Lock and Key

In Sarah Dessen's Lock and Key, Ruby is torn away from everything she has ever known after her mother abandons her. She is thrown into an alien world and sent to live with her estranged sister. Far from being grateful or relieved from her daily struggles to provide herself with meager meals, Ruby rebels and yearns for familiarity. Though she soon understands her mother's long-time deceit, she learns that changing a lifetime of habits is harder than she could have ever anticipated. Her neighbor, Nate, is determined to not only befriend Ruby, but encourage her to take on a more positive outlook to her life. But as Ruby soon learns, she is not the only one in need of a new outlook on life. Will Ruby succeed in turning her life around and, in the process, gain Nate's trust?

In this novel, Ruby is shown as a strong willed young woman with a distinct fight or flight instinct. Ruby shows some great moments of vulnerability, though she keeps a hard facade in place most of the time. She cares deeply for her sister and longs for a connection with her; however, the environment she grew up in taught her not to trust anyone or be willing to receive anything without feeling indebted to them. When focusing on Ruby, I believe Sarah Dessen does a good job of representing the female character in a positive light without casting her into a "damsel in distress" role. Though Ruby does go through several issues, she never asks to be saved and, in fact, resents everyone constantly making choices for her. It takes some concessions on her part and some growing up before Ruby understands that she could save herself if she is only willing to accept that she is worth saving.

This novel does a good job of representing female characters (and male alike) in a positive way. Each character has positive and negative aspects, as do most normal human beings, that would make for good discussion. Included below are a links to two separate blogs giving some more heavily opinionated outlook on the novel as well as a fan video of how a reader views the book:


Sherry Book Blogs


Aly's Book Away