Sanctuary Bay

Sarah Merson spent her childhood in foster care after her parents were murdered when she was three. Suddenly, she receives a mysterious full scholarship to Sanctuary Bay Academy, a ritzy prep school on an island off the coast of Maine. The school attracts the children of the world’s wealthy and powerful, even though no student is allowed to leave the island until graduation. Inevitably, the reasons for this turn out to be sinister, as well as related to the decrepit ruins of an asylum on one end of the island and a set of WWII POW cells dug into the school’s bedrock. Burns and Metz, who have collaborated on Crave and other titles, build a suspenseful and satisfying narrative full of subtly creepy details, which derails near the end due to an implausible explanation, complete with a villain-explains-all monologue. Still, the majority of the story is well-written, somewhat campy fun, teetering between a psychological study of teenage peer pressure and an over-the-top horror flick. Ages 14–up. Agent: Robin Rue, Writers House. (Jan.)