Book reviewed by Chris J Kenworthy, for Armadillo magazine.
Kristin Cast’s ‘The Key To Fear’ is a shockingly relevant story to our 2020 pandemic lives, and foreshadows a dystopian nightmare about keeping your distance.
In a world which lives by the phrase ‘no touching today for a healthier tomorrow,’ it’s an instalove story told through the points of view of its protagonists, who want to get closer to each other despite the rules of their society.
The story is an eerie glance into a possible, post-pandemic future in which people live in fear of a new outbreak many years after a virus killed most of the world’s population. People don’t touch each other, or kiss, or make any sort of intimate contact, and rely on science to create new life. It’s a science fiction story that, in today’s reality, could easily be science fact.
The government – “The Key” – makes life choices for you, including future spouses, in a society that’s become too reliant on science and too afraid to make its own choices.
Elodie, the main protagonist, is a nurse who has trusted in the system, until now. She has a toxic relationship with her misogynistic husband, and her abusive mother, which persuade Elodie to break free from the locked-down realities of her society.
Aiden is a rebel with whom she falls in love. Whilst he tests the limits of their society, cleverly he never breaks the rules. When Elodie and Aiden initially meet, he senses her true rebellious nature, and together their rebellion is their secret.
But in this locked-down society, no act can be a secret forever, and soon their rebellion will have drastic consequences on their lives. The reader gets to experience this through the different perspectives its main protagonists.
Whilst its subject content may not be to everyone’s tastes, ‘The Key To Fear’ is an incredibly topical story with a desolate environment that differs to that of a post-apocalyptic science fiction world, but with a forceful reality that reflects our own current fears.
Stowmarket Reporter 