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A review by bright_and_bookish
Sanctuary by Andi C. Buchanan
3.0
3 Stars
This is the story of a group of people who for a variety of reasons are excluded by society at large and have found a sanctuary in an old mansion filled with ghosts. When someone drops off a bunch of bottles, each with a ghost inside, the delicate balance of their lives is disrupted and they have to come together and fight for their safe place.
This book didn’t exactly hit the mark for me. I loved that pretty much every character was neurodivergent and that there was a ton of diversity, disability rep, LGBTQ+ rep, etc. but we spent so much time learning about each of the characters that the actual plot was underdeveloped. The plot was also full of plot holes and the end was incredibly confusing and just strange.
Also, the ghosts didn’t feel like ghosts, they just felt like more characters who couldn’t talk and wandered through walls occasionally. I can appreciate that the author wanted to explore the idea of consent and what it means to treat people with respect and dignity even when they can’t advocate for themselves, but I don’t think the plot of having a nefarious ghost makes sense if this is the idea that you want to explore.
Overall I think if you are feeling desperate for good representation of marginalized groups and don’t mind if the plot is a little bit nonsensical than this might work for you.
(A vlog discussing this book will be going up soon on my YouTube channel, Bright and Bookish, check back here for the link).
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing a free eARC in exchange for my honest review.
This is the story of a group of people who for a variety of reasons are excluded by society at large and have found a sanctuary in an old mansion filled with ghosts. When someone drops off a bunch of bottles, each with a ghost inside, the delicate balance of their lives is disrupted and they have to come together and fight for their safe place.
This book didn’t exactly hit the mark for me. I loved that pretty much every character was neurodivergent and that there was a ton of diversity, disability rep, LGBTQ+ rep, etc. but we spent so much time learning about each of the characters that the actual plot was underdeveloped. The plot was also full of plot holes and the end was incredibly confusing and just strange.
Also, the ghosts didn’t feel like ghosts, they just felt like more characters who couldn’t talk and wandered through walls occasionally. I can appreciate that the author wanted to explore the idea of consent and what it means to treat people with respect and dignity even when they can’t advocate for themselves, but I don’t think the plot of having a nefarious ghost makes sense if this is the idea that you want to explore.
Overall I think if you are feeling desperate for good representation of marginalized groups and don’t mind if the plot is a little bit nonsensical than this might work for you.
(A vlog discussing this book will be going up soon on my YouTube channel, Bright and Bookish, check back here for the link).
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing a free eARC in exchange for my honest review.