We know right from the beginning that a child has died and that Rowan is in jail for the death. The letter-writing grabbed me right from the start! I loved how the story unfolded. She is explaining what happened and why she needs help. The entire story is told through a letter that Rowan is writing to a lawyer. The Writing: Ruth Ware’s story-telling choice for The Turn of the Key was such a great idea. I don’t want any spoilers, so I won’t tell you what those were. What parent hires a new nanny and just leaves her kids? There are a few things in the mother’s ENORMOUS book of how-to-care-for-my-kids that I felt should have been given verbally instead of just expecting Rowan to read it all. I also just want to parent shame for a second.

I understand it made the story spookier, but I didn’t understand his motivation for doing it. Jack, one of the characters felt so mysterious and some of his secrets, I couldn’t quite understand why he was keeping them. They come and go and I did not feel a need for the same amount of character information for them, so I didn’t mind that there was not as much time spent on them. There are, of course, other characters in this story, but they are peripheral for a lot of the book. So, I found that Ruth Ware managed to get me worried for the main character and I enjoyed that. I was fully connected with her, and really just kept thinking, “Get out of this house Rowan!”.

The Characters: The main character in this book is Rowan, and I felt that she had some really nice character development.

Book the turn of the key