I consume most of my reading through audio books. It's rare though that I find something as excellent as this production of Locke & Key. Locke & Key started its life as a serialized comic book from Dark Horse. It's written by one of my favorite modern authors, Joe Hill. 

This is a horror story of the kind that you'll likely find familiar. Family moves into weird house in New England. The supernatural at work. A past tragedy that strains relationships in the family. A disabled person who sees a world behind the world. Much like my experience with Stranger Things on television this year, Locke and Key doesn't do anything very new, but everything it does is refined and purposeful. 

The ensemble cast creates the specific voices of the characters extremely well, and the story is paced well enough that you never feel like anyone is left out of the story, or snagging on long boring stretches where your favorite character is left out. The mix of discovery and the engagement of the mystery of the world works against the back drop of high school drama and family strife works like the well formed foundation that it is. Indeed if you ever wanted to see master level layering of theme and world and character, I would point you to Locke and Key.

I will admit that I loved this story before I came to the audiobook, and I had the visuals of the comic in my head to supplement this retelling in audio form. However the production value here is amazing and the large cast makes getting through ensemble cast of characters easy where most audiobooks have to lean on a single reader. 

Locke and Key gets five starts out of five.