Lock the doors

Title:

Lock the doors

Author:

Summary:

"Tom's family has moved into their dream home. But pretty soon he starts to notice that something is very wrong―there are strange messages written on the wall and locks on the bedroom doors. On the OUTSIDE. The previous owners have moved just across the road and they seem like the perfect family. Their daughter Amy is beautiful and enigmatic but Tom is sure she's got something to hide. And he isn't going to stop until he finds the truth behind those locked doors." -- Amazon.com.

Audience:

Age 14. Sourcebooks Fire.

Grades 10-12. Sourcebooks Fire.

General Note:

"Originally published in 2021 in the United Kingdom by Penguin, an imprint of Penguin Random House."

"A new home ... a perfect family ... a deadly secret"-- Front cover.

Physical Description:

391 pages ; 21 cm

Genre:

Thrillers (Fiction)

Subject Term:

Secrecy -- Fiction.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder -- Fiction.

Kidnapping -- Fiction.

Families -- Fiction.

Geographic Term:

England -- Fiction.

Publisher:

Sourcebooks Fire,

Publication Date:

2022

ISBN:

9781728231891

Publication Information:

Naperville, Illinois : Sourcebooks Fire, [2022]

Call Number:

YA RALPH

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Item Barcode	Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
33607003603498	New Young Adult	RALPH	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

A New York Times Bestseller and 2023 Edgar Award Nominee for Best Young Adult!

The truth won't stay hidden behind locked doors.

An addictive, psychological thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of 14 WAYS TO DIE.

Tom's family has moved into their dream home. But pretty soon he starts to notice that something is very wrong--there are strange messages written on the wall and locks on the bedroom doors. On the OUTSIDE. The previous owners have moved just across the road, and they seem like the perfect family. Their daughter, Amy, is beautiful and enigmatic, but Tom is sure she's hiding something. And he isn't going to stop until he finds the truth behind those locked doors. . .

Will their dream home become a nightmare?

Lock the Doors is perfect for readers looking for:

Phycological thrillers Determined characters who persevere Short chapters with action-packed, heightened tension Unputdownable and bingeworthy novels Books by Karen McManus, Holly Jackson, and Lisa Jewell

Reviews (2)

School Library Journal Review

Gr 8 Up--After breaking free of domestic abuse, Tom's mother remarries and Tom gains a new stepfather who genuinely cares for him. His new stepsister, Nia, ignores everyone except her little brother, Aaron, who lives with their mother. Tom's OCD compulsions lead him to discover that the doors in their bedrooms have holes, implying that there were locks on the outside. Worry about what this means intensifies when he discovers that Amy, a new student in his school, used to live in his house. Amy is friendly but reserved and her family seems strained, leading Tom to believe that she (as he was) might be a victim of abuse. After Tom and his friend Zak dig deeper, his new family is violently threatened and the past becomes terrifyingly close. Short chapters with action-packed tight sentences heighten the tension and create a page-turner of a book set in Britain. Amy's experiences are told only after readers hear Tom's perspective of her, causing the tension to mount as readers must decide where her loyalty lies. Perseverance and determination create a friendship that allows both teens to acknowledge that sometimes trusting is the only way to move out of fear and into a brighter new future. Race of the characters is not stated. VERDICT Teens who love psychological mysteries will enjoy this. Recommend this book to reluctant readers as well; they will quickly be drawn into the psychological suspense.--Connie Williams

Publisher's Weekly Review

After enduring years of emotional and physical abuse from his mother's boyfriends, 16-year-old Tom Cavanagh seems to have found something like stability in Ralph's (14 Ways to Die) spine-chilling thriller. Mom's new boyfriend Jay is funny and kind, and the house they've just moved into is her dream home, if littered with holes that need patching. Tom, who lives with obsessive compulsive disorder and anxiety, seems to be the only party concerned about the holes drilled into the outside of his bedroom door--and the cryptic messages he finds underneath his room's wallpaper and carved into his closet's walls. When he learns that Amy Pearce, the new student at Priority Road High School, and her family were the home's previous tenants, Tom thinks they're the key to solving the mystery. But when Amy's girl-next-door facade begins to crumble, Tom realizes that the Pearces might not be the victims he thought they were. Intense chapters from Amy's perspective provide glimpses into her past and offer reprieve from Tom's sometimes repetitive pursuit of the truth. Nevertheless, Tom's matter-of-fact voice ("Home is where the hate is") and Ralph's short, brisk chapters make for a compact, satisfying thriller. All characters are assumed white. Ages 14--up. Agent: Claire Wilson, RCW. (Mar.)