A Man With An Agenda

'Locke and Key' gets even more weird. Hill has introduced the family, their hangups, and the unspeakable evil that lurks beneath the surface of exclusive white coastal towns. Bode was forced to make an agreement with the representative of that evil in order to save his family, and as a result, something far worse than his father's murderer is loose and in a form that not even he will recognize.

At the end of 'Welcome to Lovecraft' Bode finds a new key. After some puzzlement about what it could be for, he discovers that it opens the mind. Literally. Anything from memories and skills to abstract concepts such as, I don't know, fear, can be added or removed from a person's skull at will by anyone with the Head Key. With 'Head Games' Hill reveals, with Rodriguez's assistance, more of the previous generation's history with the keys and with the Head Key invents the most interesting character development tool I've experienced yet -- if you have this edition Warren Ellis' introduction nails it. The Locke's experiment a little with the key, but they aren't the ones who benefit the most from its existence.

Dodge insinuates himself with almost unbelievable ease into the lives of the Locke family and Lovecraft Academy. His face raises up old memories for Uncle Duncan and Professor Ridgeway....For the most part I'm impressed by the characters' depth and their responses to the events both natural and supernatural, but Hill's blue-collar characters leave a lot to be desired. Sam's sad history lends weight to his transformation, and Dodge is an evil entity surrounded by mystery, but the cro-magnons who show up to hassle Duncan and Brian in a Provincetown bar belong in an after-school special, not in the real world, or in this horror story. Is it progress that they were women? Eh. What I'm saying is they could have used more shading. I appreciated the fact of Duncan and Brian, but as for their dynamic...we're all special snowflakes and my experience as a special snowflake is different from Duncan's experience as a special snowflake.

Anywho, Hill gives plenty of shading to Ellie's situation, her son Rufus, and Tyler's friend Jordan, and their responses to the magical chaos that's about to descend on the town outweigh any quibbles I may have with other elements of the story. There doesn't feel like there's any gap between the story arcs of any of these collections, and it shows when you read them back to back like this.

From my original review: Great entertainment, dark, clever...I think I'll read as many of these as Hill and Rodriguez are willing to make.

[It only took me three years, but yeah!]

Originally read: June 1, 2012

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