Sanctuary Bay

Gr 10 Up—Within the grounds of a seemingly perfect prep school, Burns and Metz reveal a world of violence and secrets. Sarah Merson is an orphan with a freakishly perfect memory. There are a lot of things she'd rather forget, and she has much to learn when she is unexpectedly accepted into a prestigious boarding school on a remote island in Maine. At Sanctuary Bay Academy, the people are beautiful, the academic expectations are high, and the risks are, literally, life and death. After being swept into an even more secret society within the school, Sarah soon discovers that what lies beneath the pristine exterior is a rocky foundation of blood, bones, and a cruel conspiracy that may even reach from beyond the grave. Genuinely enjoyable from start to finish, this novel would lend itself most fully to those who enjoy gritty, grotesque exposés of superficially perfect people and places. The authors successfully create an intricate environment on the isolated island, and readers will likely find it just as easy to become immersed in the plot as the characters become immersed in the school itself. The protagonist self-identifies as coming from a racially mixed and ambiguous background, which lends itself to the character's sense of alienation and "otherness."