A kulcs fordul egyet

I was hoping this would go somewhere a little more interesting than it did (it wasn't bad at all, and I think the ending fits fine), but I always have a solid reaction to Ruth Ware's books rather than an ecstatic one. She's an author I continue reading because I feel like she won't "wow" me, but she won't frustrate me, either. The build-up and atmosphere was very good, I felt. I was anxious reading it and not completely sure what was behind the major mystery until pretty late, and even then I couldn't quite figure out how it had happened. There was another part of the mystery that I assume was supposed to be very obvious, since pretty obvious hints were dropped very early on. Overall it was an enjoyable read and I'm sure I'll pick up her next one.

Interesting read, but a lot of build up for not much of a climax.

I'm not going to lie, this was a hard one to rate. It got me out of a 2 month book slump, but The Turn of the Key was just meh to me. I definitely got caught in the hype of it on platforms like booktok and even good reads, but I remember reading The woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth and feeling the same way, just a solid MEH. This book kept me reading and for that I wanted to give a 4 star review, but after much consideration I just felt that it didn't live up to the expectation. The Turn of the Key starts with our protagonist Rowan writing a letter to a Mr. Wrexham, it is pretty clear that Rowan is in jail and telling Mr. Wrexham her side of things. How she applied and was hired as a live in nanny to 3 young girls and one teenage girl who will be returning home from boarding school. Rowan talks about how the home is refurbished into something resembling a smart home with constant surveillance and voice activated controls, what could go wrong with that? It soon becomes apparent to Rowan that besides her and the children, there may be someone else in the house. Who's footsteps is she hearing creaking at night? Why is there a locked door in her room? Who is messing with the smart system and having it go off in the wee hours of the morning? The Turn of the Key has all the tools to be a spooky Halloween read, so what went wrong?I had the same issue with Ruth's book The Woman in Cabin 10, where it starts off strong, holds your attention and gives you the creeps, but then in the climax it just falls flat. I liked that The Turn of the key was told in the form of the MC's letter, I thought that was a nice touch and helped keep the focus, but what Ruth Ware lacked for me at least, was that something special, I felt the conclusion was lack luster and honestly you could see it coming. It felt like she just needed to wrap up the story and that was the best she could do. I have a few more books of Ruth Ware's on my radar and I will give her the old third time is a charm to see if it is me just not vibing with her books, or if she is an author that I don't necessarily dislike, but won't be the first books that I grab to read.