Reviews

Book : The Turn of the Key-Ware, Ruth
Rating: 2/5
This wasn't bad, but it was nowhere near as good as I was expecting from an author like Ruth
Ware.
The protagonist, Rowan Caine, stumbles upon an opportunity that she considers amazing and I
would consider an absolute nightmare-- a live-in nanny to four children, including one baby and
one bratty teenager. On top of this, she's staying in the high-tech Heatherbrae House - a
refurbished "smart" home with constant surveillance, voice-activated lights, and an app to go
with it.
Unlike Rowan, I think this sounds like a horror story. And, honestly, I found the book to be at its
strongest when it is drawing on creepy horror tropes like creaking footsteps in the attic, objects
going missing and reappearing where the MC knows she already looked, and freaky dolls. The
atmosphere is quite good and it would make for a somewhat spooky Halloween read. The
combination of nightmare children, a malfunctioning house that seems haunted, and the hunky
but suspicious handyman kept me reading.
I also liked how Ware framed the story within a letter to a solicitor. It worked so well that I'm
surprised I haven't read books that have done this before (that I recall).
But it just wasn't very strong as a mystery, in my opinion. The culprit can be guessed pretty
easily (this really isn't a surprising reveal anymore) and it irked me how it doesn't make sense
for Rowan to withhold the identity of the dead child, though of course she does so because once
we know who it is, it removes any doubt as to who the killer must be.
The author also dropped a lot of heavy-handed hints about (view spoiler) so I even started to
work out what was going on there. This part of the story frustrated me, actually, because it kind
of changes the whole focus of the book from being about the potential horrors of a nanny living
in a "smart" house to something else that didn't interest me half as much.
The ending felt unfinished, too. I wanted more after becoming invested in the story.
I won't rush out to recommend this one, but there are some Halloween-worthy chills to be had
here. I'll still check out Ware's future books.