Lock and key by Sarah Dessen
Penguin, 2009. ISBN 9780141324944.
(Ages 14+) Recommended. The test for me for a really good
story is when I reach the end of a book
and
feel bitterly disappointed that I'm not continuing to follow the paths
of the characters
that I have gotten to know so well, and when I know that I will have to
reread
the book because I loved it so much. Lock and key is one such book.
Ruby has been abandoned by her alcoholic
mother and manages to survive for several months on her own. When her
landlords
discover that she is living in squalor by herself, Social Security is
brought
in and she is sent to live with her older sister Cora and
brother-in-law Jamie
in their luxurious house. Ruby is an independent girl who has built up
many
defences to ensure that she isn't disappointed by abandonment, and it's
tough
for her to break down these barriers, make friends and perhaps allow
love into
her life.
Sarah Dessen is an author who has a wonderful understanding
of teenage girls, relationships, family and friendship. She manages to
sympathetically
delve into the life of Ruby, almost 18, who is determined that she will
make it
on her own, when she can legally leave her sister's house. I was
engrossed as I followed Ruby's path,
gradually
letting some people into her life and making tentative friendships and
the
beginning of a romance with Nate, the amiable boy whose philosophy
about
adversity in life is that Uswim.
Ruby has a school project to complete about what it is to be
a family and Dessen explores how diverse the meaning of family can be
and how
it means different things to different people and how it is always
evolving. By
the end of the book, Ruby has come to understand the complexity of the
family,
from a large supportive one like that her brother-in-law has, to the
single
parent one brought on by divorce and abandonment. She has begun to care
about
people and to tentatively trust some friends, and the reader has grown
with her
on the way.
The themes of family, domestic abuse, friendship and trust
are beautifully handled. Dessen is an author whose books I will
actively seek
for their compelling writing and deft touch with relationships.
Pat Pledger