Locke & Key, Vol. 2: Head Games

This second installment was awesome! It was creepy, weird and I loved it. You will never guess where the other key goes!

I loved the graphics and the continuing storyline. I look forward to the next book in the wonderful world of Joe Hill!

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Wow, I mean, just wow! With a series, I always get nervous that the second book is going to be a disappointment, especially after I gobbled up the first book in no time. That was not the case with this novel.

Head Games follows right after the events of Welcome to Lovecraft. Dodge is on the loose wreaking havoc, while the Locke family investigates the magic keys in possession and their own personal mysteries of the past and present.

Everything I loved about the first graphic novel was present in this one too, and I was overjoyed.

The art is stunning, gritty, and a bit grotesque at times, but rendered expertly. I'm still in awe of how well produced the artwork was.

All of the characters were entertaining, had depth, and kept my attention the whole time. Dodge continues to be a great villain and went a step further in this one. It was so easy to badmouth him every time he showed up on the page. I mean seriously, go back to the well where you belong!

With the multiple perspectives, I especially liked that not all of them were from the Locke family. At the same time, I did feel from time to time that some of the perspective switches were a little fast for my liking.

The plot was great, and this volume had something of a psychological thriller vibe to it that surprised me in a good way. 

Magic key madness continues in this novel, and I was living for it every step of the way.

I can't wait to see what happens next!

Any time you read a graphic novel, you can't escape the importance of the art. In the best entries, the art and the story intertwine beautifully, each supporting the other and making something more than the sum of their parts. Such is the case in Head Games, which finds the Locke children discovering a new key that leads to the ability to get into each other's heads...quite literally. Artist Gabriel Rodriguez did fine work in Welcome to Lovecraft, but he brings a whole new level out here in his minds apes, which are so packed with detail and nuance that I feel you could spend hours just unpacking everything on display. And the fact that it all supports Joe Hill's ever-complicating story only makes it all the more effective, as the Locke kids start to realize that there's more to their family estate than they ever realized. Meanwhile, we start to dive more into their ever-changing nemesis, who's currently masterminding a hostage situation of his own, and whose past starts to give us hints that we're coming in much later into this story than we ever realized. (Just how late is hinted at in a postscript concerning the keys, where we learn a possible time frame for their creation that's not at all what I expected.) If Welcome to Lovecraft was set up, Head Games delivers on that and then some, complicating the story while also diving more deeply into the characters, their pasts, and - quite literally - their minds. And as Act One of the story concludes, Hill and Rodriguez have me eager to learn more about these keys, the crimes that have been committed, and to see what happens next.

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After the harrowing events of the previous volume the Locke family is settling in to the Massachusetts town of Lovecraft. Unfortunately, they've inadvertently released an old foe of their dad from the creepy well on their family property Keyhouse. Lucas Caravaggio was a fellow student with Mr. Locke and in this issue we find out a bit (but not a lot) of his back story. Lucas is still young, the same age as the eldest Locke kid. He befriends them through their high school. Lucas goes by the name Dodge, though not everyone is fooled by this. Dodge is after more secrets from the house, especially the keys he was looking for in the last volume. The revelations are interesting and they start to build tension.

What builds even more tension is the discovery of another key. The Head Key enables a person to literally unlock someone's head (their own or someone else's). Looking inside shows all sorts of memories and imagination filtered memories. Things can be put in, like when older son Tyler literally crams a school book in his own head and then doesn't have to read it. Or things can be taken out, like memories and inhibitions. When Dodge gets a hold of the key, how much damage will he do?

The book provides a good mixture of mystery and horror. The mystery is a bit like the TV series Lost--while some questions are answered, others are asked, often deepening the reader's understanding of the history and mythology of the story. And leaving them wanting more.

This book is definitely for mature readers--in addition to the violence and the swearing, there's a little bit of sexual suggestion. One of the characters is gay and he is stalked by some redneck anti-gay ladies who are very one-dimensional and seem to serve only one purpose in the plot, aside from giving the book some "politically correct" credentials. Every time they popped up, I was hoping something more interesting would happen with them. Too bad it never did because it is the one flaw in an otherwise great read.

My exposure to Joe Hill has been limited. It wasn't until a few months ago I found this author, and then found out that he is the son of Stephen King. I have read two of Hill's novels and, I try not to, but I keep comparing him to his father. Hill has yet to impress me, but when a friend reviewed Locke and Key, Vol. 1: Welcome to Lovecraft, I figured this is a different media and I might finally be able to see Hill for who he is. I'm glad I picked up this series because Hill is defiantly growing on me.

To be honest, I think I enjoyed this volume just as much, if not a little more than the first. In the first vol it is very creepy, which I loved, but since you are getting to know the characters there is a lot of back story that is interwoven throughout. It kind of jumps back and forth between past and present. This book jumps right into the story and picks up where the previous left off. There are a few times when we get some back story but not nearly as much. The other nice thing is that the main characters are already developed so we get to see more of what is going on now.

I will admit that at first, I thought the Key highlighted in this book was kind of boring, but the further I got into the story the more potential I saw. This key allows you to open your mind, literally, and add or remove what ever you want. I started to think, this could be amazing, the skills I could learn in seconds. The books I could devour just by putting the book in my head. Creepy idea but at the same time I saw so many possibilities. Hill toys with the idea of removing things from ones mind like fear, sadness, and memories. I guess I would be different than most in this respect. I would never want to take anything out of my head. Some memories are painful, and fear and sadness is something I am not a fan of at all. But the more I think about this the more I feel that those things are what make me who I am. So even if I had the opportunity to remove these things, I don't think I would.

For fans of the macabre, and graphic novels I would highly recommend this. If you are not really a fan of comics, the story is good and the art work isn't bad either.

I love the fact that Joe Hill worked in the song Head Games, by Foreigner. in to the book, and not in a cringe inducing rolling your eyes type way.

This book picks up right where the last one left out with Bode finding the head key, this key doesn't open a door like all the others so far, but it opens a persons mind, You can insert a book and gain all it's knowledge or you can take out a living memory. One That you have to put in a jar or it will walk in to your brain through the ear or hurt you other ways.

The Nick/Zack or Dodge character gets revealed a little bit more, We get to know the reason Ellen owes him and lets him stay with her, which I thought was the bet part of the book. We Still don't know what he or she is, or what they're after other than the Omega key, but we still don't find out what it does.

We find that Kinsey has a crush on Dodge, Tyler gets a crush on girl at school, Bode is still Bode, I think Joe Hill must really be a kid at heart because Bode stays pitch perfect, and is still my favorite character.

The Body count for this one is pretty low, but when they happen, their fast and gory. We get to meet two new characters duncan's boyfriend Brian, who gets him and Duncan in some trouble. And Ellen's Son Rufus, who's mentally challenged and always talks like he's a soldier, I think he will me more important as the story moves along.

I Thought that this ending was pretty powerful definitely has a WTF moment at the end, This book did not let me down I'm on to book 3