The Sandcastle Empire by Kayla Olson (2017)

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Day Zero was when it all began. Families were stripped of their homes and torn apart, put into camps while the Wolves lived in luxury. There were signs that the Wolves were rising, yet they were so subtle that it was hard to tell. Now, after two years of eating molding oatmeal, Eden has planned her escape and finally has an opening to run. What she didn’t expect was three other girls, Hope, Alexa, and Finnely, to come with her. With a stolen boat, they set sail in the middle of the sea to find the Sanctuary, the only thought of relief Eden’s dad gave her before he died. Not everything is as simple as it seems, though. The Sanctuary is not what they expected, providing a terrifying, lonely island instead of the refuge they were hoping to find. Together, they must figure out what the island is hiding before it destroys them.
The Sandcastle Empire is the debut novel of Kayla Olson and is a hefty one at that. It’s almost 500 pages long and is an adventure/survival book at it’s core. Within a month of being released, Leonardo DiCaprio bought the film rights to the book but I can’t see why. At first one of the books I was most excited to read this summer, it is now the most disappointing book I’ve read this year.
The plot is something in of itself. I really do enjoy a long book, but only if it’s done right. This was not. For starters, the plot was way too packed, to the point where it was overwhelming at how much stuff was going on. Then, because there was so much stuff going on there wasn’t enough time to explain the story in detail. In my opinion, the story would’ve benefited from being split up into two or three books so the author could really focus on each individual part of the plot.
From the beginning, I was really confused about the world of The Sandcastle Empire. The book opens up in the middle of a scene with almost no explanation of why we’re there, nor is there a lot of explanation on the world throughout the whole novel. There were also a lot of holes concerning the science involved within. By the end, I was extremely confused and was left puzzled with what actually happened.
Oh, the characters. Can we first talk about their names? Having names like Eden and Hope in a dystopian novel almost goes too far with the whole “going for a better future” theme. Also, there were so many “clever” referrals to their names which didn’t work at all. They had almost no personalities beside that. They were your typical YA girl characters and the guy characters followed the same prototype.
Lastly, I want to mention a little, tiny part of the book that totally set my opinion in the book. Somewhere (I don’t remember where), there was a line that the characters were acting like “patients in a mental hospital who refused to take their medication” or something along those lines. Not okay and really offensive. Anyone who is taking control of their mental illness and getting help deserves to be praised and not the butt of a really low comparison.
To wrap it up, I really didn’t enjoy The Sandcastle Empire. However, I encourage you to read other reviews on the book and decide for yourself on whether this book is something you’re interested in.

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