I have family issues, which is what drew me to add this book to my reading list. Ruby’s troubles, punctuated by being abandoned by her mother, only begin when she has to shift her entire life from her tiny house with its built-in independence to the house her estranged sister lives in with her husband. New school, new home, new people she doesn’t need, no way, no how, and there’s the fine print that she has to start considering other people’s feelings that she doesn’t notice until it’s too late. The latter was the only bit of subtlety that stayed relatively subtle (you know, how that subtle thing is supposed to go) and worked for me. This story should have been right up my alley. Abandonment is something I love to read about—the trials, learning to trust, recovery—but Lock and Key failed for me.

I’ve said it before and I’ll likely say it again that even bad Dessen is good Dessen, because I think she has an excellent ability to write teen girls as they are instead of writing teen girls that only exist on the surface. Ruby was interesting enough, but when I think back to her I remember nothing that makes her stand out. Ruby never made the jump for me. She was too empty. One thing I love about the narrators in Dessen’s books is that they have this identity that shapes how they handle their problems, but Ruby doesn’t have that for me. She’s a good person to travel through the story with, but what shocked me is that it felt like she was the boat for the reader to pass through the book on rather than someone fully formed the reader could travel with. Shockingly, for the first time I found the male leads more fleshed out and interesting than the main character—in other books I’ve had problems with vague love interests and perfection. That was an interesting change and while it gave me half of what I wanted, I missed connecting.

I’m at the point where I’m not sure it’s the books—I think it’s me. Just Listen is in the place for me and I keep going into Dessen’s work hoping to be blown away by everything in the book that’s not being said, because Just Listen did that so well. I think the points are too spelled out in Lock and Key. There’s no joy in the discovery of something just dropped into the text for the reader to find and discover. The path is laid out from the beginning of the story—I even predicted how it would end and this is petty of me, but it bothers me when I do that. I don’t like paint by numbers fiction; seriously, I’m not that clever. If I’m predicting endings, something is amiss!

It’s readable and intriguing enough to finish but the more Dessen I read that doesn’t employ all the great writing techniques that Just Listen had the more I think I won’t become one of the hardcore fangirls that I wanted to be because it sounded so awesome. Seriously, after Just Listen I was prepared to buy the concrete for the extra-super-size pedestal for her to stand on but I just haven’t been that overwhelmed by her other work. Lock and Key suffered from spelling shit out that didn’t need to be spelled out. This is probably just my persnickety requirement of all fiction needing to juggle chainsaws for me to be duly impressed.

Even then, the teen girls in Dessen’s work continue to shine brighter than a lot of the female characters I read elsewhere, so that’s a plus. Now if I could only get my fondest wish and have Dessen cross the streams into SF/F.

1. And Another Book Read…
2. Becky’s Book Reviews
3. Bilsdungsroman
4. Book Nut
5. Books With Wings
6. bookshelves of doom
7. Em’s Bookshelf
8. Out of the Blue
9. A Patchwork of Books
10. Reading Mania
11. Readingjunky’s Reading Roost
12. A True Reality
13. The YA YA YAs
14. Young Adult Book Reviews