What kind of suspense writer would be so reckless as to invoke Henry James’s masterpiece of terror and ambiguity and expect to see her own work do anything but suffer in the comparison? Happily, the answer is: a superb suspense writer who is dead set on making her own distinctive mark on the governess-alone-with-weird-children-in-an isolated-house formula. The Turn of the Key pays scrupulous homage to James’s The Turn of the Screw and also slyly updates it ... Ware is a master at signaling the presence of evil at the most mundane moments ... 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 ... I daresay even Henry James would be impressed.
... a clever and elegant update to James's story, one with less ambiguity but its own eerie potency ... contains all the most pleasurable hallmarks of the genre ... Rereading Ware, you admire her cleverness, the way she hid her tracks and left bright threads winding in different directions, but the charge is gone. But though mystery is solved, she offers the possibility of another kind of horror, one that is ongoing and very real.
Furnishing a traditional Gothic suspense story line with such ultra-modern trappings may seem incongruous or even anachronistic, but Ware handles this juxtaposition admirably ... The Turn of the Key is a modern Gothic novel with a simple, chilling premise: '[A] young woman, alone, in a strange house, with strangers watching you.' Built around this premise are layers of suspense forming a web of complexities reflecting a number of contemporary concerns ... Unlike The Turn of the Screw...Ware picks a lane, deploying a satisfyingly dizzying parade of twists and reveals without leaving much unexplained.
Ruth Ware’s homage to The Turn of the Screw is filled with all of the best gothic elements ... compulsively readable and will keep readers guessing until the very last page ... Ware expertly weaves in a supernatural element as well ... All of these twists and turns might feel unwieldy in the hands of another writer, but Ware is adept at managing multiple plot threads and using them to shock her reader. The beauty of The Turn of the Key is in how it takes the tropes central to the gothic genre, like the isolated haunted house, and gives them a 21st-century spin while still managing to feel fresh and surprising to even the most gothic-averse reader. Straddling the line between horror and thriller, this novel will delight fans of both genres.
...plunges the reader into a spiraling mystery ... With subtle strokes, Ruth Ware paints a picture of ratcheting tension ... The Turn of the Key is a tour de force—Ware is writing at the height of her powers.
Ruth Ware has spun a complex narrative — part ghost story, part deception thriller and part revenge tale laced with a longing for love and acceptance. This novel follows her first four successful psychological dramas with the same immersive writing, clever characters and delicious plot surprises. Readers think the story is headed one way only to be jerked back on course with a startling reveal. And this goes on and on with whiplash succession. Stick with this one. Ware always saves the best for the end.
I am not the biggest fan of Ruth Ware’s books and yet, for some reason, I keep reading them. I was pleasantly surprised at this story. It was much better than any of her other ones and actually very creepy. There were a couple of times that I was wishing I was not home alone while reading it. If you like ghost stories and mysteries, you will enjoy this thriller from Ruth Ware.
Ware is a master of atmosphere and, here, the off-kilter weirdness of the old house itself seeps into every crack of this story ... 'Get out of there!' we jumpy readers find ourselves urging, but Rowan stays put for reasons we won't understand until the final breathless twist of this thriller ... Book titles aren't protected under copyright law, but if you're going to lift titles by the likes of Henry James, you'd better bring your 'A' game. Fortunately, it seems that Ware [doesn't] know how to play or write any other way.
The classic tropes—a nanny left alone with two children in a remote house, a bitter housekeeper, a mysterious caretaker, unexplained noises, a locked door that's never been opened—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.
Ware writes a modern retelling of the Henry James classic haunted house, ghost story with her own modern twist. If you thought you knew all about the haunted house genre, think again. Ware gives the form a terrifying contemporary overhaul ... the terror comes not from the traditionally creepy gothic half but emanates from the Orwellian, Big Brother-esque vibes we get from Heatherbrae House’s futuristic smart-home surveillance system ... Ware writes with perfect pacing, opening with a complete mystery, feeding us nuggets of clues throughout to keep us reading and guessing until the very last page ... A colossal plot twist in the last couple of pages will shock even the best of us detective readers and is cleverly revealed through Rowan’s correspondence from prison ... this is one you will devour in one sitting, unable to tear yourself away.
Ware cleverly puts a high-tech spin on [The Turn of the Screw's] gothic foundations of spellbinding menace ... Ware’s James-like embroidery of the strange and sinister produces a Turn of the Screw with cellphones and Teslas that will enthrall today’s readers. Much like its predecessor, the novel is occasionally mystifying, but it will not disappoint.
Ware excels at taking classic mystery tropes and reinventing them; her novels always feel appealingly anachronistic because while the technology is 21st century, there is something traditionally gothic about the settings, full of exaggerated luxury and seething dark corners ... 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.
Ware’s excellent psychological thriller...does a good job of creating tension ... But above all, Ware skillfully lays the bread crumbs to the novel’s satisfying conclusion without dropping too many hints or duping the reader ... The final section not only pulls together the plot’s many threads but also leaves readers with one final, haunting question, one that will stay with them long after they turn the last page.
