Sanctum: A Review

Description (goodreads):

In this haunting, fast-paced sequel to the New York Times bestselling photo-illustrated novel Asylum, three teens must unlock some long-buried secrets from the past before the past comes back to get them first. Featuring found photographs, many from real vintage carnivals, Sanctum is a mind-bending reading experience that blurs the lines between past and present, genius and insanity, perfect for fans of the smash hit Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.

Dan, Abby, and Jordan remain traumatized by the summer they shared in the Brookline asylum. Much as they'd love to move on, someone is determined to keep the terror alive, sending the teens photos of an old-timey carnival, with no note and no name. Forsaking their plan never to go back, the teens return to New Hampshire College under the guise of a weekend for prospective students, and there they realize that the carnival from the photos is not only real, it's here on campus, apparently for the first time in many years.

Sneaking away from sample classes and college parties, Dan and his friends lead a tour of their own—one through the abandoned houses and hidden places of the surrounding town. Camford is hiding a terrible past, and the influence of the asylum runs deeper than Dan ever imagined.

My Review:

This was a great sequel to the creepy first installment, Asylum! In Asylum, everything is mysterious, we don't know what is causing what or why things keep happening. In Sanctum, we finally get those answers.

Granted, we don't really get them until the end, but we get them.

This book was definitely more intense than the first one. Since we already have the creepiness of Camford from the the first novel, we start out with that foreboding and the sense of what the heck is going to happen next.

In the first book I was confused and wanted nothing more than to know what the freak was going on. I had that same feeling in this book, except things kept happening that allowed me to start to piece things together. Was I right most of the time? No, actually, I wasn't. Which was nice. It helped make things more intense.

Let's say I wasn't expecting a lot of things. This book definitely focuses on supernatural aspects, but not as much as I originally thought. There are a few things in here that can actually happen. That real super ultra mega creepy people actually do. I think that's another reason why I was so creeped out. Crazy people scare the living daylights out of me. Sure, supernatrual stuff can be scary sometimes, but! When things happen in books that could happen in real life, THAT'S when I'm like.... uhhhhhhh! And hug a blanket or something.

We had a thunder storm this morning while I was finishing this book, and normally I'm not afraid of thunder, but I did jump because a huge boom happened at an intense part.

The characters, Dan, Abby, and Jordan are great characters who keep us hooked. They are realistic people who hate being in this situation and only went back to Camford so that they could find closure and finish that chapter of their life. I love how they stick together, even when they are scared out of their mind. They don't always agree, but their bonds are still strong. I love how real these characters are. It helps make the story feel a little more real too.

I really liked this one, maybe even a little better than the first.

I give this a 4.5 out of 5!