Skeleton Keys: The Unimaginary Friend

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Brian Switek writes with remarkable grace about the natural world. In Skeleton Keys, he looks inward, making us keenly aware of the marvels of the bones that give us the scaffolding we need to survive. Every chapter has some surprise, told in elegant tales, that you will repeat to your friends.”—Carl Zimmer, author of She Has Her Mother’s Laugh: The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity Alex Rider is an orphan turned teen superspy who's saving the world one mission at a time—from #1 New York Times bestselling author! Another book in the series, this book continues the journey of Alex Rider a 14 year old boy who is a spy for MI6 and is about to embark on is third mission. MY THOUGHTS: I became fully immersed in the story of the Churcher and Lally families to the detriment of everything else I was currently reading. The extended family dynamics enthralled me. I became obsessed by their machinations, and their relationships, which are almost incestuous.

The relationship between Nell and Dom and that of Billie and Nell are the highlights of the story, in fact, the arc of each and every character in the book was brilliantly done. Billie, however, is like a breath of fresh air in this dark family drama. It is not just about the mystery of a skeleton but Erin Kelly keeps the readers on their toes convoluting the plot with one reveal after another every step of the way and there are so many subplots running in the story that the momentum of the story also has its own pace, whereas some parts I could literally fly with it there were also some other parts which were very slow in its unraveling. Alex Rider has been through a lot for his fourteen years. He's been shot at by international terrorists, chased down a mountainside on a makeshift snowboard, and has stood face-to-face with pure evil. Twice, young Alex has managed to save the world. And twice, he has almost been killed doing it. But now Alex faces something even more dangerous. The desperation of a man who has lost everything he cared his country and his only son. A man who just happens to have a nuclear weapon and a serious grudge against the free world. To see his beloved Russia once again be a dominant power, he will stop at nothing. Unless Alex can stop him first... Uniting forces with America's own CIA for the first time, teen spy Alex Rider battles terror from the sun-baked beaches of Miami all the way to the barren ice fields of northernmost Russia. This is my seventh Anthony Horowitz book and I noticed a couple of bold moves in the sudden change in his patterns. Some are good, some are craps.

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They are complicated families, their past and current lives closely entwined. Just how closely entwined becomes apparent during the course of the book. They support one another, play off against one another. Their children marry one another. It's all just one big happy family. Or is it? Greetings! To the imaginary and the unimaginary! To the living, the dead and everyone in between, my name is Keys… Skeleton Keys. And these fantabulant fingers of mine can open doors to hidden worlds and secret places … doors to the limitless realm of all the imagination.”

If you like psychological thrillers, suspense and can afford to be completely engrossed in a story until the end….this one is for you. But now the Churchers must be reunited. The book is being reissued along with a new treasure hunt and a documentary crew are charting everything that follows. Nell is appalled, and terrified. During the filming, Frank finally reveals the whereabouts of the missing golden bone. And then all hell breaks loose.On top of this, the writing also felt pretty bland. You could argue that the book is for middle grade in addition to young adult, but this doesn't mean the writing has to be "dumbed down." This didn't bother me for all of the book, but it was pretty noticeable in some places. Erin Kelly is an author who always keeps you guessing. No novel of hers is anything like any other novel of hers, so you never quite know what you’re going to get. This is why I have a rather complicated relationship with her work, I think. I will adore one book, and feel rather meh about another one. ‘The Skeleton Key‘ lands somewhere in between the two for me.

Overall, The Skeleton Key is another sophisticated, vivid, creepy tale by Kelly that does a fantastic job of delving into all the complex, dysfunctional dynamics that can occur between family members and reminds us just how toxic and evil, and yet somehow still loyal some of these relationships can truly be.

Some scenes are lively and a bit mad but in the best possible way and I really enjoy their colourful nature. There are some good jaw descending with a thunk moments especially as you come to appreciate how Nell’s life has been tainted. I come to really like and admire her especially her frequent wry tone but most especially her love and loyalty to her ‘stepdaughter’ Billie who is a shining light among characters with somewhat dubious morals. The illustrations are glorious: the perfect balance of cute and creepy. There are snippets of them throughout the story too, making it feel an extra-special and spooky tale. The Skeleton Key has a unique plot, keeping aside the central theme of dysfunctional families, the story has an author whose picture book The Golden Bones has clues for a real treasure hunt and the frenzy the release of the book creates for him and his family. Being named after the central character in a fictional book written by your father has not given Eleanor Churcher an easy life. Stalked, stabbed and threatened by the crazy treasure hunters called Bonehunters, Nell stays away from her family as much as possible to escape the madness that has the bone hunters making her life a miserable hell. The story is told in Eleanor’s point of view who is the daughter of Fank Churcher, and she is also a victim of an obsessive fan and lives as a recluse because of what happened to her. The story continues with the treasure hunt of the bones and the jewels that are linked with them. The story also tells of the problems the family face due to the popularity of the book. While managing to foil the Chinese Triad gang Big Circle's attempt at match-fixing, Alex is targeted by the triad gang.