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Sanctuary
Sometimes losing your children is the only way to save them.
The year is 2039. Jean Bennett’s husband and sister have died from a mysterious illness. To save her children’s lives, she must leave the home she loves. Deep in grief, infected by a virus that might kill her at any time, and chased by government goons, Jean must be braver than she ever thought possible as she journeys to Canada to get her five children to safety. It should be a three-day car trip, but this ride is not like any they’ve ever taken. When Jean learns that children, originally thought to be immune, can be infected at fifteen, the stakes rise. Her oldest son just turned fourteen. Then their vehicle and all their supplies are stolen. As each new challenge changes her, Jean begins to understand what she must do to save her children. Just making it to Canada isn’t enough; she must make one final sacrifice.
The grueling journey of The Road meets the shifting perspectives of Station Eleven in this dystopian speculative fiction about a family that survives their worst fears as the known world and their certainty about who they are disintegrate during a thousand-mile race to safety. Sanctuary is a story about love and determination, a story of hope.
The year is 2039. Jean Bennett’s husband and sister have died from a mysterious illness. To save her children’s lives, she must leave the home she loves. Deep in grief, infected by a virus that might kill her at any time, and chased by government goons, Jean must be braver than she ever thought possible as she journeys to Canada to get her five children to safety. It should be a three-day car trip, but this ride is not like any they’ve ever taken. When Jean learns that children, originally thought to be immune, can be infected at fifteen, the stakes rise. Her oldest son just turned fourteen. Then their vehicle and all their supplies are stolen. As each new challenge changes her, Jean begins to understand what she must do to save her children. Just making it to Canada isn’t enough; she must make one final sacrifice.
The grueling journey of The Road meets the shifting perspectives of Station Eleven in this dystopian speculative fiction about a family that survives their worst fears as the known world and their certainty about who they are disintegrate during a thousand-mile race to safety. Sanctuary is a story about love and determination, a story of hope.
- GenresDystopia
288 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 15, 2024
About the author
Ginny Fite
19 books83 followersThe author of the genre-bender Blue Girl on a Night Dream Sea, the thriller No End of Bad, and the dark mystery thrillers Cromwell's Folly, No Good Deed Left Undone, and Lying, Cheating, and Occasionally Murder, the paranormal mystery Possession, and co-author of Thoughts & Prayers under the pseudonym Lee Anne Post, Ginny Fite is an award-winning journalist. She has been a spokesperson for a governor and for a member of Congress, a few colleges and universities, and a robotics R&D company.
She has degrees from Rutgers University and Johns Hopkins University and studied at the School for Women Healers and the Maryland Poetry Therapy Institute.
Ginny has also authored I Should Be Dead by Now, a collection of humorous lamentations about aging, three books of poetry, The Last Thousand Years, The Pearl Fisher, Throwing Caution, and a short story collection, What Goes Around.
She has degrees from Rutgers University and Johns Hopkins University and studied at the School for Women Healers and the Maryland Poetry Therapy Institute.
Ginny has also authored I Should Be Dead by Now, a collection of humorous lamentations about aging, three books of poetry, The Last Thousand Years, The Pearl Fisher, Throwing Caution, and a short story collection, What Goes Around.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 30, 2025
This review is also available on my blog: Wine Cellar Library
First, I would like to thank the author and Goddess Fish Promotions for the gifted review copy.
"The tell-tale signs of illness—pallor, swollen eyes, raspy voice—looked the same as grief." (p. 23)
A lethal pandemic that kills half of those who contract it forces a mother to flee to safety with her children and her niece. Along their harrowing journey, they encounter a myriad of threatening people. Thieves and looters are far from the most dangerous humans they will encounter. All the while, a virus officer with something to prove is intent on arresting Jean, and no borders or jurisdiction rules will stand in her way.
Jean is a formidable character, but her tendency to be polite and try to rationalize with people puts her and the children in dangerous situations. Her son, Ren, has quickly learned that all propriety died with the pandemic, and no amount of bargaining will keep them safe. As they are faced with increasingly devastating circumstances, the family bond hold them all together. Each character is well-developed, and the motivations of their enemies are realistic—even the virus cop and her wild obsession with capturing Jean.
I love post-apocalyptic novels, and this one did not disappoint. Throughout my reading, I was reminded of the powerful novel After the Flood by Kassandra Montag due to Jean's enduring strength and her determination to do everything in her power for the children who need her.
First, I would like to thank the author and Goddess Fish Promotions for the gifted review copy.
"The tell-tale signs of illness—pallor, swollen eyes, raspy voice—looked the same as grief." (p. 23)
A lethal pandemic that kills half of those who contract it forces a mother to flee to safety with her children and her niece. Along their harrowing journey, they encounter a myriad of threatening people. Thieves and looters are far from the most dangerous humans they will encounter. All the while, a virus officer with something to prove is intent on arresting Jean, and no borders or jurisdiction rules will stand in her way.
Jean is a formidable character, but her tendency to be polite and try to rationalize with people puts her and the children in dangerous situations. Her son, Ren, has quickly learned that all propriety died with the pandemic, and no amount of bargaining will keep them safe. As they are faced with increasingly devastating circumstances, the family bond hold them all together. Each character is well-developed, and the motivations of their enemies are realistic—even the virus cop and her wild obsession with capturing Jean.
I love post-apocalyptic novels, and this one did not disappoint. Throughout my reading, I was reminded of the powerful novel After the Flood by Kassandra Montag due to Jean's enduring strength and her determination to do everything in her power for the children who need her.
November 18, 2024
Fite accomplishes the rare feat of writing a dystopian thriller that is haunting yet heart-pounding thanks to its focus not on the viral cataclysm that sets the plot in motion but on a mother and her young children and their flight to what they hope will be a safe haven in Canada. (This also makes the book suitable for both adult and YA audiences.)
She pays homage throughout the book to Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, in which, in a similar fashion, the reader never learns exactly what triggered the cataclysm. It simply doesn’t matter. What matters is the human element, the survival of the family unit. What morals can you teach your children when you have to kill to survive? How can you teach empathy in a world where a kind gesture may be your last? Jean, our heroine, struggles with these questions while trying to keep her children alive, safe, and together.
The writing is as lyrical as any literary novel’s without sacrificing a drop of tension —so much tension that at times I was literally breathless. I was so invested in Jean and her children’s survival, it hurt. Hurdles and twists abound, and I ended up reading WAY past my bedtime to find out how it ended. I suspect you will, too.
For fans of Station Eleven, The Road, Never Let Me Go, and The Hunger Games trilogy.
She pays homage throughout the book to Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, in which, in a similar fashion, the reader never learns exactly what triggered the cataclysm. It simply doesn’t matter. What matters is the human element, the survival of the family unit. What morals can you teach your children when you have to kill to survive? How can you teach empathy in a world where a kind gesture may be your last? Jean, our heroine, struggles with these questions while trying to keep her children alive, safe, and together.
The writing is as lyrical as any literary novel’s without sacrificing a drop of tension —so much tension that at times I was literally breathless. I was so invested in Jean and her children’s survival, it hurt. Hurdles and twists abound, and I ended up reading WAY past my bedtime to find out how it ended. I suspect you will, too.
For fans of Station Eleven, The Road, Never Let Me Go, and The Hunger Games trilogy.
February 28, 2025
A good story, needs a better book cover.
January 25, 2025
Stories like Sanctuary are my favorite; I can’t seem to get enough of them. Sanctuary is one of the greatest dystopian stories I have read so far. Sanctuary grabbed my attention from the first page, and it held on until the very end. I couldn’t have stopped reading if I had wanted to.
Sanctuary is a story about a mother, Jean, who is trying to get her children safely to Canada. A virus is running amok, only killing adults and saving the kids. No one knows why. After Jean becomes sick, she takes her kids away in the night, running from the virus police.
They try to keep to themselves on the road, as no one can be trusted and everyone is out for number one. Their journey is not an easy one, to say the least. Jean risks her own life to keep her kids safe numerous times. Jean is determined to make it to Canada before it is too late, no matter what it may cost her in the long run.
Sanctuary is a great story; I love the world-building and would love to see it made into a TV show. I know I would watch it over and over again. Sanctuary is a story that you hope never ends. You want it to go on forever and ever.
I highly recommend Sanctuary to all fans of dystopian stories. Grab a copy of Sanctuary today!
Sanctuary is a story about a mother, Jean, who is trying to get her children safely to Canada. A virus is running amok, only killing adults and saving the kids. No one knows why. After Jean becomes sick, she takes her kids away in the night, running from the virus police.
They try to keep to themselves on the road, as no one can be trusted and everyone is out for number one. Their journey is not an easy one, to say the least. Jean risks her own life to keep her kids safe numerous times. Jean is determined to make it to Canada before it is too late, no matter what it may cost her in the long run.
Sanctuary is a great story; I love the world-building and would love to see it made into a TV show. I know I would watch it over and over again. Sanctuary is a story that you hope never ends. You want it to go on forever and ever.
I highly recommend Sanctuary to all fans of dystopian stories. Grab a copy of Sanctuary today!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews