Laura J. Burns

Sarah Merson has the ability to remember everything...what she's read, what she's learned and most importantly, what she's seen, even the murder of her parents when she was four years old. Bounced around in the Ohio foster care system, she's mysteriously selected for an exclusive private school-Sanctuary Bay Academy, on an isolated island off the Maine coast. There's a caveat, however. Once enrolled, students remain on the island until graduation, two years in her case.
She's greeted warmly, show more first by two students who meet her at a floating wind generator, then when her roommates, Izzy and Karina, unfurl a huge banner welcoming her. Despite the greeting, Sarah has difficulty warming and trusting at first, partly because of her foster care experiences, but also because it seems everyone there is well off and she has nothing.
The plot cranks up quickly and involves secrets, lots of secrets-tunnels where Nazi POWs were held during WW2, an abandoned insane asylum on the other side of the island, her roommates disappearing at night and a secret society. All of these are part of an even bigger secret that fuels the remainder of the story.
I have a few problems, though. Before arriving, Sarah's told they can access the web for research, but nothing can go out, no Facebook, email, etc, yet there are extremely smart students and millions of dollars worth of technology in the labs. At least one kid could have figured out a workaround and hacked the system. I also can't buy the head of a quasi-govenment corporation bragging all their secrets to a couple teens when billions of dollars and who knows how many lives are at stake.
Even with my reservations, I liked the book and am looking forward to a more polished sequel. show less

Sanctuary Bay by Laura J. Burns and Melinda Metz
Source: Netgalley
My Rating: 4/5 stars
My Review:

Sarah Merson has been in the foster system since she was a toddler. She heard her parents die and since then has relived the moment and many other super-shitty moments thanks to her eidetic memory. The only benefit her eidetic memory has ever offered her is the ability to kick ass and take names in school. Because of her academic success, Sarah has been tapped to receive a full scholarship to show more Sanctuary Bay, an elite academy populated by mostly uber-wealthy kids who have more money than sense.

Knowing she hit the foster kid lottery, Sarah goes into Sanctuary Bay with the intention of doing her very best so she will have a chance when she graduates. Her first impression of the Academy is one of wonder and awe as it is a completely isolated island which the students (and faculty) never leave. The classes are easy for Sarah but fitting in with the wealthy kids is a bit harder. With two roommates, one super nice and one a bit scary, Sarah has a sort of instant social circle which she works hard to fit into. Before long, Sarah isn’t just a part of the in-crowd but is also asked to become a member of an exclusive secret society. The group is beyond weird and into some somewhat sketchy stuff but for the first time in her life, Sarah feels like she belongs. And then everything takes a left turn at Albuquerque.

Sarah has done her level best to avoid contact with her roommate’s boyfriend, Ethan. In Sarah’s estimation, Ethan generally has a very bad attitude and underappreciates the opportunities offered to him by the Academy. However, some of his crazy starts to make sense when things with the secret club start going sideways. Ethan has been at the Academy for a lot of years and when Sarah begins asking questions about Sanctuary Bay, the asylum ruins, and the island’s history, Ethan becomes a valuable source of information. When the information starts coming together into a cohesive whole, Sarah finds she needs Ethan more than ever especially if the two of them want to stay alive. Holy Hannah!! What Sarah and Ethan discover about Sanctuary Bay goes beyond even the wildest imaginings of the most ardent conspiracy theorist!!

The Bottom Line: Sanctuary Bay is one wild ride. Just when I wrapped my head around high school kids having near-orgies and classrooms filled with millions of dollars’ worth of tech, and a site so remote not even the teachers leave, the left turn at Albuquerque happens. The turn Sanctuary Bay takes is a pretty wide left turn and may turn some readers off but I found its weirdness to be right in line with everything else about the Academy. Sanctuary Bay isn’t just about a bunch of rich kids at an ultra-exclusive school. Oh, no!! Sanctuary Bay is about a bunch of rich kids (and Sarah!) ant an ultra-exclusive school that has a sordid and nasty history that involves so many levels of deception and deceit as to be nearly implausible. I sort of loved it and the deeper I got into the read the more I enjoyed the crazy. This isn’t your typical high school read and I would caution any reader to go into this with a completely open mind because the turns this one takes will leave you reeling. Now you totally want to read this, don’t you?? My work here is done . . . show less

I am a HUGE fan of the original Oz books and some of the re-tellings that I have read as well. So I absolutely couldn't wait to read this book when I found it on a shelf at our library. This author is not Frank Baum so I didn't expect her to keep to the original story perfectly. I am rating her based on her writing (and my opinion of the book)... not on how well she kept to the original story. They are two different authors and I will be fair and treat her as an individual.

There are some show more parallels in this book with the original story with common characters and places but Ms. Burns took ownership and made this story her own. I really enjoyed the new characters that she introduced. They are young and they act accordingly with crushes and jealously, etc. Unlike other reviewers, I didn't expect young characters to act like adults. These characters have their own skills that they are learning and developing along the way to Glinda the Good's castle. They are also learn that sometimes things are not as they appear and the same goes for people. I literally got lost in this book and read it all in one sitting. I believe that Ms. Burns has earned herself a new fan.

Overall, a great adventure in the land of Oz. Now I just need to get my hands on a copy of the next book... show less

What stood out the most for me in Sanctuary Bay was the setting, the island created a feeling of isolation and helplessness that made the storyline more interesting. The characters however were a bit of a disappointment, I found them to be rather cliche as each filled a stereotypical role: rich girl, poor girl, popular girl, bad boy, etc. There was also the cliche love triangle that seems overly popular in young adult books which blends this book into almost every other young adult book out show more there for me. Same framework, different story.

The story itself was interesting and there was enough twists to keep me reading but it lacked depth and explanation. There was too much of a focus on the characters instead of what was going on behind the scenes at the school, which was the best part of the book in my opinion.

The pacing was inconsistent, it went from slow to perfect and then into overdrive. The book started out well, I was intrigued and interested after the initial scene but once other characters started to come into the story it slowed down quite a bit. The pace started to pick up around a third of the way in and stayed that way for almost the rest of the book until the ending which felt very rushed. The pacing in the last section of the book was too fast, like perhaps it had to be squeezed into a limited amount of pages, it didn't work for me.

All in all it wasn't a bad read but it wasn't a great read either. There isn't much in Sanctuary Bay that makes it stand out from other young adult books, it's built on the same framework as many others out there: stereotypical characters, girl meets boy, girl meets another boy, which boy will she choose. show less