#CBR6 Review #11: Locke & Key, vol. 3 – Crown of Shadows by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez

I am very much enjoying the Locke & Key graphic novel series, and am so glad that my sister is letting me read them (even before she has a chance to)! The plot keeps moving along at a not-too-rapid pace, yet every volume is filled with new mysteries, developments, and dangers that this poor family has to face. I find it all to be so riveting, but then, this genre is really right up my alley. If you haven’t read any of the previous instalments of the series, you might be a loss as to my explanation coming up, but here’s what the 3rd volume holds:

 More pages turned in Locke & Key means more keys found at the Key house Estate, yet none of them seem to be the one to the “black door” that Zach/Lucas/Dodge is looking for (whatever his real name is). He is relentless in his search, looking to the ghost of Sam Lesser for help, and treading on the Locke children as they get in his way; he does this all while simultaneously maintaining a friendship with the children, who are still trying to piece their lives together after the loss of their father.

Within this third volume of Locke & Key, the Locke children are faced with a cold reality, and that is that they are alone: their mother is with them, but is she really there? The kids are beginning to realize that their mother cannot help them, and that they must turn to one another when they are threatened, and must work together to try and find the key that the mysterious woman in the well house was looking for, before she can find it.

Along with the new keys (the Giant Key, the Shadow Key, and the Mending Key) that we see in Crown of Shadows, we also begin to see the repercussions of Kinsey removing all the fear from her head in the previous volume: she is not afraid of telling her mother what she thinks about her behavior, and she sure isn’t afraid of social ostracism at school, which leads her to make some interesting new friends that may put a wrench in Zach’s plans to get close to her in order to get closer to his mysterious goals.

As I said before, this kind of story is definitely my kind of thing, and it feels incredibly original and refreshing, yet still so dark and eerie. If you are a fan of the graphic novel genre, I would definitely give it a look if you haven’t already.

[Be sure to visit the Cannonball Read main site!]

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