Lock and Key

Lock and Key

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4.03 of 5 stars 4.03  ·  rating details  ·  63,558 ratings  ·  3,139 reviews
Ruby can take care of herself.
She's used to counting on no one and answering to nobody. But all of that changes when her mother vanishes and Ruby is sent to live with her older sister, Cora. Now Ruby's got her own room in a fabulous new house, she's going to private school, and—for the first time—feeling as if she has a future. Plus, there's the adorable and sweet boy next...more
Paperback, 422 pages
Published May 14th 2009 by Speak (first published April 22nd 2008)
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(showing 1-30 of 3,000)
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Runa
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Adrienne
This was my second book by Sarah Dessen and it didn't disappoint. In this story we meet:~
Ruby who is trying to find, and come to terms with a new life away from her 'loving' but negligent mother. Only having ever been told one side of the story by a woman embittered by her feelings for Rubys father, Rubys view on life and living has been tainted.

Nate, (Rubys next door neighbour) who's a great guy who seems to have it all but does he? Ruby soon finds out things she doesn't want to know and whils...more
Jennifer Wardrip
Reviewed by Jaglvr for TeensReadToo.com

It's been a quite a long time that I found myself sitting up until three in the morning, wanting desperately to finish a story. But that is exactly where I found myself the other night with LOCK AND KEY in my hands. I was so engrossed in Ruby and her story that I had to find out how it ended.

Ruby Cooper has always looked out for Number One. When Ruby was eight, her sister Cora left for university and never looked back. It was always Ruby and her mother, mo...more
Danielle
Oct 25, 2009 Danielle rated it 5 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition Recommends it for: Teen Fiction Lovers
Shelves: young-adult
This was my first book that I've read by Sarah Dessen. I've heard quite a few good things about her so I was fairly willing to give her books a try even though I don't typically read teen fiction.

Lock and Key is about a seventeen year old girl named Ruby. Ruby's had a tough childhood: from her father and sister abandoning her at a young age (so she thinks) to her mother abandoning her at seventeen she's never really been settled in one place. For the first part of the novel Ruby's in a sort of...more
♥Rachel♥
"What is family? They were the people who claimed you. In good, in bad, in parts or in whole, they were the ones who showed up, who stayed there, regardless."

Seventeen-year old Ruby has been living on her own for the past two months since her mother left. She has no idea where her mother went, and hasn't heard from her since. Ruby has been getting by, just barely but this is about to change when the landlords of the tiny house they've been renting, discover she's alone. They alert the authoriti...more
Mia Queen
Memang baru dua buku karangan Sarah Dessen yang saya baca, namun keduanya sudah cukup membuat saya menargetkan akan membaca semua buku karangan doi. Sarah Dessen cukup piawai membuai pembaca dengan kisah yang sederhana namun melekat di hati.

Rubby, tokoh utama Lock and Key adalah seorang gadis remaja yang mandiri. Ia terbiasa melakukan apapun sendiri karena ibunya yang sering berpindah tempat kerja, mabuk-mabukan bahkan yang paling parah Rubby sering kali harus berhadapan langsung dengan debt col...more
Shannon (Giraffe Days)
When Ruby's mother never comes home, leaving her to take care of the small rented house, keep their job bringing lost airport luggage to people, and making it to school all on her own for about three months, Ruby thinks she's handling things fine. When the landlords discover she's been living like this, she's quickly taken away and given over to the care of her sister Cora, who, ten years older, married to a man who co-founded a Facebook-type online community, and a lawyer herself, hasn't been s...more
Chelsea
This is the first Sarah Dessen I've read, after much prompting. Her plots always seemed cheesy and melodramatic to me (based entirely on wildly varying reviews I've read and, you know, the back of the books), the young adult version of Jodi Piccoult (another author I am judging without ever having read her, shame on me). And, well... I don't see myself seeking out any of her others. I finished it off in about three hours, and... The beginning was mostly me rolling my eyes and going "oh, please",...more
Anna
Lock and Key probably is one of my new favorites from Sarah Dessen, next to Just Listen. Well, I love every single book from her and that's 'nuff said! But Lock and Key is different from her other books for the face that this is not the typical summer setting she usually do. But it takes place during the middle of the school year where Ruby transfers from Jackson, a public highschool, to Perkins Day, a private school, after she was sent to live with her sister Cora with her husband Jamie when he...more
Isamlq
Jul 21, 2011 Isamlq rated it 3 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition
Recommended to Isamlq by: Milly
I can see why Sarah Dessen is so popular. HOWEVER, Lock and Key isn’t her formulaic one girl, one boy and one summer story line. I’m probably making a broad/sweeping generalization by saying Dessen girls are trouble or have trouble in their lives, at least the ones I’ve encountered are and do. And Dessen boys? They are typically the good boys, or at least the good boys who help in the formers’ saving/reformation. But here things aren’t so simple, and I can see why it’s Milly’s favorite (it could...more
Kara
When I started reading Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen I was really wowed by her writing style. It was beautiful, flowy, and the descriptive passages were to die for. Now that I've finished it, I don't like it quite as much as I did at the beginning.

Reasons:

1. The plot took awhile to really get going. I was going to overlook this as I really loved the characters and the subjects of abuse and alcoholism, but then things started to head downhill so it's just another reason on the pile. I felt like i...more
Amber
I chose to read this book after hearing great things about this author from my friend Jessica. I had high hopes going in to this and this book did not disappoint. As I've heard, Dessen's novels focus on teenage girls and coming of age moments/situations. This holds true for Lock and Key with the focus of this book on family, what it means to different people and what it means to be independent or to rely on others. There were parts of this book that had me in tears not only because of the theme,...more
Aleeshas2
Short Review. 3.5 stars
I must say the characters In this book were extremely well developed and I found myself falling in love with each and every one of them .( It was actually crazy how much I enjoyed the characters) The story was really descriptive and detail, which was a pleasure to read. The plot was beautiful. However sometimes it would get a little too tedious and stretch out parts, which was slightly boring. Even though it was detailed, it shocked me of the lack of conclusion the book s...more
Martha
4.5 stars

Typical of Sarah Dessen's novels, this book deals with a number of issues, mostly of abandonment and abuse. Yet, again, it is executed in such a brilliant way that it never made me feel too depressed, but more optimistic as the characters pull through these problems, usually thanks to the help of others.

This book centres around Ruby Cooper, whose mother has abandoned her. Her sister (who she has not seen or spoke to for 10 years) and her sister's husband, Jamie (who I found adorable),...more
Cindy
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Ying
This was seriously an amazing stories. I've read a lot of good books, and this ranked somewhere near the top in the neverending list. Another of Sarah Dessen's best, this story is really about a girl who discovers herself and her past and what could have been when her mother abandons her, even though she has been an individual most of her life. I'd naturally expected the pairings in the end (I don't want to give spoilers :]) but was still surprised when it happened. Some parts surprised me about...more
Emma
I thought that this book was amazing. And I am now reading it again. It is about a 17 year old girl whose mother just leaves. They are struggling to get by, but they are managing. Then, the mother leaves, and the girl, Ruby, is left to fend for herself. One day, her landlords find her and turn her in to child protection services. She is sent to live with her now married sister whom she hasn't seen for 10 years. She is thrown into a high-end world with a new school. She denies that any people tha...more
Mei
Since her dad left her when she was 5 years old, 17-year old Ruby Cooper finds herself living alone in the yellow house, without running water or thermal heat because her alcoholic mother just disappeared and abandoned her without explanation. She decides that since she's almost eighteen, she'll just live her life the way she wants it to, all by herself. Until the Honeycutts, her landlords, found out about her situation and sent her to Poplar House for social services, not for long will she make...more
Lydia
Many thoughts in my head, right now, minutes after I finished this book.
Did I love it? No. Did I like it? Some parts of it. I'm going to try and organize my thoughts a bit bellow.

We have Ruby as a storyteller, we see everything from her point of view. She is a teenager, maybe we can call her "troubled". She has some family issues going on and she comes to live with her older sister, whom she hasn't seen for 10 years. She goes to new school, doesn't want to make friends etc. The same old story, w...more
Bella Grace
4.5 Stars My first, and thankfully not my last, Sarah Dessen original.

This is my favorite SD book - not because I own it and it was the first one I ever read of hers, but because of the pure, raw truth of Dessen's words in this book.

I still remember it; me, as usual, lazily reading a book at the mall while my parents shopped when a group of teenage girls came into my section of the bookstore. Moving aside, I watched as they excitedly skimmed to SD's books and started raving about how utterly a...more
(´*•.¸ღBexღ¸.•*´)
Ruby is having a hard time adjusting to her new life. She's not used to not having to worry about the bare necessities such as food and clothing. She's not accustomed to all the money. She's not used to living with her family.

It wasn't too long ago that Ruby's mother left her for good. No one besides Ruby knew, and she was planning to keep it that way until she turned eighteen and was legally an adult. But someone found out, and now Ruby has to live with her sister and brother-in-law. But Ruby...more
Danae
Ruby Cooper lives a pretty messed up life, moving every couple of months, living with an alcoholic, abusive mother who can barely keep a job. She's grown to be dependent on no one, that is until she has to go and live with her sister Cora and brother-in-law Jamie, it's more than she can stand. Spending their money taking up their time and space, she doesn't understand why they want to help her. Along with other things she's having trouble figuring out like calculus, her old life and her friendly...more
Andi
Dessen, Dessen, Dessen! She has managed to do it again! This is like my fourth book by her and all I can say is that she gets it. She knows what a reader wants whether a teenager or a 30 something year old like myself and she delivers exactly that. She gives you family drama and relationship angst and quirky friends and outs them all into an exquisitely written story of finding out who you are.

Lock and Key is the story of a girl that is plain lost. Her father abandoned her as a baby, her sister...more
JD Switz
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Hannah
I don’t know what it is, but there’s just something about Sarah Dessen’s writing. Even if the story were lacking, I would probably love it anyways, just because her writing is so incredibly beautiful. And Lock and Key showed me again why Sarah Dessen is one of my favorite authors. Actually, now that I think about it, if I had to choose only one favorite author, it would probably be her.

What I love most about Sarah Dessen’s books, along with the absolutely beautiful writing, are her characters. T...more
ayyitskianaa
The book is very interesting right now. I like how Ruby is telling the past of before she ended up living with her sister. Why did her mother leave her all alone? Nate is so nice, i wonder if he has a big secret, thats why he acts like that?

I love the quote that Ruby used to say how far her sister was because she misses her, " Usually it was late at night, when I coudln't sleep, and I'd try to picture her in her dorm room forty-odd miles and a world away." -page 62

This book was amazing. Sarah De...more
Lucy
Another heart-warming story of love, friendship and family from Sarah Dessen. I can't say what it is about Dessen's writing that draws me in - no other non-fantasy author has ever managed to do so. Perhaps simply because her characters are so complex, so human, that it's impossible not to feel for them. Of course, the beautiful way she strings words together helps too.

What I love most about Dessen's characters is that in each story, no matter how different her protagonists are, they're all flawe...more
Hayley
Lock and Key
By: Sarah Dessen
Lock and Key is about a girl, Ruby, who lives with her mother alone in an old, rundown farm house. Ruby’s mother randomly leaves, without warning, and makes Ruby live on her own. She is later found and taken to her older sister, Cora’s, house to start a new life. Ruby has many challenges in her life. Some other characters are Cora’s husband Jamie, and her neighbor Nate. I would compare this book to the other book I read, Dreamland. They both deal with important fami...more
Valerie
Apr 13, 2010 Valerie rated it 4 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition Recommends it for: 12-18 anyone looking for a coming-of-age novel
This was the first Sarah Dessen novel that i have read, and with all the reiviews about her that i had been reading i carried with me expectations that the novel was going to be like Meg Cabot or Jodi Picoult which thankful in hindsight, i am glad she is not. Sarah Dessen has a authentic and relatable style that is both hypnotic and entrancing without the allure of being too constructed.

I read the book slower than i usually read books. It took me 10 days to read compared to my averge 6 days, ho...more
Lisa
If you've read a Sarah Dessen novel before, you can quite easily guess the plot of her other novels. But this is not necessarily a bad thing. Dessen explores different themes each time and she is a lovely writer.

I really like this book. I finished this book in one sitting and was completely absorbed with the story. It was very easy to connect with the story and the characters. The book is not just about falling in love; it raises important issues which are perfect for book club discussion or in...more
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Ending... What you think? ( Spoiler) 15 75 Jun 13, 2013 02:21pm  
Nate or not? 30 208 Jun 05, 2013 01:06pm  
YA Buddy Readers'...: Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen / Start date: May 1 22 16 May 05, 2013 07:41am  
The Filipino Group: Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen (Maria, Cary, Biena, Lynai, Tricia, Joanna, Rio; EAVESDROPPER: Tina) Start date: May 1 5 39 May 02, 2013 07:10am  
what is family to you 5 15 Feb 24, 2013 07:09pm  
who thinks this book is good 8 21 Feb 23, 2013 08:05am  
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“It's a lot easier to be lost than found. It's the reason we're always searching and rarely discovered--so many locks not enough keys.” 3,265 people liked it
“What is family? They were the people who claimed you. In good, in bad, in parts or in whole, they were the ones who showed up, who stayed in there, regardless. It wasn't just about blood relations or shared chromosomes, but something wider, bigger. We had many families over time. Our family of origin, the family we created, and the groups you moved through while all of this was happening: friends, lovers, sometimes even strangers. None of them perfect, and we couldn't expect them to be. You can't make any one person your world. The trick was to take what each could give you and build your world from it.” 2,248 people liked it
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