Dea Readers,
It’s been a while since I reviewed books in my blog. No, I have not stopped reading. In fact, I am doing my best to catch up with Netgalley committments’ list (and it keeps growing).
However, I needed time. I needed time to absorb and dissect this book. Sanctuary by V.V. James is a VERY BIG BOOK. And I am not talking about page or word count…
Synopsis
The small Connecticut town of Sanctuary is rocked by the death of its star quarterback.
Daniel’s death looked like an accident, but everyone knows his ex-girlfriend Harper is the daughter of a witch – and she was there when he died.
Then the rumours start. When Harper insists Dan was guilty of a terrible act, the town turns on her. So was his death an accident, revenge – or something even darker?
As accusations fly and secrets are revealed, paranoia grips the town, culminating in a trial that the whole world is watching . . .
Review
It would have been so much easier if I could pigenhole this book into ‘small town mentality goes mad’… But…
It’s not as much a small town and its mentality with all its stereotypes piled up, it is human mentality. It is that and human weakneses and wickedness.
Town of Sanctuary turns on its ihabitants. It turns on the very people that helped, advised, saved. Well, witches can be tolerated when they are needed. But when they are not… Or worse, when they are to blame or to be made a scapegoat…
V.V. James has chosen witches as scapegoats for the town. However, anyone could have been in their place. It could have been people of colour or different nationalities, homosexual or single mothers, or even single fathers… ‘If you are not like us, you are against us’…
Sanctuary was a roller-coaster trip down the rabbit hole of human cruelty to abandon, selfishness to destruction and smallmindedness to point of no return.
When town turns on two women, mother is doing her best and worst to protect her child from the madness of people they used to call friends. When a mother loses her child she turns into a monster trying to cling on to unreal and find anyone to blame.
V.V. James has done an amazing job with this thriller. Only when you think this is it, this is the worst of it, you’d get another twist and hits you even worse than anything before that.
I kept turning ther E-Reader off as I could not believe people are capable of what they were doing and saying. Most of the characters in the book hit point of no return, a point where all the plugs were pulled, where religion became a weapon of destruction, where parents love became carte blanche for despicable acts..
It all… No, you have to read it for yourself. Seemingly easy to digest story of an accident at teenagers’ party turns out into something that will make you look over your shoulder and hug your kids just a bit more and hope for the best in your relationships with other people…
Definitely 5 stars.
Svetlana Tishchenko 