A review by pghsue33
The Order of the Key by Justine Manzano

4.0

Jacklyn Madison's whole world changes the day she turns eighteen. During a stop at her neighborhood corner store, she is attacked by alien monsters. She is rescued by a group of "Keys", other teens with special abilities. It turns out that Jacklyn is also a Key and her that her mother and sister are "Guardians" (tasked with protecting the Keys).

The Order of the Key is like many other Young Adult novels. There is a group of heroes with special abilities that live separately from most of society. There is a love interest who causes the heroine a great deal of inner conflict, and there is a group elder that is part of an evil plot. This book rises above mediocrity because of Justine Manzano's ability to create realistic, engaging characters. Jacklyn and her peers are sarcastic, funny, likeable, and talk like typical teens (obscenity warning for all the school librarians out there!)

I, too, feel that the second half of the book is rushed. It could benefit from the exposition that is a big part of the first half of the novel. The book is fairly short, however, so I would encourage others to give it a try.

Thank you to Book Sirens for giving me a free ARC of this book in exchange for my unbiased opinion.