Product Description: Locke & Key tells of Keyhouse, an unlikely New England mansion, with fantastic doors that transform all who dare to walk through them.... and home to a hate-filled and relentless creature that will not rest until it forces open the most terrible door of them all...! Acclaimed suspense novelist and New York Times best-selling author Joe Hill (Heart-Shaped Box) creates an all-new story of dark fantasy and wonder, with astounding artwork from Gabriel Rodriguez.
Tremendous offering...a little bit of everything I knew nothing of this book when I got it. In fact, I erroneously believed it to be a graphic adaptation of some of H.P. Lovecraft's stories. I was wrong, but the impulse buy paid off because this is some of the richest narrative and illustration you will find in any graphic novel of the horror genre.
I won't go into the storyline, because Mel Odom covers that pretty well in his review. What I will say is that there is tremendous depth in the characters, and the way Joe Hill uses the flashbacks to gradually reveal the plot's details rather than follow a linear progression makes this even more readable than it is. I suppose it could be conceived by some as a little jarring the way Hill bounces back and forth between past and present, but as long as you pay attention, I feel it only adds to the uniqueness of the tale.
I was completely pulled in from the first few pages thanks to Gabriel Rodriguez's stunning visuals and Hill's compelling story. I read it once...then again and once again the day I got it, finding something I missed each time. There is so much subtlety in the way the tale unravels, and you just know that Hill has much more of Lovecraft and the Locke family yet to reveal when the final page is turned.
I say this story has a little bit of everything because it does: the sociopathic killer who murders his victims without emotion, just staying on task and mission to get what he's after. The ghost/phantasm theme involving the books narrator, the elementary school-aged Bode. The monster living at the bottom of the well and the way she manipulates Bode and the killer Sam to further her own secret ends.
I've read that Dimension Films has already secured the rights to the Locke & Key franchise, and I'm looking forward to seeing this chilling tale re-told on the big screen.
How good was this? This graphic novel was fantastic. The story line, the illustrations and everything else were amazing.. This story left you wanting more and hopefully the next one will do the same. Extemely well done. When I purchased this book, I wasn't aware that it was a graphic novel, however, am I glad it was. I haven't read "comics" since I was a child but this more than makes up for it.
As good as any comic I've read I actually started with the first two issues gave up, and then read it straight through when I received the "Welcome to Lovecraft" hardcover. It was much more satisfying when reading the story arc straight through. And it's good, real good. This was a very enjoyable comic arc, and almost stands up there with Gaiman's and other comic greats work.
It tells of a family harassed by a teenage killer who went to the same school as the family, and where the dad was guidance counselor. And things go bad immediately, as the first issue details the death of the family's father by this killer. So the family heads east to live with their Uncle in Lovecraft, Massachusetts. The House is called "The Keyhouse" and it's large and with many doors that don't always just lead into the next room. There are supernatural aspects to this house and they are not the only one's inhabiting the house. This really leaves open unlimited possibilities for future story arcs, because in this first issue we only learn about two keys, and heck there could be a hundred others, who knows?
Anyway, this is a violent, yet intelligent take on the graphic form, and Joe Hill weaves a very good story, with some twists at the end, and leaves you grasping for more. If you want to categorize this I would say it's a mix of horror and mystery. As it's violent, but what is happening isn't told so easily and you have to figure it out as you go along, and with any good mystery there is always a twist at the end, and this one has a doozy. The artwork is very colorful, characters and sketches are simplistic yet easy to read and view, and they compliment the story very well. The artwork and story are very good in this excellent first story arc by Hill and Rodriguez.
Locke & Key: A book you should open I read a lot, but I never really write reviews. I leave that job to someone else. But I have to write one for Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez's fabulous story. Maybe I am meant to write something, like the Locke family from the novel is meant to end up back in the town of Lovecraft? To be perfectly honest, I don't really consider this review. It is a sales pitch. But why would I want to sell the work of some guy I don't know? (And no, we are not related).
This isn't a mere comic book--it is a story about people. The dialog is sharp. The artwork is vivid and detailed. The oftentimes brutal events in the story reveal the human condition, family love, and personal pains. Above all, Locke & Key makes you feel for the characters. If you like character driven fiction, then do yourself a favor and read Locke & Key. I don't even like graphic novels that much, but I loved this story and I can't wait for the next volume.
I'm not going to write any plot details or story elements, because how they unfold to the reader is perfect. The right mix of pacing between present actions and flashbacks. Go and read about the lives of Nina, Ty, Bode, and Kinsey. Pick up this novel and open the door on Joe Hill's amazing story, Locke & Key. Become addicted, like me, because that's what the cool kids do.
Don't Go Through That Door! I'm harder to scare these days than when I was a kid and horror movies were still black and white and filled with trademark Hollywood monsters. Currently, I've been through a plethora of Dracula, Frankenstein, Wolfman, and ghost movies and their spawn. It takes a lot to scare me these days.
Then Hollywood introduced me to FRIDAY THE 13TH, HALLOWEEN, and NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET. George C. Scott's THE CHANGELING totally creeped me out, and Steven Spielberg's POLTERGEIST taught me to fear my television. Then I watched adaptations of Thomas Harris's novels, RED DRAGON and SILENCE OF THE LAMBS and learned to fear serial killers that were really among us.
However, I have to admit that somewhere in there I became jaded. I started watching horror movies for special effects and the snappy one-liners that became so popular. I ended up laughing through most of them.
Like I said, I'm hard to scare. Of course, I can still scare myself pretty good. Let me curl up at night with a Stephen King book or one of Joseph Delaney's THE LAST APPRENTICE YA novels, and I can give myself a case of the willies. These books, thankfully, still deliver the sheer, enervating atmosphere necessary to amp up my adrenaline gland.
But I found a new fear-inducer in Joe Hill. I discovered him in HEART-SHAPED BOX and got totally weirded out listening to that novel on audiobook. Then I got my hands on the first issue of his comic book series, LOCKE & KEY.
Imagine a family that falls victim to what appears to be a deranged teenager looking for some payback. That's pretty horrific by today's standards because the news is full of lethal teens - and others. This could happen, so I wasn't immediately getting the spook vibe.
The story is harsh and emotional. I felt Ty, Kinsey, and Bodie's pain over losing their father to violence. The way that Joe cut the action between the past and present really upped the suspense and impending feeling of doom. Gabriel Rodriguez's art is loose and captivating, and he plays with angles that pulled me right into the frames and turned them into movies. I was THERE, inside the story on several occasions. And I wasn't comfortable being there. Especially in the scenes when Bodie was talking to the thing in the wellhouse!
As it turns out, though, the teen that planned the murder of Papa Locke wasn't entirely there out of vengeance. He had made a pact with the thing in the wellhouse, and that just spins the whole story on its ear.
After their father's murder, the kids end up at the Locke House, a place so riddled with mysteries that Joe says he's got 70 issues plotted out for those bewitched doors, nooks, and crannies already. Personally, I can't wait. I love the puzzles and the mysteries, as well as the fact that THINGS are lurking inside the house and waiting to spring out on unwary victims.
Joe and Gabriel have created a whole WORLD of spine-chilling entertainment to come. It's no surprise that Dimension Films has already snapped up the film rights to the property, or that IDW publishing had to reprint the issues several times. I expect they'll have to reprint the new hardcover graphic novel as well, but I didn't take any chances - I've got my copy already.
In the various issues, Joe shifts the point of view around from Ty to Bodie to Kinsey, and all of them achieve a distinct voice that bring a different flavor to the emerging story. When I read the graphic novel all at once, the voices didn't quite stand out as much as waiting a month between, but that's only because I was trying to get to the end of the story faster and faster. I'd read the first three issues, then couldn't get my hands on the last three, so I was desperate to know what happened next.
The suspense ratchets up like a whipsaw rollercoaster cresting the top of the final plunge leading to a white-knuckled grip (thank God the book is a hardcover or it wouldn't have survived the read!).
I couldn't stop reading, and now I can't wait for the next volume in the Locke family's adventures. The old house as a lot of life (and UNLIFE) still waiting to be discovered and feared.
Horror fans will love this book because it delivers every delicious thrill and chill a reader could want. And Gabriel's art is absolutely eye-popping, alternately beautiful and then gruesome. LOCKE & Key is a definite, pulses-pounding winner.
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