Lock and Key | Sarah Dessen

Kinda predictable. 

Kinda boring.

Kinda a waste of time.

I gave this three stars. Lock and Key is about seventeen year old Ruby who has had it rough from the beginning. Her childhood consisted of her parents getting divorced and her sister abandoning her at a young age and then her mother abandons her when she's seventeen, on top of all that she has never settled down in one place. For the most part she is in denial but then she realises that everyone's left her and she decided to live it out alone but then her landlord gives her up and she is turned in to child services. She then ends up forced to stay with her estrange sister: Cora and her husband Jamie who take custody of her. Ruby then has to deal with her new life -school, friends, college, jobs etc.

When I first came across this in the bookstore I already knew I wouldn't love it but I still gave it a whirl regardless of the mixed reviews. And with summer coming up stocking up on contemporaries was ideal. Its not that I didn't enjoy any of it because I did enjoy most of it. I was very much into the first two thirds of the book, just later it got loathsome and boring. I ended up putting it down a couple times, reading other books and then picking it up and continuing from where I left of.

Its not the book, its me. 

I have this sixth sense when I know I won't really like the book, yet somehow I am still compelled to buy it and read it. I know its me and not the book because loads of people adore Sarah Dessen and her books. This just got boring for me after 2/3 of the book, nothing was happening and it was just getting prolonged. Endings of books are a weird thing, especially when the book it quite lengthy (like this one) you seem to only remember the ending and crucial parts of the book. However the ending of this book isn't even gonna stick with me, it was that pointless. 

The main characters of this book- Ruby wasn't all that bad I mean she reeked of adolescent-teen-who-doesn't-know-what-to-do-with-her-life and is trying to figure everything out when she ends up living with her sister after her mother goes awol and leaves her. The book itself deals with dysfunctional families and child abuse. Its a very realistic book, as a contemporary the romance is realistic too; there is no insta-love (thankgod). But it was predictable and that got boring after some time.   

By no means do I despise the whole book, I loved that it was realistic and the characters mirrored typical teenagers trying to get into uni's. There were many parts in the book where I cried and sympathised with the main-Ruby, she goes through some shit and tough love and it gets emotional.

I can see why people adore the book: great romance, realistic plot and characters, humour is on point etc. This is my first Sarah Dessen and I don't think this is her best but I don't know if I would pick up any of her other books. Again its not the book is me, for that reason I do urge you all to pick it up and give it a go if you're on edge.