Locke & Key, Vol. 1: Welcome to Lovecraft

A comic written by Stephen King's son, with a blatant Lovecraft callout? Creepy house with magic keys? Mysterious entity in a well? Are we surprised that I like this?

Upon finishing this, I immediately borrowed the next volume (thank you ComiXology Unlimited!). Can't wait to see what happens next!

I originally got this as an Audible book. Yes - a comic book adapted to audio form. It works better than you'd think, but not well enough to stand on its own, in my opinion. I would recommend reading the comic first, and if you love it, check out the audio version so you can appreciate the great vocal performances without being too confused. Also, it would be a shame to miss out on the fabulous art by Gabriel Rodriguez!

2.5 Stars - Mediocre, Sluggish, & Unlikable Main Characters

You know that feeling when you finally get around to watching a horror movie that's been hyped up and recommended by your streaming service of choice, only to realize that it isn't anywhere near as scary or gory or intriguing as anticipated? And you know that feeling when you spend half of a horror movie checking the clock to see when it's over, only to become invested in the last fifteen minutes and have the experience end right as it was getting interesting? Yeah, that's how I feel about Locke and Key's first volume (issues #1 - #6).

The beginning - two or three issues, in fact - is incredibly slow. It jumps around in time so much as to get confusing and basically just dwells incessantly on how sad the main characters are. For a novel, this might have worked, but in a graphic novel it just slows things down and comes across as ridiculous. There are things you can get away with in a third person narrative but can't in a first person graphic novel narration. Among those things: outright stating that a character joined the track team because she has more things to run from lately. It feels like inane melodrama in this format, rather than a witty (if also overdone) exploration of the character's mental health.

By time things finally get interesting, the volume is nearly over. And even then, it's the kind of interesting that would be classed as a generic horror-thriller with good ideas and iffy execution. It's somewhere between Dead and Breakfast, Jeepers Creepers, and House of Wax: not horrible, not great, and worth watching (reading) once for the concepts it explores - but not particularly worthy of a second viewing. Worth renting, but not worth buying because it will just waste space.

It doesn't help that the art is honestly rather ugly. Many of the high schoolers look like chain smokers in their mid-thirties and on a few occasions it's even difficult to tell which character is which. In a graphic novel, issues like these and the incredibly tiny text in the kindle edition (zooming in with the panel-by-panel feature doesn't always make it readable) are absolutely detrimental.

As for the story, it's basically a blend of teen drama (so. much. angst.) and generic horror movie with a dash of unique fantasy. You have the older brother who's needlessly mean to his younger brother but also wants to protect him from the world and hides his struggle with suicidal thoughts. Then you have the edgy girl who turns meek and plain - and asinine - to avoid attention after a traumatic experience. Then you have the kid of indeterminate age who at once seems both well beyond his years and like a toddler who needs better supervision. And, of course, you have the alcoholic mother who spirals after losing her husband and being implied-raped by a home invader because it wouldn't be the equivalent of a horror movie without that. Oh, and the cool uncle and the villain who was a smart kid with abusive parents and a mental health issue which led them to be vulnerable to a demon. There's also a magical gender transformation complete with a joke about the new genitalia involved.

Please don't play a horror or YA drinking game with this. You will literally die.

Overall, if the next volume were available with Prime Reading or I ever decide to join Kindle Unlimited again, I might pick it up to see what happens. Otherwise, I won't mind the lack of knowing what follows. As far as I'm concerned, this felt like watching a passable yet ultimately mediocre movie with sequel bait at the end. I'm content with moving on to something better. Maybe if I actually cared about the welfare of any of the characters, I'd think differently, but frankly I found them all unlikable.