Sanctuary

Thank you to Gollancz and Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really loved the Dark Gifts trilogy so when I heard about this book I so excited to read it! And I really loved this book too!

This book had me hooked from the beginning and on the edge of my seat. I was up reading late into the night because I just needed to read one more chapter. It has a dark and foreboding atmosphere and it only gets darker as the story progresses. By the end it was pretty terrifying. Not in the horror sense but what happens in the story and just how eerily close it was to reality. I could see this happening in real life.

The story focuses on the lives of Sarah and Abigail, whose point of view we read, and their friends and children. We also get the point of view of Maggie who is the detective assigned to the case of Abigail’s son, Daniel, death. Sarah is a witch, in fact the only witch in her town, her daughter Harper, not having inherited her abilities. Abigail is one of Sarah’s closest friends and part of her coven. Yet when they find out about Daniel’s death, friendships are tested and nothing will ever be the same again between them.

Things quickly unravel and escalate and soon it has become a witch hunt and reading how things escalated so quickly was absolutely terrifying yet I couldn’t look away.

As the story progresses we realise that nothing is as black and white as it seems, everyone has secrets and these secrets threaten to turn all their lives upside down. The characters are complex and the more we learn about them the more we see how they aren’t entirely good. How they betray each other to save their own selves and the effect that grief has on each of them and how it changes them.

This book shows what can happen when people fear what they don’t understand. There’s mass hysteria, mob mentality which leads to hate crimes and violence. From Sarah’s point of view we see what it feels like to be different from everyone around you and never truly fit in but that people tolerate your presence as it also benefits them yet when something happens people instantly turn on you. We also see how it affects Harper, Sarah’s daughter, in school and how she resorts to going to a different town to feel safe and be around people who accept her.

Throughout the story we also see the characters teenage children and how their lives all intertwine, through them we see how awful victim blaming is, how when a woman is sexually assaulted it is so traumatic, yet the people who should protect her and support her blame her for what happens. Consent is also discussed and how prejudice and discrimination can affect those subjected to it. The fact that Daniel is a jock and popular means he is blameless and excuses are made for him despite evidence of his crimes being shown to Abigail. She still manages to blame someone else for it. I really loved how all of this was woven into the story, we see the effects of all of this and by the end the result is frightening.

I really loved this book, and if you love dark suspenseful stories then you will love this. The story is captivating and will keep you reading late into the night.

Sanctuary has been one of the most intense page-turning books I have read this year and I absolutely flew through it in just a couple of days. In the world Sanctuary is set in, almost everything is the same as we already know it except Witchcraft is a normal every day, mostly accepted occurrence with its own rules and state mandated laws etc which I find fascinating and very accurate. I also loved the particular brand of witchcraft we see used with charts, herbs, hand gestures and energy etc not to mention witches familiars which are explained as being a witches connection back to the earth and nature. It's also explained that different cultures of witches from around the world use different varieties of spell casting etc which of course is very true so I'm glad this was mentioned, it really felt like Vic had done her research. There's not a huge amount of actual world-building to be done but the little that was needed has been executed brilliantly and so organically as well as the general feeling of the town which almost felt like it's own entity at times.

The story is mostly told from three main points of view, two distraught mothers on either end of a possible murder and police officer, Maggie trying to unravel it all. Following these particular characters was a fantastic choice, watching events unfold from each 'side' was particularly interesting and then seeing how Maggie dealt with said information or revelation as the others did as well. I loved seeing how far each of the three women were willing to go to protect themselves and the ones they love as well as the way their friends and neighbours reacted to the turn of events. Every character, even ones who weren't what I would call "main" supporting characters felt interesting and solid, I found most of these characters very easy to picture and each had memorable traits without falling into stereotypical troupes (for the most part). Sanctuary is an insanely interesting and thrilling narrative but it also very much feels like a startling study of the dark corners of human nature.

To start with, the plot seems simplistic in nature and like any other "whodunnit" kind of mystery with a few extra additions such as the inclusion of witchcraft but still enjoyable and as the story continues on it becomes a whole other creature full of secrets, lies, twists and turns leaving you pointing fingers every which way and really taking a good hard look at your own morals in the process. I'm not ready in any way shape or form to talk about that ending so you'll have to wait for the spoilery book talk on Youtube for that because right now when I try to type about it I just bash my keyboard keys while making incoherent noises of pain and anxiety. Every secret feels expertly layered as every revelation becomes tangled in a web of persecution and fear, author Vic James has a terrifying gift and I can't wait to read more of her books if this standard of writing is the norm because it absolutely blew me away.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am a massive fan of Vic James so of course I was desperate to get my hands on her new book as soon as she hinted about it on twitter. Anything she writes is bound to have me hooked and her description of the new witchy thriller meant I couldn't wait to read it.
To start with, I found it just slightly confusing as it involves a lot of characters and the chapters are from different characters' points of view. I'm not usually a fan of this type of book. However, I do like knowing the various characters' thoughts and it didn't take me very long to get completely stuck into the story.
Maggie is a detective brought in to investigate a case in Sanctuary, the small town she used to live in. Her boss and the local sheriff both encourage her to make the investigation quick. A fire at a house party and an accidental death. But the more she investigates, the less simple it all seems. Could it be murder, and could magic have been involved?
In Sanctuary, everyone has secrets. Only Sarah Fenn, the town witch, seems to know most of them. But she doesn't know everything, even some secrets right under her nose. On top of this there are so many misunderstandings. Though the families had been friends for years, the mothers had no idea what was going on now that their children were teenagers. The relationship between the mothers did not mirror their kids' friendships at all. The situation gets more and more complicated and when things get out of hand it is terrifying, like mass hysteria and mob mentality and the worst parts of everyone all rolled into one.
Vic's writing itself is like magic. She just leads you where she wants you to go and you follow along thinking you're cleverly working it all out yourself. Then the twists come and you realise you only thought what she wanted you to think! It's a beautiful cover too, in a way describing how isolated and apart the town is, as well as possibly hinting at something to come.

The small town of Sanctuary, Connecticut is a perfect little town where everyone gets along. But behind perfect hides some dark secrets as Detective Maggie Knight is about to find out. She has been asked to go to Sanctuary to investigate the tragic death of Sanctuary’s star quarterback. It was accident, a terrible accident.

But the rumours start. Rumours that his ex-girlfriend killed him using witchcraft. She’s the daughter of a town’s witch and, even though she doesn’t have magical abilities, is that the truth?

Bereaved mother Abigail will stop at nothing until she has justice for her dead son. Sarah, Abigail’s best friend, will do whatever she can to protect her daughter. And both women share a secret that could shatter the fragile peace of the town and their lives.

Maggie must find out the truth and prevent the town from spiralling dangerously out of control. But mob mentality is slowing being to take its grip the town… Sanctuary no longer feels safe.

I had a blast reading this. I got a little bit addicted to this as I wanted to know what happened next. I get why the publisher is saying this is a mix of Big Little Lies and The Craft or The Power.

I liked that this book had characters who were very morally grey and, at times, were quite unpleasant and quite nasty. I liked that we saw characters unravel and do and say things were awful in the situation, but you understood why they said or did that. I liked that the chapters switched between Sarah, Maggie and Abigail so you understood what all of them were thinking when certain truths/events revealed themselves and I liked that we had transcripts of police interviews, TV interviews, newspaper articles showing how the truth is getting more and more twisted, and that this book tackled triggers issues (mob mentality, death, grief, sexual assault and consent, breakdown of friendships and safe spaces (though at times, I did wish one or two of the issues were tackled a bit darker, though I do admit that I might be thinking this as I read this quite fast).

I do admit that the ending is a tad rushed. There’s a gap between the last chapter and the epilogue and, due to this gap, several issues aren’t expected resolved. I want to see the fallout of the last chapter, I want to see the consequences to everyone what happened to the town and what led them to the final chapters, but we don’t. But, I get why this was the why to go as we need the epilogue to explain the truth of what happened that night. But it would have been nice to have an extra chapter to two, just to give me some closure as there was a few chapters I wanted to suffer ever so slightly for their actions.

I am surprised how much I enjoyed myself reading Sanctuary and I do think this would make a really interesting TV drama (again, very similar to Big Little Lies or A Discovery of Witches) and, while I admit this might be a marmite read from some people, I am intrigued to see what V.V. James writes next…

The town of Sanctuary is rocked by the death of a young football player, Daniel, at a house party.  At first it seems like an accident, but then some of the other party goers come forward and claim that they saw Daniel's ex girlfriend Harper, the daughter of the local witch, performing what seemed to be magic at the time he died, and accuse her of murder.  As the police try and investigate tensions in the town begin to escalate, soon becoming out of control.

This was a strange one for me.  I was very unsure about it at the start.  I found the story easy to get into, at least for the first few chapters.  Unfortunately James lost me a bit with the introduction of Sarah as the town witch.  I found it hard to reconcile what level of magic James was asking us to believe in... was this the magic of myth and fairytales? Or were we looking at a modern day witch, more of a holistic healer?  It really took me a while to get my head around this, and become comfortable with the world setting of the book.

All that said, I found that once I had grasped what was going on and settled in to the story properly I was really enjoying it.  My thoughts on who's side I was on seesawed throughout the book.  As I learnt more about each of the characters I found things I liked and disliked in all of them, and their actions as the book progressed had me changing my thoughts on who was guilty or what was going on with each chapter.

I thought that James did a really good job of highlighting how society is often prejudiced against certain groups, and how quickly that can escalate into something terrible.  The concept of certain people being able to use their status, power or money to discredit others and sway legal proceedings is certainly not a new one, but by making this a story about witches vs non magical people we are given a different take on it.  Hopefully it gives people something to think about as they read the book.

Once I got to the ending I was kind of blindsided.  It wasn't remotely what I had expected, and at first I didn't think I was happy with it.  After a few days of thinking about it I'm not sure the book could have ended any other way.  It's not often I'm caught so unawares as I was this time, and that is always a good thing.  Ultimately I think the ending of the book fits with the rest of the story, reminding us that things are never as simple as just black and white.

It's always a good sign for me when I need a few days to process my thoughts properly before I can write a review, and this one certainly did that.  I'm giving 4*, and I will be looking out for more books by this author.

Thanks to NetGalley, Orion Publishing Group and Gollancz for an arc in exchange for an honest review