Lock and Key
Viking Juvenile - Viking Juvenile
Release date: 2008-04-22
Hardcover
Author: Sarah Dessen
Children's Books - Young Adult Fiction, Children: Young Adult (Gr. 10-12), Family - General, Juvenile Fiction / Girls & Women, Social Issues - General, Girls & Women, Social Issues - Physical & Emotional Abuse, Abandoned children, Family, Juvenile Fiction, Self-actualization (Psychology)
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Lock and Key
Date undefinedWhenever Ms. Dessen writes a story of this length, it is tradition that it is a witty, yet touching love story. This time however, the two characters never really find their happily-ever-after, and the whole reason I read this book as because of that. It was a disappointing and altogether unsatisfactory story. Not up to her usual standards at all.
Lock and Key
Date undefinedi tryed to get into the book but couldnt. i mean it was bla, nothing really to rave about or complain either. i felt like she was making Ruby more tough then she should be. it was all just prdictable and a waste really. its one of those books you think you know whats going to happen and Oh look it happened. i didnt buy anything she was feeding in the book.
Lock and Key
Date undefinedRuby and her mother always had a dysfunctional relationship. Her mother was an alcoholic and they spent much of their time moving from place to place, one crummy apartment after the other. Suddenly, though, Ruby's mother is gone.
Ruby is seventeen and certain she can take care of herself, but the landlords who realize she is by herself and the social worker who puts her into the state's care think differently.
Almost before she knows it, Ruby is living in a gorgeous mansion, attending a pricey private school, and trying to deal with her new guardians--her sister Cora, ten years older than Ruby, whom Ruby hasn't seen or heard from since she left for college ten years earlier, and Jamie, Cora's friendly and easygoing husband.
Things are strained, and Ruby considers taking off, but then thinks she might be able to tough out the year, instead. Soon enough she finds herself with connections she never wanted--obligations to her sister and brother-in-law, a couple of friends at school, and a neighbor who refuses to be chased away by her unpleasantness.
Can Ruby adjust to a life where she is not on her own, where she must depend on other people and have them depend on her as well?
I liked Ruby's character and the backstory that made her character seem plausible. Her transition from her old life to her new life was an intriguing one, and I was hopeful she would adjust to it. However, it seemed unrealistic that Cora's big revelation about their mother would have taken so long to come out, or that Cora would be unaware of the level of their mother's manipulation. The ending of this story was also rather abrupt, with a few paragraphs tacked on to tell what everyone was up to after the story ended. This ending seemed a bit forced.
