Review Detail

Riveting debut brimming with heart-wrenching endings, thought-provoking beginnings, and unforeseen choices in a world that only death can bring on.

Taking the initial quote from SANCTUM'S blurb: "My plan: Get into the city. Get Nadia. Find a way out. Simple." Now, we all know that nothing is simple during the teen years. And SANCTUM stays true to that course, contemplating the delicate subject of teen suicide and what really happens 'after.'

From her scattered foster care life, Lela has a different scale with which she measures life. That scale grows more unbalanced as the only friend she's ever had takes her own life. Grief and guilt are immediately evident within Lela, only adding to her already complex emotional shelf. She dreams of a place where only desolation exists and knows it's the place her friend has gone. Lela is searching, longing for closure over her friend's tragic decision. But even more for the pain of her personal past to heal and release her.

Ultimately, she ends up in the same place as her dreams. There she meets Malachi, who shares her anguish of a disturbing past with the inner turmoil that creates. Lela finds her inner and outer conflicts followed her into her afterlife - insecurities, loneliness, and longing for peace and acceptance - where Malachi has been stirring in his afterlife, healing, and moving toward a new beginning. But for Malachi, meeting Lela with her quest to save her friend means a new beginning of unknowns and uncertainties.

Fine captures the poetic beauty in such a struggle, holding the reader's attention with humor as well as the more serious; it's quite drawing. The structure of events, and personal reflections and revelations are strategically placed to feed the reader a desire for more. Surprising inner revelations direct Lela and Malachi to evolve as the story nears its climax. And the shocking ending left me only longing for Book II.

The world Fine created pieces together plausible elements in just the right places to make it believable and thought-provoking, like souls seeking frivolous things to fill their emptiness and the inability to see past those and hope. This isn't simply a YA story that draws in the reader, but a tale which urges contemplation of one's own existence and future.