Locke & Key: Clockworks

Finally, the backstory of the creation of the Keys and Rendell's involvement is told! With the discovery of the Timeturner Key Tyler is able to turn the clock back and watch the events unfold as a ghost, which gives him some much needed insight to the events that have unfolded since his arrival at Keyhouse. It's also good to know hat Dodge/Luke wasn't always a demon, but that he was possessed by one of the demons on the other side of the 11th Door when he was trying to save Rendell's brother. Giving him this backstory automatically gives him status as an anti-hero of sorts, and it makes me think that the final volume will be a quest to save him (and banish the demons for good).

Ah ha! Those dang Micmacs again!

Well, this may well be my favorite so far, as much for the story progression as anything else!
This volume begins with the history of the keys in Lovecraft, Massachusetts Bay in 1775. The whole background to this thing is in here! And then we get the background to the current problems from a story from Lovecraft Academy in 1988, and we see how the kids' dad got everything f'd up, resulting in the issues the kids are currently facing. I really liked finding out all of this history and backstory and am now pretty eager to read the last volume and see how it all wraps up!
A good volume, if you like having your questions answered!

This is graphic novel collection number five of the amazing Locke & Key series, about a house full of magical keys and the wonderful and terrible things the three kids living there manage to unlock. This installment, thanks to a little look-but-don't-touch time travel, fills in lots and lots of backstory, and it does so extremely well. Everything is explained and everything fits together: the origin of the keys, the origin of the series' villain, why only the kids are aware of and able to use the keys, all kinds of things. And yet, it never feels like tedious exposition, but is instead an effective and very sad story in its own right. I was already thinking that when this series is finally finished I might like to go back and read it show more again, without the annoying waits between volumes. Reading this one has just cemented that intention, because I think there are a lot of things that will feel interestingly different on a second read.

Oh, and as usual, the artwork is absolutely gorgeous. show less

Summary: The Locke kids are never going to recover from the violent death of their father, but they’re slowly starting to adjust to their new life in their father’s childhood home in Lovecraft, and to learn the secrets behind the various magical keys that inhabit their new home.

The majority of Clockworks is a series of flashbacks, first as we see the story of how the Black Door was originally discovered in Revolutionary War times, and then as Tyler and Kinsey find the Timeshift key, which allows them to vist the past, and learn the story of their father and his friends, and their adventures - and deadly misadventures - with the keys.

Review: This series is so, so good. It's crazy good. It's creepy and imaginative and legitimately show more scary in parts and incredibly creative. It's an interesting and complex world, which is great, and definitely something I look for in fantasy, but what makes it so great are the characters. They're rich and multidimensional and believable and heartbreakingly sympathetic and easy to fall in love with, and as a result, this series strikes the perfect balance between worldbuilding, action, and character development.

Volume 5 was fantastic, one of my favorites so far. It's only a six-volume series, so we're at the point in this volume where things are starting to be explained, but not everything's clear, and there's still a lot of potentially awesome things to happen before the end. The flashbacks are done really effectively, letting us finally get to know the Lockes' dad and his friends, with the added emotional sting of having to watch his kids watch the past, knowing how their father's decisions will play out a generation later. Good stuff. 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: Fans of darker, more mature comics - like The Unwritten or Sandman - or anyone who likes creepy character-driven fantasy should definitely be reading Locke & Key. show less

Excellent art, extended interlocking story that makes promises and keeps them. This is a perfect example of what modern comics can do—so much creativity and power in here—all created without dependence on some pre-existing comic characters—without dependence, even, on a pre-existing mythos or worldview. This is a horror comic. The only problem with it is that it doesn’t need to be. Children are murdered for the storyline, and I’m not convinced they all needed to be. However, part of this series’s charm is that no punches are pulled—adolescents say and do things that adolescents say and do—as adults, we forget that world. This comic doesn’t forget. That’s a major theme of the book, too. I love it and recommend it, but show more the story and impact and power of this comic could have worked with a little less horror. Okay... maybe just cut the kite-bus moment and I’d be set? show less

Time travel can be done poorly, as we all know. Thankfully, this one's a read-only copy, and I really enjoyed seeing good-ol' dad tinkering with the universe in ways much worse than his hapless kids. The backstory wraps the rest of the volumes into such a fantastically tight cocoon that I'm thrilled I stuck through the first volume. I suppose I ought to really thank the other peeps who turned me on to this whole tale. I might not have gotten as far without so many raving reviews.

I can't wait for the next volume, now.

When I finished Clockworks, there was a note at the end of the book indicating that the story would be concluded with Book 6. I think this is a mistake. I think Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez should continue to work within the Lovecraft universe until the end of time.

All joking aside, these two are like the peanut butter and chocolate of comic books. Two great tastes that taste great together! Honestly, this series just keeps getting better as the dynamic duo keep pumping out a stream of greatness. Hyperbole? Maybe. I don't care. This story is worth every bit of praise I can throw at it and I can forsee a very sad Brandon when it's all said and done.

In Clockworks, Kinsey and Tyler discover a new key, one in which time travel is show more possible. However in this version of time travel, they're unable to actually make any changes but rather are allowed to spy as a sort of ghost on past events. As the Locke kids travel through time, they unlock the origins of key house as well as the events surrounding their father's interactions with the keys and the resulting effect on his friends.

Of all 6 volumes, I'd like to think that this is the most emotional and heartbreaking. It gives the reader a reason to find sympathy for Dodge, a character who is such a bastard throughout the first 5 collections, that I never would have thought the term, "sympathetic", would be something you'd associate with him.

A lot happens here that more or less answers some questions that may have arisen through the story so far. While that seems to be the purpose of the book, it doesn't feel like filler. Not only are the back stories compelling and heart-wrenching, Hill is setting us up for something incredible in the final act (at least I certainly hope so). show less