#119 Sanctuary

Sanctuary by V.V. James 

I am mortified to admit that this book has been sat on my kindle waiting to be read for over a year! Ive recently (the last month or 2) created a kindle tbr jar which i try to pull at least 2 out a month to try and get some of these books read. I always find with kindle books that they are out of sight out of mind! I have around 50 books on my kindle that need to be read and im making it a goal in 2021 to get that number down by at least half. Right enough rambling, i picked Sanctuary out of the jar early last week and man i was so excited to finally read this one. I dont typically care for 'urban fantasy' type stories but this was was so much more than that!

Sanctuary is a marketed as an adult mystery thriller that has been desribed as Big Little Lies meets The Craft. Its set in a small town in Connecticut where everyone knows everyone. In this world witches live among regular ole humans, they ahve their seperate laws they must abide by and they have their own union if you like that represent the rights of witches (its all very woke and im here for it!). When the star quarterback and much loved teen Daniel Whitman dies at a house party, his ex-girlfriend whos mother is a witch is automatically accused of killing him by witchcraft. 

An out of town detective, Maggie is enlisted to come to Sanctuary to investigate his death. The book has some mixed media which who doesnt love? there are newspaper articles, interview transcripts and tweets which gave this book such a modern feel. It very much read like a crime novel as its so very procedural with Maggie interviewing practically half the town, if you enjoy crime/mystery books then this is very much for you and its very light on the fantasy elements. 

Dan's ex-girlfriend, Harper is such an interesting character. She was raised to take over from her mother Sarah as the town witch. When Harper find out that she doesnt have the gift she very much distances herself from that way of life and doesnt show any further interest in magic. Sarah as a character to me was just perfection, she was so conflicted between keeping her status within the town, being there for her friends but most importantly protecting Harper with every ounce of strength that she had, she was definitely the stand out character to me. I also though Abigail was done really well, she was so believeable as the grieving mother who would do anything to not let people taint the memory of her dead son. 

This book reads as very current, i loved how easily the magic was embedded into the story, it was very light and not in your face with fantasy elements. It was so normalised that i was almost believing that this was a contemporary book. Sarah provides the town with potions for all kinds of ailments from stress, grief to a minor headache, it made for such an interesting read. 

I loved how there was embedded societal issues within this book such as the 'me too' movement and how we shouldnt judge people when we don't know them, it made me fall even more in love with this book. There are so many diverse characters within this story and it was so effortlessly portrayed, usually when books have so many diverse characters it does read as diversity for the sake of diversity but this book is one of the best examples i have read of a truly diverse and normalised community. There was also so many twists within this story and i must admit i thought i had it all worked out when that ending had me speechless with my jaw hitting the floor! It really wasnt predictable at all, it was so tense at points towardsthe end too. Such a great, dark, witchy book!