#BookReview: The Key to Fear (The Key #1) by Kristin Cast

Synopsis: To Health.
To Life.
To the Future.

We are The Key.
'No touching today for a healthy tomorrow.'

Elodie obeys The Key. Elodie obeys the rules. Elodie trusts in the system. At least, Elodie used to...

Aidan is a rebel. Aidan doesn't do what he's told. Aidan just wants to be free. Aidan is on his last chance...

After a pandemic wiped out most of the human race, The Key took power. The Key dictates the rules. They govern in order to keep people safe. But as Elodie and Aidan begin to discover there is another side to The Key, they realise not everything is as it seems.

Rather than playing protector, The Key are playing God.



Goodreads | Amazon

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
My Review: I really struggled with this one. I was so excited to start it because I absolutely love Kristin Cast and pretty much everything she's written. Sadly for me this one was a little bit of a let down though. 

The excerpt caught my attention as it is pretty similar to life as we know it now with a virus wiping out a majority of civilization. The civilians live by the motto "No touching today for a healthy tomorrow", which is eerily close to what we practice now with all of the social distancing, however, they take it to the extreme with every thing being hands off, handled by robots, performed in virtual reality, and careers and mates are chosen for you and babies are made in a lab to avoid intimacy with your spouse. 

As far as the characters go I felt they were a bit under developed. The primary female character Elodie seems like she could have been such a strong character and we see her grow from a very timid girl who follows the rules but dares to rebel by reading forbidden books to a young woman that's not afraid to go against the rules. I would have loved to see a little more growth from her though and a little bit less whining about a supposedly abusive mom. The main male character Aiden was extremely under developed in my opinion. There's brief flashbacks to his childhood so we know there's trauma but it's not really expanded on. Then there's Blair, a strong woman who's secretly falling apart with multiple neurosis. You also have Elodie's best friend Astrid who was another strong woman that didn't waver in her beliefs until the end where she did a complete turn around. 

The plot was also confusing to me with jumping through all the different POVs, flashbacks to the past of Blair and Aiden, and excerpts from a rather poorly written forbidden story. It's never explained why books are banned so that was really confusing as that seemed to be one of the main points of the story. The rest of the plot felt kinda like a combination of all of the plots from the dystopian ya novels of the past with your typical big corporation that is in charge, artificial intelligence, a creepy virtual assistant, technology implants, and your standard evil rebels that are responsible for releasing the virus and everything else bad in the world, and the random experimenting on children. The pacing of the story was also rather slow, it's not until the last 15-20% that things start to really happen. I'm curious to see how the story plays out in the next book now that there's finally some action and things started tying together at the end of this story. 

Review

''Although her characters are forbidden to touch, Cast proves once again that she is an expert at making her readers feel. The Key to Fear consumed me with its intricate world-building and richly layered characters, sending me hurtling to the end with twist after unexpected twist. Look no further for your key to entertainment!'' --Pintip Dunn, New York Times bestselling author

''With intricate world-building and expert plot twists, Kristin Cast delivers a timely story about authoritarianism and resistance that will leave you breathless.'' --Caleb Roehrig, author of White Rabbitand Last Seen Leaving

''Timely, disturbing and an ending designed to make the reader demand, 'What happens next?''' --Joelle Charbonneau, New York Times bestselling author of The Testing trilogy, and Verify

''Immersive, chilling, and yet deliciously sweet, The Key to Fear is a compelling story of forbidden love and dangerous secrets that explores a terrifying future with an important message for our own world.'' --Emily Suvada, author of This Mortal Coil

''In this propulsive series starter, Cast imagines a corporation-controlled post-pandemic world in which human touch is highly regulated...Cast aptly portrays a sense of unease among people living heavily governed lives.'' --Publishers Weekly

About the Author

Kristin Cast is a #1 New York Times and #1 USA Today bestselling author who was born in Japan, grew up in Oklahoma, and loves her life in Portland, Oregon. She teamed with her mother and edited the wildly successful House of Night series and is thrilled about her many upcoming projects. This is only the beginning for Kristin, who can't wait to share more stories.

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Posted in: 3 Stars, Blackstone Publishing, HeatherR, Netgalley, Review, Young Adult