Lock the Doors Review

When Tom's new blended family moves into their dream house, he is the only one that notices all the things that seem to not fit like the strange drawings inside the closet, the bedroom locks that seem to only lock from the outside and that something seems to be wrong with the previous tenants...

General Impressions

I don't usually read much horror so I was absolutely blindsided by how much I loved reading this story.

More than the suspense and horror aspects of it what I loved the most about this book was how it portrayed trauma in a teen boy without ever making him into a bully or a violent person. I needed to read that. And I think so does the rest of the world.

Vincent Ralph made an excellent job writing characters that experienced trauma and chose to deal with it in different ways, some more healthy, some definitely not and how that changed them. They were all more than a diagnosis or a label.

Tom

My favourite character was definitely Tom because how many times do we got to see someone who lives with anxiety and OCD not only being a hero but using it to help him survive something instead of just getting in the way of being "normal"?

Tom is such a smart, empathetic, thoughtful character that is aware of his own trauma but never uses it to hurt others only to protect them. He never hesitates to show others that he loves them and respects them for what they've been through, he supports his friends and loves his family and is not a stereotype of a teenage boy written by someone that refuses to understand his characters. I liked meeting Tom and was rooting for him the entire time.

The only thing I wish was different about this book was that instead of mentioning self-help books, we had gotten to see him and his family going to therapy because seeing anyone but particularly, a young man seeking professional help to deal with his trauma or just looking for help coping with life still comes with a huge stigma in our society and this book could have helped a lot of its readers learn otherwise through Tom's experience.

Something else I also felt the need to praise was how this book didn't make all women victims and all men abusers and instead allowed people to be fragile and/or toxic according to their lives and experiences instead of gender alone.

Conclusions

"Lock the Doors" dealt with very difficult subjects with grace and without leaning into cliches or stereotypes. I was hooked on the very first line and can barely wait for whatever Vincent Ralph gift us next.

Thank you to Penguin Books for sending me this book.

Rating 4/5