Format: E-Galley, 496 pages
Release Date: August 6, 2019
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Source: Publisher
Genre: Young Adult / Science Fiction
In the thrilling second book in a series best described as Alien meets The Darkest Minds, Kenzie and her friends find themselves on the run and up against another alien invasion headed towards Earth.
They may have escaped Sanctuary, but Kenzie and her friends are far from safe.
Ex-Omnistellar prison guard Kenzie and her superpowered friends barely made it off Sanctuary alive. Now they’re stuck in a stolen alien ship with nowhere to go and no one to help them. Kenzie is desperate for a plan, but she doesn’t know who to trust anymore. Everyone has their own dark secrets: Omnistellar, her parents, even Cage. Worse still, she’s haunted by memories of the aliens who nearly tore her to shreds—and forced her to accidentally kill one of the Sanctuary prisoners, Matt.
When Kenzie intercepts a radio communication suggesting that more aliens are on their way, she knows there’s only one choice: They must destroy the ship before the aliens follow the signal straight to them. Because if the monstrous creatures who attacked Sanctuary reach Earth, then it’s game over for humanity.
What Kenzie doesn’t know is that the aliens aren’t the only ones on the hunt. Omnistellar has put a bounty on Kenzie’s head—and the question is whether the aliens or Omnistellar get to her first.
Containment, by author Caryn Lix, is the second installment in the authors Sanctuary series. It has been nearly a month since Kenzie Cord and her anomaly allies escaped the prison known as Sanctuary after it was attacked by an unknown alien race that left only several dozen people alive and living aboard a strange alien spaceship. There's a feeling among the crew of not only hurt, but anger, and loss as well. The loss of Matt and Tyler. The loss of Imani's sister while she somehow managed to survive.
Then there is the secret that Kenzie and Cage are keeping from everyone about how Matt really died, and how heavily it weighs on Kenzie's mind. She wants so badly to open her mouth and tell everyone, including Rune, what happened, but she's just now getting to the point where the anomalies trust her. Even though her own mother threw her under the bus, her loss weighs heavily on her mind. It is rare for an author to use PTSD to explain what Kenzie is going through. I'm glad she did because it adds a bit of death and realism to the story.
Things really get moving when he crew realizes that the ship is sending a signal back to the aliens home. As they approach Mars, they decide that the ship must be destroyed and Omnistellar must not be allowed to get their hands on the ship and its technology. Unfortunately, nobody wants to believe them. It's up to Kenzie and the others to try and find a way to destroy the
alien ship, while also evading capture by Omnistellar - or anyone else
who wants them to hand them over to the corporation.
The group is assisted, in his own obnoxious way, by Liam Kidd who claims he knows all about the alien race he calls Zemdyut. The aliens are fast, unpredictable, adaptable, and very clever. Kenzie has more than enough issues all of her own when it's learned that she has a high bounty on her head from her former employer. What's really interesting about this story is Kenzie herself. She's gone from a new anomaly who couldn't be trusted, to someone whose powers are growing by leaps and bounds.
The others like Reed, Cage, Rune, Mia, Alexei, Jasper, and Imani are also having an upgrade of their abilities. But, Kenzie seems to have the most to gain. The latest trend is that we need more diversity in young adult novels. In this book, the cast of characters is diverse, they come from different
socioeconomic backgrounds, they all have issues, and they have to learn to trust each other when the author decides that the characters haven't been tortured enough.
Overall, this isn't a bridge or a let down from the first installment. There are plenty of action, surprises, twists, and horror to make everyone happy. There is, however, a really wild cliffhanger ending that left me stunned. I can't wait until the third installment is released.
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