Sanctuary

By: V.V. James

Narrated by: Patricia Rodriguez, Rachel Handshaw, Matt Reeves, Laurel Lefkow

Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

When young Daniel Whitman is killed at a high-school party, the community is ripped apart. The death of Sanctuary's star quarterback seems to be a tragic accident, but everyone knows his ex-girlfriend Harper Fenn is the daughter of a witch - and she was there when he died. Was Daniel's death an accident, revenge, or something more sinister? As accusations fly, paranoia grips the town, culminating in a witch-hunt...and the town becomes no sanctuary at all.

In this dark mystery, V. V. James weaves a spellbinding tale of a town cracking into pieces and the devastating power of a mother's love.

©2020 V.V. James (P)2020 Dreamscape Media, LLC

Overall a Good Story

I enjoyed most of this book. The performances by the narrators were good. The story was engaging throughout, except for the ending. I felt like the ending was rushed and left me feeling unsatisfied. This book would have been better had the author taken a bit more time with the ending. The author is so descriptive throughout and seems to have dropped the ball at the end, which is a shame because I enjoyed the premise of this book.

Excellent, Except the Ending

My impatience to wait weekly for the AMC series based on the book brought me here. This audiobook didn't disappoint at all. I loved everything except for the ending. It was too abrupt and left many questions unanswered.

97% of this Book is INCREDIBLE

'Sanctuary' tells the story of a small New England town after the death of Dan, the star quarterback. It follows three perspectives: Abby, the boy's mother, Sarah, the only local witch in town, who is friends with Abby, and Maggie, the state detective on the case. At first, everyone believes that the boy falling to his death is an accident, but when Dan's best friend has a video of Sarah's daughter, Harper, making what seems to be magical gestures right before Dan dies, the whole case becomes a lot more complicated than it was before. Friendships are ruined and Maggie, although a very competent detective, seems to be working against everyone else. All she wants to know is the truth and the town seems to want to revert back to the Salem witch trials.

This book reminded me a lot of Robyn Harding's 'The Party' with the added detail of real magic. Now, before anyone stops after reading that one sentence, let me remind you that this book was MUCH, MUCH better than 'The Party.' In fact, I asked a question on goodreads.com that still gets a lot of attention and I read that book a long time ago. My question was, "Does anybody hate every character in this book?" The difference between that book and 'Sanctuary' is that I really liked most of the characters in it. I felt what they did made sense and that, when someone was acting crazy, there was a reason for it.

Going off of my title for this review, I want to reiterate that most of this book is amazing, but I will say there were a couple things about the ending that just didn't flow like I felt they should. It wasn't a bad ending, but I think there were questions unanswered that needed to be answered.

As far as the story goes, 'Sanctuary' will receive a B+, because most of it, like I said, was spectacular. The narrators will receive an A- from me, because they were all really good too. I don't know why they have a version of this book with just one narrator and this one with four, but I like this version a lot. If you're going to pick one to listen to, I would choose this one for sure.