unusual YA take on the afterlife/angels

I thought this book was well-written and well-paced. The world of the different afterlives is very interesting and unusual. The version of "angels" and "Judge" is a great twist on what I expected to find. The idea that these two girls had such a strong friendship that one would follow the other into Hell to save her friend after she has committed suicide is fascinating and intriguing. The lead character's background of sexual assault and neglect making her unable to even hug her friends is touching and creates some good tension as she attempts to learn to trust other people.

Unfortunately the book begins to devolve into sexist and cliched territory. Our luxuriously-haired teenage heroine doesn't have enough self-esteem to value her own life and doesn't think she is attractive or worthy of love. She meets The One, falls in love immediately and deeply, as does he - and he is able to break through her barriers in a very extremely short period of time. He saves her physically from monsters and thus she trusts him as no one else... and soon they are kissing and she is attracted to him sexually (despite her previous extreme fear of intimacy). They stop communicating their feelings and thus question each other's love and loyalty repeatedly, creating dangers that seemed easily avoidable. She rushes into danger all alone and has to be rescued. Her friend becomes an afterthought and is relegated to an abruptly easy afterlife and is conveniently pushed out of the story.

The plot never really lives up to the promise of the unique setting and world-building. The romance is too perfect, too quick, and too intense, as is typical of YA paranormal romances. That said, the writing is smooth and well-edited. The author's talent kept me reading while hoping desperately that the plot lines took more advantage of the action plots rather than the romance.

2.5 stars

Audiobook version note: the narrator's mangled accent for Malachi make me wince. He sounds like a bad fake Russian Dracula.

32 people found this helpful

Exciting story, cliche characters

I started reading this book before knowing anything about it so I was surprised when the story went from her regular school life to falling off a cliff and dying very early on in the story.

I generally like books/movies with strong female characters so this had promise. The main character Lela started out as physically and emotionally strong in the beginning, became wimpy, foolish and lovestruck towards the middle and deteriorated into a weak Disney princess at the end. She was so self-absorbed thinking everything was about her and constantly apologizing. Get over yourself - the world does not revolve around you. Her character started out as a 10 and ended up as a 2.

The supporting character who commits suicide, Nadia starts out interesting but ends up like a boring zombie. I had no interest whether she stayed in purgatory forever or not.

I would have liked the characters to be less cookie-cutter and more internally conflicted. The good guys are all good, the bad guys are all bad - there is nothing complex about them. The most interesting characters have a bit of both (think Breaking Bad).

Aside from the teenage melodrama and angst, the concept of the underworld was very interesting and the description of the houses, the people and how things worked were fascinating. The story line was exciting and moved quickly.

I was a little confused at the end of the book - like why the characters ended up where they did with that particular job. I like stories being wrapped up so that was good but I definitely had a moment of "Wait. What?" It seems like the finale was crow-barred.

9 people found this helpful

it's just ok.

started slow. a struggle to listen to in the early chapter. about half way through it gets better. the narrator's accents are kind of bad and all sound the same. the leading male role is supposed to have a sexy Slavic accent. it wasn't sexy at all and sounded like a bridge between Chinese and Spanish mix. weird. I am going to give book 2 a try.

3 people found this helpful

Good but not as good as I had expected

I'm going to go against the grain here and give this book 3 stars. In this case, 3 stars means that I loved some parts, didn't like other parts, but I liked the book overall. It wasn't that the book was bland or middling, but that I had some issues with it.

I'll start off with what I liked. 5 stars for sure for world-building here. Sarah Fine created a uniquely imaginative world that happened to make total sense. It was creepy, dark, and fabulously conceptualized. Her concept of the afterlife for suicide victims, the Shadowlands, was perfect. By far, the world was my favorite part of the book. I loved the concept of the Mazikin. Just brilliant, honestly. This book had some of the best world-building that I've ever seen in young adult paranormal.

Now for the parts that I had issues with. I've said it once and I'll say it again, audiobooks change the entire reading experience. So much is riding on the narrator and their interpretation of the characters. I loved when this narrator voiced Lela. She did a very nice job conveying Lela's emotions and fears. However, once the narrator attempted to narrate for Malachi, I was not a fan. First of all, Malachi sounded distinctly feminine, which really lessened his appeal greatly. He is supposed to be a very strong, macho Middle-Eastern man and the narrator sort of made it sound like a white girl doing a mock Arab accent (not cool). The narrator also sounded almost identical with her Middle Eastern accent for Malachi and her Hispanic accent for Anna. It was distracting for me and lead me to focus on the flaws of the characters.

I didn't love how Malachi and Lela were too perfect. They were both self-sacrificing to the point of incredulity. My least favorite character was Nadia, mostly because I just couldn't see why Lela would go to so much trouble for a girl who made no impact on me. I get why Lela was supposed to care about Nadia, I just didn't care about her and I wanted to shake Lela for giving up so much for her. I wanted to shout, "Nadia isn't worth it!"

Despite my issues, I think I will certainly move on to the next in the series. The world has too much potential for me to quit now. Perhaps in ebook form I'll like the story even more.

11 people found this helpful

Struggled to get into the story...

Was a mixed bag of a book really, took some effort to listen and follow at the beginning. This was not helped by the narration.

But as the story developed I was able to move past my initial reluctance and become involved in the story.

Not sure that I will invest in the two sequels, as the end of book one ends perfectly nicely.

2 people found this helpful

Awesome book

I loved this book. It was a different and exciting read. I don't normally read YA books because I hated high school and well don't really care to revisit my own memories brought on but reading what the characters are going through. This book was different though. It didn't feel like a YA at all. Which is a good thing since basically it pairs a 17 year old girl with a almost 80 year old guy. Though to be fair he looks 19 in the book. ( We should all be so lucky right. LOL ) Anyway the book has sort of Vampire/alien like characters an angel and so much more. WARNING : It does deal with suicide a lot. It's how the characters get where they are to begin with. It will pull on the old heart strings in places but it also offers hope and love. I highly recommend this book.

L.

4 people found this helpful

Could have been better

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

No, unless I were a tween with much angst

Has Sanctum turned you off from other books in this genre?

YES

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

Performing this had to be as slow as listening to it was

Did Sanctum inspire you to do anything?

Yes, avoid the rest of the series

Any additional comments?

Save your time and money and skip it

8 people found this helpful

So close to good, but dang the angsty romance! >:(

What would have made Sanctum better?

The lack of internal consistency. If the main character has been raped and molested for years AND decides to go into HELL for a friend she cares about more than anything else, WHY, WHY, WHY would she spend all of her time falling apart and wooing over a man?!?!? Why would she forget about her friend so often that even for the reader Nadia becomes little more than an after thought? For a character with that background romance should have built more slowly. For a such a strong and determined character (think of the focus of female athletes) she should have been focused on her goal and perhaps having to push away romantic thoughts or slowly sorting them out throughout the book, but always pushing towards her goal.

Has Sanctum turned you off from other books in this genre?

No, but I will be a bit more wary.

What aspect of Amy McFadden’s performance would you have changed?

Give her some practice or maybe a class on accents. Spanish, Eastern European, British... doesn't matter, all the accents sound vaguely Russian.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Sanctum?

Get rid of the romance altogether or having it be something that builds more slowly and believably into a relationship/romance that really would have made the reader cheer for the heroine and hero coming together in the end. As it is, you want to smack both the characters at every turn... particularly after you've been forced to smack your own forehead long enough to leave a palm print. Seriously, I've read and loved many YA novels that have a romance element, but this is SOOOOOOOOO obnoxiously done.

Any additional comments?

I know that so much work goes into writing and narrating a story and so I really hate that I couldn't like this book. Given the world that Sarah Fine created, this book had some truly amazing potential. I'd hoped that skipping past the pointless angsty romance would allow me to finish the book and see the rescue of this wonderful friend Nadia (who is all too often completely forgotten - see "romance"), but when a story loses internal integrity it's sort of downhill from there. Honestly, if the romance element were treated with a gentler touch and allowed to slowly blossom this book would be a run away hit with most audiences. Sadly that opportunity was missed.

1 person found this helpful

Addicting!!

This was a fantastic book. I finished it in a little over a day. The very beginning was a little slow, but once Lela got into the city, it got really good. I loved the characters. Especially Malachi! The details were amazing. I'm not always great at picturing things in my mind, but I could see it all with this authors descriptions. I almost didn't get it because of the subject (I don't believe there is a part of hell just for people who commit suicide), but I like paranormal/supernatural books. I was not disappointed. Can't wait to start the next one!

3 people found this helpful

unique take on the afterlife

I am new to audible but I really enjoyed this story. the characters and the plot are well thought out.

4 people found this helpful