Locke and Key Vol. 5 - Clockworks: A Wonderful Yet Tragic Origin Story of a Villain

So I’ve been really impressed with the graphic novel series Locke and Key written by Joe Hill. It was been such an imaginative dark fantasy and I have slowly being working my way through it, throughout the year. And after a long novel, I went back to read the fifth installment called Clockworks. So here is my review of Locke and Key Vol. 5 Clockworks by Joe Hill.

So what is this about? The general concept of the books is after the murder of their father, a family moves into a house full of keys that allows them to do impossible things. In this book we follow Kinsey and Tyler as they find a clock key. This allows them to travel through time as ghosts. They journey through time and watch the history of this house. By this, they learn about the mystery door in the cave, the origins of the keys, and about how the villain in these book so far became the villain. And it is fascinating. To see how he, originally a childhood friend of their father, became infected with evil and couldn’t be saved. And that is the core story here.

The good? This is a good character study of the villain. It was wonderfully handled and Joe Hill really made the reader feel sorry for him. The mysteries and questions throughout the series was answered here. Also Kinsey’s story arch of being self-destructive from fear removed from her head also came to a close. It was nice to see Kinsey once again be able to face her own demons rather than lock them away. Also the villain’s first spell of crazy against his former fiends in the past was a delightfully epic and creepy grand finale.

The bad? The last book ended on a huge cliff hanger. But because time stops when Kinsey and Tyler do everything in this installment, the “oh my god” moment has frozen in time. It is still clever but disappointing. Also I was surprised by Tyler's look in this story. I know all of these books take place over a year, or possibly a year and a half and teenagers change styles. Clearly Kinsey must have had eight hair dos in these books so far. But Tyler always wore jeans, t shirt, and parties, was way into sports, dated a motorcycle chick and fishes. He’s a common kind of guy, but for no reason at all he’s suddenly glasses and a button down shirt like he’s an accountant or something. It seemed out of place for the character and I’m not sure why he looks so different now.

Overall, this is a great penultimate book in the series. Its not what the reader expects but it offers something the reader never knew they wanted which is a wonderful yet tragic origin story of the villain. So it’s a must read for lovers of Joe Hill and this series, and I’m going to say it’s a must read in general. This story really does stand alone from the other books as a side story so well that non fans could probably read this book and have a fun time.

Overall Rating: A Wonderful Yet Tragic Origin Story of a Villain

4 smoothies out of four.