The Turn of the Key Review

Creepy!

The Turn of the Key follows the story of Rowan who is a nanny. When she comes across an advert for a live in nanny position it looks too good to pass up.

I like the format of the book, the use of the letters at the start to kind of establish all of the details and then backtracking to find out how Rowan came to be in this situation. There was quite a short time frame that the book focuses in on which I appreciate. I think the whole story was over the course of a week, which really enabled the plot to go into the minute details of all the events that take place! 

I really enjoyed Rowan’s character. She was definitely self-aware and wasn’t at all arrogant or above anyone else, I found her to be super relatable and I could find myself really connecting with her and all the events that happen at Heatherbrae. I thought she wasn’t the most likable of characters and I think that endeared her to me even more.  I like the fact that she swore and but some of the thoughts she had in regards to the girls were a little off-putting and didn’t really enable me to trust her completely as a character. Especially when she was supposedly this highly regarded nanny and childcare worker, so I kind of picked up on that and it made me a little wary of her.

Ruth Ware really has a way of creating this completely chilling and creepy ambiance out of a perfectly normal scenario. The atmosphere was a little off kilter from the start and I liked how the technology was incorporated as a way to make Rowan a little more paranoid. The way that Ruth weaves the story definitely had me on the edge of my seat and really had me concentrating on what was happening and when in order to figure out how everything goes down.

The only qualm I had was that the ending felt a little rushed to me. We had this whole, long drawn out, build-up of suspense and in the end Rowan was really just stumbling around while the events took place. I get that she didn’t really know what happened from the start but we are really just told and not shown what actually took place. It was still a great twist and I didn’t see it coming at all, I just thought it would have been explained a little more in detail.

Still a fantastic, nail-biter of a psychological thriller and I will definitely be checking out a few more of Ruth Ware’s backlist titles in the near future!

⭐️4.5/5 stars Dark, unsettling, spooky!