Locke & Key Vol 4 by Joe Hill

Vol 4, Keys to the Kingdom, illustrated by Gabríel Rodriguez

​Thanks to this volume, now there are even MORE keys that do amazing things. There's the Animal Key, which lets you turn into your inner animal as you walk through the door.  Bode's inner animal, as it turns out, is a small bird. In bird form, he helps save his siblings from an attack from another human-turned animal. Zack/Dodge is becoming increasingly more aggressive in trying to get the key to the Black Door, and Tyler becomes suspicious of his friend.  Nina starts to get her act back together with Tyler’s help.  The action of this volume is concluded with a shocking twist. 

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This volume also has a little different narration style at the beginning. There is an ode to Bill Watterson and Calvin and Hobbs when Bode is narrating. In the middle, we switch to a  a narration by calendar date that shows a progression of time and storyline, mostly presented with very little dialogue and more expressive action scenes.  This volume has so many layers that it has a lot of re-readability.  The ending is an intense cliff hanger, but the wrap-up of a few storylines in this volume is ushering us on to the finale of this wonderful series. 

This title is for older teen audiences and above.  There is liberal use of the "f' word, violence with some blood shed, and the mention of pot smoking.  

Sara's Rating: 9/10
Suitability Level: 11-12

Reviews of previous volumes in this series: vol 1, vol 2, vol 3

Publisher: IDW
Publication Date: February 1, 2013
ISBN: 9781600108860​ (Paperback)

Tags: Rating: 9/10, Suitability: High School, Comicbooks, Horror, Magic, ​IDW