Lock and Key is a 2008 young adult novel by Sarah Dessen.
After being abandoned by her addict mother, Ruby Cooper is placed in the care of her long-lost older sister, Cora, and brother-in-law, Jamie. Used to fending for herself in near-poverty, Ruby is immediately suspicious of her new affluent neighborhood, private school, and attentive guardians. With her future looking brighter, Ruby slowly adjusts to her new life of privilege— and grows closer with Nate, a neighbor and classmate —and realizes that it is okay to let people in.
Nothing to do with the very similarly-named comic or its Netflix adaptation.
This novel contains examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Ruby and Cora's mother was a drunk, physically abusing Cora and latter Ruby, the latter she abandons when she realizes that Ruby would be free to leave and live on her own once she turned 18. It only gets worse when it turns out the reason they were always moving, never had a phone, and using a false last name wasn't to avoid debt collectors. Cora had actively been trying to find them so to gain custody of Ruby and give a safe and supportive home which their mother didn't want to happen because then she'd be left alone.
- Nate's father, Blake who forces his son to help with his failing business despite it cutting into his school work and forced him to quit the swim team, costing him a scholarship for college. He also berates his son and is implied to be physically abusive even if Nate claimed it rarely went beyond yelling.
- The Alcoholic: Ruby's mother. It actually disturbs her when Ruby has her Heroic BSoD over learning the Awful Truth about why Cora disappeared from her life, skips school, and gets drunk; namely when she sees herself in a mirror and looks exactly like her mother.
- Anger Born of Worry: Jamie ends up pissed when Ruby skips school and gets drunk due to learning the truth about how her mother was keeping her away from Cora. He remains this way for several weeks until Ruby apologizes for what she did which he accepts.
- Anti-Hero: Ruby though its not clear she's the hero of the story until the later half of the book when she learns about Mr. Cross being an Abusive Parent and convinces Nate to get help. She's moody and emotional closed off due to her childhood and has difficulty connecting with people, but ultimately a good person whose had a very bad shake in life.
- Babies Make Everything Better: Averted. Ruby suspects that her parents were trying to invoke this trope with her due to the large age difference between her and Cora, but it obviously did not work out; they divorced when she was five and things went downhill from there. As part of the Earn Your Happy Ending, the day Ruby graduates from high school, Cora learns she and Jamie are expecting after trying for months and she was left emotionally drained from trying, leaving her with Tears of Joy.
- Bait-and-Switch: Ruby's mother is reportedly found near the end of the novel and goes to rehab, and for a little bit it seems like Ruby is thinking of visiting her, but this never happens; instead, Ruby sends her mother her college acceptance letter.
- A twofer in a single conversation. When Gervais, the Bratty Half-Pint Child Prodigy, starts acting more mature and dresses nicer after meeting Ruby, its implied he's developed a Precious Crush on her. On Christmas, he stops by her house and (1) drops the bombshell he's doing it because of Ruby's new friend Olivia not her; (2) he's not interested in her romantically, he just wants to be friends with Olivia because she's the only one at her school who doesn't treat him differently.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: Gervais' reason for wanting to be friends with Olivia; she's the only student whose nice to him without the ulterior motive of wanting him to help with school work due to being a Child Prodigy. He does stress though that's he's strictly interested in a platonic relationship.
- Beta Couple: Harriet and Reggie with the former's Oblivious to Love and then going the I Don't Want to Ruin Our Friendship route initially. She ends up changing her mind and while we don't see much, its clear they're dating and very happy together.
- Big Brother Instinct: Cora went out of her way to protect Ruby when they were younger and spent years afterwords trying to get back in contact with her. Then she agrees to take care of her once it becomes clear their mother has abandoned her.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Peyton, Ruby's best friend before moving with Cora and Jamie. Ruby catches them together and the Peyton ends up (correctly) pointing out the former has no standing since the girl was never willing to be friends or boyfriends with anyone.
- Bratty Half-Pint: Gervais, but he grows out of it. A Child Prodigy, he's introduced being an immature brat who farts while in the close-quarters of Nate's car everyday during their carpool. He starts to cut down on the "toxic emissions" and even combs his hair to look nicer.
- Cinderella Plot: Ruby's life; she has a poor home life that only gets worse after her mother runs off and abandons her. In something of an inversion of the actual fairy tale, Ruby is rescued from these circumstances in the first chapter and gets what most girls in her situation would give anything for—a better home, money, a new private school, and a cute neighbor who seems to take to her—but is initially resistant and uninterested to all of it.
- Commonality Connection: Ruby constantly lampshades how different she and Nate are, but they do eventually find something to bond over: their respective abusive parents even if they aren't aware of it at first.
- Continuity Nod: Ruby hears Annabel from Just Listen on the radio at one point.
- Mallory and her friends, also from Just Listen, are seen shopping at the jewelry stand, as are Kristy and Bert from The Truth About Forever.
- Contrived Coincidence: Ruby has an abusive mother, and then it turns out her love interest has an abusive father.
- Control Freak: Harriet. It takes her forever to hire someone because she rejects all her applicants on trivial details, spends hours re-doing things she asks Ruby to do to make it "just right" and all she ever thinks about is her business.
- Cool Big Sis: Cora is this though Ruby, and the audience since the story is told from her perspective, don't realize this at first until the Awful Truth about her childhood is revealed. She spent the years trying to get her younger sister away from their abusive mother, took her in even when she was tricked into thinking the girl wanted nothing to do with her, and actively protects when Ruby seems to be an Ungrateful Bastard.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Ruby. Her neglectful and sometimes abusive mother treated her horribly throughout her childhood, routinely uprooted her and moved them around constantly, forcibly kept her and her kind older sister Cora apart, and then abandoned her. Ruby lived on her own for months, supporting herself in near poverty. She finally gets a break when she's discovered and is put into Cora's custody. Cora shares some of this past, mainly the abuse, which she usually took on behalf of the young and defenseless Ruby.
- Declaration of Protection: Cora to Ruby, who would step between her sister and their mother and take the brunt of her abuse. She even does this when Jamie is yelling at Ruby for ditching school and getting drunk; Ruby looks up to see Cora standing in between them.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Ruby when Cora points out that Ruby was not only abandoned by her mother, but she did everything she could to turn Ruby against her big sister, then left Ruby before Ruby could leave her.
- Everyone Can See It: Ruby and Nate even though the former denies anything is going on. Later when the two are dating, she thinks nobody knows only for Jamie to point out that the pool in Nate's backyard (where they would hang out) can be seen from the their house.
- Downplayed with Harriet and Reggie as we only see Ruby around them enough to notice it. She even hypocritically becomes a Shipper on Deck despite her annoyance about people about being the same with Ruby and Nate.note
- Fair-Weather Friend: Peyton for Ruby, when the former sleeps with Marshall after the latter moves in with Cora and Jamie, not seeing each other for weeks.
- Faux Affably Evil: Nate's dad plays the perfect neighbor in public, but behind closed doors he verbally and physically abuses Nate. Ruby also catches him trying to hurt Cora's dog, Roscoe.
- Friends with Benefits: Ruby and Marshall, although Ruby never quite has a label for their relationship and it ends about halfway through the book to clear things up for her to fall in love with Nate.
- Kick the Dog: Ruby sees Nate's father threaten Cora's dog. This is one of the first hints we get of something being wrong with him.
- Lady Drunk: Ruby's mother which is coupled with being an Abusive Parent. After disappearing, she's eventually found passed out in a motel room and taken into rehab. Though Ruby and Cora note it this or jail, so it's unlikely she'll stay on the wagon.
- Parental Abandonment: Ruby's mother abandons her when she's 17. Ruby's father is already long gone; she only has a few vague memories of him before he suddenly left the picture. Cora later reveals that he did initially try to provide child support and continue visiting, but Ruby's mother dodged him and he ended up giving up as a result.
- Parental Substitute: Cora takes on a maternal role for Ruby, but Ruby isn't willing to accept it at first if only because their mother's poisoning left the teenager thinking her sister abandoned them. Once she learns the truth about her childhood and the efforts their mother took to keep them apart, their relationship greatly improves.
- Promotion to Parent: Ruby's sister Cora comes in and cares for her after her mother leaves.
- Properly Paranoid: Subverted; Ruby feels uncomfortable around her mother's boyfriend, Warner, despite a lack of concrete evidence, but he disappears from the novel before we get a chance to find out if her fears are well-founded.
- Rules of Orphan Economics: Ruby lives in a single parent household until her mother disappears. She attempts to work and go to school until she turns 18. Unfortunately a social worker comes and forces her to move in with her older sister.
- Shipper on Deck: Somewhat hypocritically, Ruby gradually becomes one for Harriet and Reggie, despite the fact Ruby herself is annoyed that everyone thinks she's involved with Nate.
- Stepford Snarker: Ruby who hides her feelings through sarcastic remarks which are frequent even for a teenage girl.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Ruby and Peyton have some shades of this making it an Odd Friendship. Except they prove to not really be friends with the latter sleeping with the former's Friends with Benefits.
- Troubled, but Cute: Ruby is a pretty girl, but is broody and has difficulty connecting with people due to her messed-up childhood.
- Underwater Kiss: How Ruby and Nate share their first kiss.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Jamie chews Ruby out when the latter has a Heroic BSoD over her mother abandoning her, skips school and eventually returns home drunk, even going so far as to all but outright call her an Ungrateful Bastard. Cora, meanwhile, is more sympathetic.
