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A hidden note. This story broke my heart then filled it with joy then broke it all over again! 'Oh wow! A lost love. I adored The Letter and The Secret but this I have to say was my favourite. With over 50 years of experience working in the education sector, we here at BookLife aim to bring knowledge, passion and enthusiasm to children’s literature. It's the UK"s most up to date list with over 180 prides taking place in 2024. Our simple philosophy is to select engaging, imaginative and informative books that will inspire curious young minds and engender a lifelong love of reading.
Reviews
JL Dixon
Overall, this is now my favourite book of 2021 so far, hence the five stars, and look forward to reading more from Ruth Ware. This book is written in first person, as a letter from Rowan to a lawyer, begging him to represent her. The story was the right sort of creepy and occasionally a little uncomfortable to read. Thank you also for introducing me to Kathryn Hughes, I will definitely be reading more of her books.
Novel Delights
As each gentle twist was revealed, my idea of what was happening feel apart, and I felt genuinely anxious as I approached the inevitable end. The average stay for a patient at Willard was thirty years, with many patients never leaving. Central to The Key is a brilliantly constructed story that had me hooked.
Linda E. Wilson
The more you think you can see of the story, the deeper the mystery becomes. This is the first book by Ruth Ware that I have read and I couldn’t have had a better introduction. All I will say is that it is heartbreaking, tender and had me in tears at the end. This heartbreaking truth is vividly reflected in The Key as Hughes intimately shares with us the experiences of Ellen, a student nurse at Ambergate and Amy, a 19-year-old patient.
Ashlea
As her story unfolds, her sad childhood is revealed, which allowed me to get a real sense of empathy toward her. The media could not be loaded. It is a compelling story with flawed and very real characters, but it is more than that. Through the point of view of both characters, we find out how a patient is left to rot in Ambergate following her surviving the Titanic disaster while her newly married husband drowned; and another patient being sent by her sexually abusive father to the asylum once she outgrew her girlhood.
I highly recommend it and will be looking for her next novel as soon as it comes out. It exposes the dismissive, ignorant and sometimes cruel attitude to vulnerable people and mental health in our society's history which sadly, was actually not so long ago. Stored between 1910 and 1960, the suitcases belonged to former patients who gave them up along with their personal belongings when they were admitted.
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