both. Naturally it was love at first sight. I feel like I read so much sci-fi but never of monster like aliens? They are always peaceful and simple. Not dripping with venom going at your throat which is the types of Aliens Sanctuary features.  

My feelings for Sanctuary are mixed. On the one hand I loved it and on the other I found some of the story to be bland and not of much interest. It wasn’t until about halfway through where you really see the first of the aliens, so you have to read a bit before you are going to get to any of the good stuff. I liked the setting a lot, I have a natural love for books that take place in space stations (... I’m a sci-fi geek. What do we expect?) but I do wish Earth was talked about a lot more. There is mentions how some states are government run and others are corporate run. It’s pretty simple to understand that difference but it’s such a different idea that I wish it was expanded on a whole lot more then it was.

Kenzie lives on Sanctuary, a juvenile detention center that is run by the corporation Omnistellar. All she knows is rules and procedures and to never break them. Life in a government slum is basically a death sentence. After a security breach that releases anomalies (teenagers with strange abilities) Kenzie learns that almost everything she knew about the corporation that basically raised her is a lie. With aliens aboard their home and death around the corner can Kenzie co-exists with this prisoners she is suppose to be guarding, because after all anomalies are only animals. That is until she meets Cage.   

The romance bugged me a little bit. In the sense that the place takes place in only a two day time span and Kenzie and Cage are basically all for each other. The redeeming aspect of the romance was the fact that Kenzie acknowledges the fact that their feelings for each other developed rather quickly, and after the way Sanctuary ended the status of their relationships is questionable. 

Which brings me to my next point...

Is this book going to be part of a series? There is so much more that can happen that wasn't addressed! There were so many story lines that weren't concluded and left open ended. I do hope that it will be a series because I actually liked Sanctuary a lot and would love to spend a lot more time in this world. 

All in all I really enjoyed Sanctuary expect for the romance and how it is very open ended at the moment. Regardless of those two facts this will be a book that I will be pushing on my friends who love sci-fi.