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4.28 AVERAGE
4.28 AVERAGE
I loved this whole volume from the sparrows in the first issue to the cliffhanger at the end. This series continues to get better and better and I cannot wait to read the last two volumes, everything is coming together and I am so excited! I really wish the Locke and Key TV series had come to fruition.
This was fun for the most part but wasn't the most impactful volume in the series. Some events moved a little quickly and came without explanation, but I'm glad some storylines progressed. Also the ending was really interesting!
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Found this one a bit confusing with all the jumping around and time hopping.
This volume ended with a superb cliff hanger and the art was simply fantastic. I also loved the relationships even more in this volume because we got to see them grow a good bit.
This installment starts with a few changes from the winning Locke and Key formula; it takes on a little Calvin and Hobbes art style with Bode's perspective, as well as single verticle panes for an entire chapter. Also, it blurs through a number of "Dark Lady" events similar to the whole episodes of the last few books.
Although it had me worried at first, it's all for a reason and the last chapter brings all the events together, once again creating a tense and frightening plot. I'm hooked on this stuff and bummed I have to wait for the next one.
Although it had me worried at first, it's all for a reason and the last chapter brings all the events together, once again creating a tense and frightening plot. I'm hooked on this stuff and bummed I have to wait for the next one.
Keys to the Kingdom finally regains the almost total excellence of Welcome to Lovecraft. I say almost because there is one aspect that slightly bothered me while reading, but it was resolved at the end of the volume. One of the issues collected in Keys to the Kingdom features the entire month of February, and the constant attacks the Locke children had to endure from the Dark Lady (aka Zack). It bothered me because the attacks hardly seemed to affect the Locke children. Sure, they have experienced tragedy and heartbreak multiple times already, and they are clearly still traumatized individuals, but they have not been so conditioned that fighting supernatural beings on a weekly basis would be so easily compartmentalized. It was an odd choice for me.
I still don’t fully buy that choice, but the end of Keys to the Kingdom retroactively puts me at ease. Finally, we have momentum, which I think was lacking in the previous two volumes. Zack is finally slipping up; he must make interesting and devious choices that really amp up the peril of the Locke children. We finally have Zack pushed into a corner and make decisions that affect characters that we have become attached to.
Another minor complaint is that we finally have some inkling as to Zack’s master plan. He wants to open a door, that much has been obvious, but to what goal? Well, it’s to get more Zacks from the other side. I find this underwhelming. Joe Hill is a fantastic author, and he has crafted the story and characters so well, I am hoping that there is more to Zack’s goal than “I’m lonely, I want more of my kind.”
The art continues to be both graphic and fantastic. A special shoutout to an early issue that features a Calvin and Hobbes art style when looking at the world through Bode’s perspective. At the end of the volume, the art of the ice skate being used as a weapon is going to stick with me for a long time to come.
I wish I had more to say about this, but I don’t want to spoil it. After two good (but not great) volumes of treading water for everyone except Zack, finally some movement. The only thing I’m afraid of is volume 5 spending more time putting pieces together for an explosive 6th volume, instead of keeping up the momentum. That, however, is not a problem for this, which is a firm 5/5.
I still don’t fully buy that choice, but the end of Keys to the Kingdom retroactively puts me at ease. Finally, we have momentum, which I think was lacking in the previous two volumes. Zack is finally slipping up; he must make interesting and devious choices that really amp up the peril of the Locke children. We finally have Zack pushed into a corner and make decisions that affect characters that we have become attached to.
Another minor complaint is that we finally have some inkling as to Zack’s master plan. He wants to open a door, that much has been obvious, but to what goal? Well, it’s to get more Zacks from the other side. I find this underwhelming. Joe Hill is a fantastic author, and he has crafted the story and characters so well, I am hoping that there is more to Zack’s goal than “I’m lonely, I want more of my kind.”
The art continues to be both graphic and fantastic. A special shoutout to an early issue that features a Calvin and Hobbes art style when looking at the world through Bode’s perspective. At the end of the volume, the art of the ice skate being used as a weapon is going to stick with me for a long time to come.
I wish I had more to say about this, but I don’t want to spoil it. After two good (but not great) volumes of treading water for everyone except Zack, finally some movement. The only thing I’m afraid of is volume 5 spending more time putting pieces together for an explosive 6th volume, instead of keeping up the momentum. That, however, is not a problem for this, which is a firm 5/5.
final review - 2.5/5 stars ⭐️⭐️✨
similarly to volume 3, the plot continues to thicken, and the direction is interesting with Echo/Dodge taking over Bodes’ body. however, once again as with volume 3. I find the writing to be unnecessarily crude at times, and some of the violent graphics in this particular volume were a little much for me (just personally)..
I do also think there might have been good intentions to show the dark side of some more serious themes like homophobia and racism in order show readers just how revolting this behaviour is (which I can appreciate), I’m just not sure things like the race swapping mirror achieve it the way the authors might have thought when they originally wrote this back in the 10s… it kind of felt like that one episode of ANTM where they had the models « change races » for the day to « experience a different culture »…
visually — I did think it was an interesting choice to include some more traditional newspaper cartoon style graphics, although I’m unsure if it really added much. It looked cool, but I’m not sure if it had much meaning beyond that.
similarly to volume 3, the plot continues to thicken, and the direction is interesting with Echo/Dodge taking over Bodes’ body. however, once again as with volume 3. I find the writing to be unnecessarily crude at times, and some of the violent graphics in this particular volume were a little much for me (just personally)..
I do also think there might have been good intentions to show the dark side of some more serious themes like homophobia and racism in order show readers just how revolting this behaviour is (which I can appreciate), I’m just not sure things like the race swapping mirror achieve it the way the authors might have thought when they originally wrote this back in the 10s… it kind of felt like that one episode of ANTM where they had the models « change races » for the day to « experience a different culture »…
visually — I did think it was an interesting choice to include some more traditional newspaper cartoon style graphics, although I’m unsure if it really added much. It looked cool, but I’m not sure if it had much meaning beyond that.
This one was not good, it was almost as if they took every part I didn't like about the first three books and combined them together for this one.
Every character was destroyed, by the end I hated every single one of them. The story chapters all felt so disconnected, and my god was the story in this book predictable. I rolled my eyes at the end when they switched bodies, I knew exactly what was going to happen.
Also... I'm not even gonna talk about chapter 2 and the key that it brought to the table, which is 10000% offensive on like a million different levels.
Every character was destroyed, by the end I hated every single one of them. The story chapters all felt so disconnected, and my god was the story in this book predictable. I rolled my eyes at the end when they switched bodies, I knew exactly what was going to happen.
Also... I'm not even gonna talk about chapter 2 and the key that it brought to the table, which is 10000% offensive on like a million different levels.
This series just gets better and better. It's SO MUCH BETTER than the Netflix show, it goes so much deeper into the characters, there are MORE KEYES (omg), and it just keeps surprising me! Delightful! Dark, brooding, creepy, and delightful!