The Key House
Year: 2022
Author: Mike Curtis
Length: 227 pages
***THIS BOOK WAS RECEIVED FROM THE AUTHOR***
Growing up, I never read many middle-grade adventure books. I understood the appeal of a series like The Hardy Boys, but I was drawn more to Encyclopedia Brown. Even without this pre-existing knowledge of the genre, The Key House seems to hit all the required tropes for those who want something along the lines of a mystery/adventure. This is both a strength and a weakness of this book, as it feels done before (significant The Goonies (1985) vibes) but is familiar enough for young readers to know what to expect.
The trouble is that the few points where The Key House strays from the middle-grade adventure tropes stick out. Most of these adventures don’t involve parents at all, so it’s not until halfway through the plot that it feels like this story can actually do what it needs to. The characters felt somewhat generic—like they belonged in Leave it to Beaver more than in the mid-1990s. This was a bit jarring when they interacted with a more “modern” world (relatively speaking, considering how it’s set ~30 years ago). Sudden bursts of specific knowledge from the kids (like a European orphan crisis being brought up at dinner) were also out-of-place enough to pull me from the story.
In terms of the moral, The Key House tries its best to have one of its main characters overcome the character flaw of pride. With a few key examples provided in the narrative, it makes some sense that the eldest boy would have trouble with feeling superior to others. However, these moments feel second-hand and this flaw doesn’t play into the plot of the treasure hunt enough for it to be significant. Still, for young readers, this book should be right up their alley.
A middle-grade adventure Goonies fans will enjoy, I give The Key House 3.0 stars out of 5.
