The Turn of the Key
by Ruth Ware
(Edited) Blurb:
When Rowan Caine applies for a dream position as a nanny, it seems too good to be true. She's smitten with Heatherbrae House-- by the luxurious “smart” home fitted out with all modern conveniences, by the beautiful Scottish Highlands, and by this picture-perfect family.
What she doesn’t know is that she’s stepping into a nightmare-- one that will end with a child dead and herself in prison awaiting trial for murder. How can she explain the eerie, sinister events that led to this tragedy when she doesn't understand them herself? She has only herself to rely on as she attempts to untangle the mystery and prove that she is innocent of a terrible crime.
My Reaction:
This novel gets a split ranking from me. Despite some nitpicks, I'd give the bulk of the book a solid 3.5 or 4 stars for enjoyment value. The ending, unfortunately, is disappointingly vague and abrupt. I guess an overall rating of 3 seems fair, but if you can't stand ambiguous endings, give this a pass!
(Based on some information the author shared with fans after her book's publication, using the process of elimination, you can probably make a decent guess about the main character's fate, but I still found it a dissatisfying conclusion to read.)
Nitpicks (with many, many SPOILERS):
-- I couldn't believe the length of the section of Rowan figuring out how to operate the shower. Her difficulties with the control panels in general are a little dull and repetitious, and her embarrassment over speaking instructions to "Happy" is slightly absurd. Was Alexa really that new-fangled in 2017? ...Okay, I looked it up, and Alexa's general release was in mid-2015. Yes, maybe it feels a little strange to speak to a computer the first few times, but I still think it's overplayed in this novel. It's not that embarrassing to do, especially when there's no-one else around.
(Based on some information the author shared with fans after her book's publication, using the process of elimination, you can probably make a decent guess about the main character's fate, but I still found it a dissatisfying conclusion to read.)
Nitpicks (with many, many SPOILERS):
-- I couldn't believe the length of the section of Rowan figuring out how to operate the shower. Her difficulties with the control panels in general are a little dull and repetitious, and her embarrassment over speaking instructions to "Happy" is slightly absurd. Was Alexa really that new-fangled in 2017? ...Okay, I looked it up, and Alexa's general release was in mid-2015. Yes, maybe it feels a little strange to speak to a computer the first few times, but I still think it's overplayed in this novel. It's not that embarrassing to do, especially when there's no-one else around.
-- Another example of the above: "Was I going insane, talking aloud to a household appliance?" Yes, Rowan, your marbles are well and truly lost. Hey, I talk to appliances and other inanimate objects all the time, and they aren't even "smart". I'm a little quirky, but definitely not insane. (I am, however, irritated by the boring trope of "Oh, gosh, you must be mad, talking to yourself!")
-- There's a silly scene where Rowan removes her blouse to clean off some oatmeal, and the handyman accidentally walks in on her and sees her topless. As in completely topless. But... Would any woman really attend an interview for a nannying position wearing a thin silk blouse and no bra?! It's just a weird fashion choice. It was totally unnecessary, too, because surely it would be embarrassing to have a stranger unexpectedly see you in just your bra. Wouldn't that be enough?
-- At some point, I forgot that all of this is supposed to be a letter Rowan is writing from prison to a lawyer she hopes to convince to represent her in her murder trial. When she next addressed him by name, it was jarring. I'm familiar with this type of framing device-- and a certain amount of this type of thing is only to be expected-- but it is rather awkward and ridiculous when a character somehow remembers entire conversations from weeks/months ago and includes tedious, irrelevant events in detail. This doesn't feel like a letter. (The long account of her attempt to have a shower becomes even more bizarre when you consider that she wrote all of that to the lawyer!)
-- It requires a powerful suspension of disbelief to accept that Sandra, the doting and tech-savvy mother, would not Google her prospective nanny and scope out her social media. I guess she just trusted the background check and references, but it's odd. Teenaged Rhiannon managed to suss out the truth easily enough, and it doesn't seem like it was that difficult to realize that something didn't add up. Rowan/Rachel's take on the situation? "But truthfully, it had never occurred to me that anyone would join the dots so assiduously." Hm.
-- Ugh, the sex scene as written by Rowan/Rachel to the lawyer... So, so embarrassing! "--I can't write this to you. I can't write this but I can't stop remembering it. I don't know how to stop." Ow, the cringing! Just write, "One thing led to another, and yada yada yada, I got up and left after he fell asleep."
-- I have to admit, I never saw the major twists coming. Definitely didn't guess that Bill was Rowan/Rachel's father, and it never crossed my mind that she was lying about her identity, either. I assumed that Maddie fell off the roof while on her way to the window to the attic, so I didn't get that quite right, either.
-- Call me callous, but it didn't make sense for Rowan/Rachel to keep Ellie's secret. Ellie is a child. She wouldn't be punished, as such. Instead, she'd get some much-needed help and therapy. Her life wouldn't be ruined any more than it already will be. She knows what she did-- there's no escaping that-- and when she's old enough, she'll realize that it was also her fault that Rowan/Rachel went to prison and could have been convicted of a crime she didn't commit.
-- Call me callous, but it didn't make sense for Rowan/Rachel to keep Ellie's secret. Ellie is a child. She wouldn't be punished, as such. Instead, she'd get some much-needed help and therapy. Her life wouldn't be ruined any more than it already will be. She knows what she did-- there's no escaping that-- and when she's old enough, she'll realize that it was also her fault that Rowan/Rachel went to prison and could have been convicted of a crime she didn't commit.
-- Would it really be possible for Ellie's letter to reach Rowan/Rachel sealed and unread? Don't they screen prisoners' mail? Argh! If that's the case, this ending makes no sense! (And that's basically how I feel about the ending, in a nutshell. It makes no sense. Oh well!)
