Turn of the Key (Ware) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
Let’s just say that if you’ve got an Echo, you’re going to unplug it as soon as you finish the book…. What Ware does beautifully is infuse The Turn of the Key with a creepy Gothic sensibility. For all of the novel’s contemporary touches… she has delivered an old-fashioned horror story, peopled by children with "eyes full of malice," a dour housekeeper straight out of Rebecca and an inscrutable handyman.
New York Times Book Review


A superb suspense writer… Ware is a master at signaling the presence of evil at the most mundane moments…. Rowan stays put for reasons we won’t understand until the final act of this tragedy. And that’s when Ware’s gifts for structuring an ingenious suspense narrative really come to the fore…. Ware pulls out a stunner on the penultimate page that radically alters how we interpret everything that’s come before. Brava, Ruth Ware. I daresay even Henry James would be impressed.
Maureen Corrigan - Washington Post


A clever and elegant update to James's story…. Surveillance and home technology slot easily into the conventions of horror: They bring the sense that your environment is invaded and controlled from afar, and that you are never quite as alone as you might wish…. The Turn of the Key, and novels like it, point to a new reality. We are all, constantly, haunted.
NPR


This appropriately twisty Turn of the Screw update finds the Woman in Cabin 10 author in her most menacing mode, unfurling a shocking saga of murder and deception.
Entertainment Weekly


Henry James via Black Mirror…. While the ambiguity in James’s masterpiece is "ghosts or madness?," here it is "ghosts or glitch?" Unlike The Turn of the Screw, however, Ware picks a lane, deploying a satisfyingly dizzying parade of twists and reveals without leaving much unexplained.
Los Angeles Review of Books


[E]xcellent…. Ware does a good job of creating tension…. [A]bove all, Ware skillfully lays the bread crumbs to the novel’s satisfying conclusion… but also leaves readers with one final, haunting question… that will stay with them long after they turn the last page.
Publishers Weekly


[C]lassic tropes… are combined with 21st-century creepiness.… Ware hits another one out of the park. Fans of hers or anyone with a taste for the disturbing will stay up late devouring this.
Library Journal


Ruth Ware’s homage to The Turn of the Screw is filled with all of the best gothic elements…. The Turn of the Key is compulsively readable and will keep readers guessing until the very last page... Straddling gothic and thriller, this novel will delight fans of both genres.
BookPage


[A] creepy mystery.… Regrettably, the novel's ending leaves a few too many loose ends while also avoiding the delicious ambiguity of its Victorian predecessors. Truly terrifying! Ware perfects her ability to craft atmosphere and sustain tension with each novel.
Kirkus Reviews