There are so many things that make the story suspenseful from here. She is offered and accepts the position.Īs soon as she moves in, the mother and father are off to a conference leaving Rowan alone with the children. I think this would have been it for me, “no thanks”. Her first visit for the interview goes well, but she finds a drawn picture with a weird message and before she leaves one of the children warns her that the “ghosts wouldn’t like it” if she came to stay. The Plot: Rowan wants a new nanny position and how posted for one at Heatherbrae House. You’ll totally understand why when you read that part of the book. There is one scene where Rowan is sleeping on a couch instead of her room and I swear, I had to put the book down and check under my bed (HAHA!). I could feel the goosebumps and fear that Rowan had as all these things keep happening. The suspense that Ruth Ware was able to bring to this book was wonderful. She then goes back and starts from the beginning in her letter and I loved it. 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.

Turn of the key review