The penultimate collected volume of Joe Hill’s Locke & Key series (illustrated by Gabriel Rodriguez) provides some history regarding the Lovecraft residence, the history of the magical keys, and how the patriarch of the Locke family became implicated in the history of the house and what is occurring now, back when he was just a teenager. Unlike the previous volumes of this dark and inventive series, past events are the focus of “Clockworks,” and we get some answers as to what the house and keys are all about, and even where they came from. Yet many things remain up in the air, which I am excited to unravel in the concluding book, “Omega”.
“Clockworks” begins with a tale of a young blacksmith named Ben Locke in the Revolutionary War. Most of his family has been killed for harboring fugitives in the caves below Lovecraft, where a door to a demonic world has been found. Ben Locke works to create a lock and key in order to keep this door shut for forever, but also uses some of the metal that has come through the door in order to make other magical keys. These of course become the keys that the present-day Locke children keep finding around their house.
Upon finding a key that allows them to visit the past as spirits (kind of in a Christmas Carol sort of way), Tyler and Kinsey Locke find this history, and also visit that of their father as a teenager. Their father had been staying at Lovecraft with some friends one year, and it is learned that only children can see and remember the magic of the keys, as a sort of safety trap that ensures no corrupt adult would ever be able to use this magic as a tool for war. Yet the past reveals just how Luke/”Dodge” ended up the way he is today: infected with the spirit of a demon that came through the door that was locked all those years ago. Meanwhile, little Bode lock is searching for the omega key which is what will once again open this door, for as we know from the previous book, “Keeper of the Keys,” Bode isn’t really Bode.
This series is grittier than I realized (not that that is a bad thing, and I really don’t know why I’m so surprised by this), and full of imagination, magic, and mystery. Sometimes I get a little thrown off by the language and slurs used at people (oh dear, I’m sensitive), but at the same time, isn’t that how people talk when they want to hurt someone? Also, it reflects some of the time-periods in which these events take place, so ultimately it works. All I know for certain in these stories in that there is a final showdown and tragedy on the horizon, where hopefully all the lingering questions I have will be answered and things will come to a head.
[As always, this review is double-posted on my personal blog]
I really liked the whole series, I didn’t want it to end!