Sunday, March 1, 2009

Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen

Ruth planned to wait out the last few months before she turned eighteen on her own until people discovered her mother was gone. But when it is discovered that her mother abandoned her, Ruth is sent to live with her sister who is ten years her senior and her sister's husband. Ruth hasn't seen her sister in ten years when she left for college. She is given a chance to start over, with new clothes, a new school and a new home. No one understands what she is going through, except for her neighbor, who happens to be the most popular guy at her new school, who may be hiding a pretty big secret himself.


Personally, I loved this book. It had the right balance of the serious topics of abuse and child abandonment and humor. The characters were easy to like, had depth and most importantly were believable. The plot, as mentioned dealt with some pretty serious issues, but still was very enjoyable and not overwhelming. With many teen novels being about trivial things that have no substance, it was nice to find one that had substance while still written for teens. Now don't get me wrong, I love these books about trivial things with no substance, especially during the school year when many of the books you read are depressing (Night by Elie Wiesel anyone?), but what I liked about this book was that it had substance but it wasn't overwhelming and depressing, as those topics are kind of depressing. This book gets five stars.

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