Information
Goodreads: The Mystery of Locked Rooms
Series: None
Age Category: Middle Grade
Source: Library
Published: 2024
Summary
A medical issue means Sarah's dad can no longer work. And now Sarah and her family face a foreclosure. Sarah can think of only one way to earn enough money to stay in town and with her two best friends: break into an old fun house and find the treasure allegedly hidden there.
Review
The Mystery of Locked Rooms seems like a contemporary middle-grade story almost tailor made for me. Puzzles and escape rooms? Count me in! Unfortunately, however, while the story hits all the expected notes--stress from family situations, friendship struggles, and a protagonist determined to solve it all--something about the narrative style makes the book fall flat. The characters do not have a lot of emotional depth, the puzzles are solved too quickly, and the ending is too pat. I went in expecting to love The Mystery of Locked Rooms, but ultimately found myself wishing the book would end already.
Periodically I encounter a book like this one, where the elements do not seem to flow--and explaining why always proves elusive. It is as if the cook has all the ingredients to make a cake, but instead of presenting one with a delicious masterpiece, the cook shows off a half-baked product where one can still pick out all the individual parts. One sees, in a way, the pieces that the creator meant to use, and gets sidetracked by noting them. "Here we have the requisite family financial difficulties. That's needed to start the plot along and give the protagonist a reason to seek for the treasure." Or, "The three are best friends, so about now they are going to need to have that friendship tested for the sake of Drama." And, "Ah, yes, her father is sick. That is the emotional pull the readers will need to cheer for Sarah." These elements should work together to create a resonant story, but they do not.
Part of the failure for the story to work for me is no doubt due to the prose style, which stood out to me for its failure to stand out at all. The way the story is written, feels, well standard. I would expect any number of authors to write the sorts of things that are written in this book in the very way they are written. For example, here's a quote that the publishers pulled for the back of the book:
"It's [the hidden treasure] a hoax. It has to be. Still, if the treasure is real and it's money, it would change someone's life.
Scratch that. It would change my life."
Much like the plot elements, the prose itself is calculated to hit the right beats at the right time, but in an overly noticeable way. I can see it working. I can imagine the author thinking, "Short sentences for drama. Note the importance of the money for Sarah's family situation to get readers invested. Use a bit of colloquial language for voice. End with emotional appeal." Something about all of it feels like a writing exercise.
But even though the whole book feels well thought-out (and really, I can appreciate that at moments--such as the way the exposition takes only a few pages before readers jump into the story. It's a good strategy for tween readers), it still fails to have that special something that would make it connect with me. The characters feel one-dimensional (Sarah is the logical one who needs to learn to take risks, Hannah is the athletic one with doubts, and West is the smart one who is embarassed about being smart), so I did not really sympathize with them. The puzzles take only a few pages to solve, so I never felt any tension. And the ending is a little too pat even for a feel-good middle grade story. This just is not the book for me.
I can appreciate that tween readers might like this one more than I. It jumps quickly into the action and speeds along at a nice rate. It seems particularly suited to perhaps reluctant readers. For my part, however, I was a little disappointed at how generic the book feels at times, and I ended up not emotionally connecting with either the story or the characters.
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