Lock and Key (2008) (edit title/settings)

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Characters/People edit see section history

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• Ruby Cooper: Protagonist of the story. A seventeen-year-old who has grown up on tough times with her semi-neglectful mother. Is ready to be a legal adult and be as independent as possible. She has inherited many physical features from her mother, both described to have pale skin, red hair, and a tall wiry frame.
• Cora Cooper-Hunter: Ruby's older sister Cora, who left the family to go to college to start a new life. She doesn't look anything like Ruby and her mom.
• Nate Cross: Jamie and Cora's neighbor's son. Employee in his dad's small business, and an avid swimmer. A social butterfly, who believes that you should always think positive. Nate is described as having blonde hair, and being "cute, but in a rich-boy kind of way". Nate is hiding a huge secert during the time that him and Ruby meet, and when Ruby finds out, she isn't very happy.
• Jamie Hunter: Cora's easygoing, amicable husband. He came from a large family and loves to celebrate festivities. He is the founder of the most popular social networking website UMe. He has a warm heart and is very welcoming to Ruby when she first moves in. He is determined to give Ruby the family experience she never had.
• Olivia Davis: Ruby's new friend, She also attended Ruby's old school. She is constantly on her cell phone, and seems to know Ruby's troubles well, given their somewhat similar background. She is somehow related to Don Davis, from This Lullaby.
• Gervais Miller: Carpools with Nate and Ruby. Extremely smart for his age, and extremely annoying.
• Blake Cross: Nate's father who founded a service to run errands for people. He owns the house behind Cora and Jamie's.
• Marshall: Ruby's drug-loving ex-boyfriend.
• Peyton: Ruby's best-friend before she transfered to a different school.
• Rogerson Biscoe: Marshall's best friend. (Also a character from Sarah Dessen's other work Dreamland)
• Laney: Olivia's cousin who, throughout the novel, trains and takes part in the 5K race.
• Ruby: Ruby is an independent teenager that has had a hard life and has now moved in with her sister.
• Reggie: Owns a vitamin kiosk near Harriet's. He and Harriet constantly bicker and tease each other, but it's obvious that he is interested in her.
• Heather Wainwright: Nate's ex-girlfriend. Works at the pet store, and is very popular at school.
• Roscoe: Cora and Jamie's puppy, that needs to learn how to use a dog door, and loves Ruby. he is a pug

Quotes edit see section history

• “But I was sure of something, too: it's a lot easier to be lost than found. It's the reason we're always searching, and rarely discovered --so many locks, not enough keys.”

  Ruby

• “Everyone has their weak spot. The one thing that, despite your best efforts, will always bring you to your knees, regardless of how strong you are otherwise. For some people, it's love. Others, money or alcohol. Mine was even worse: calculus.”

  Ruby

• “I just don't know, I said, my voice sounding bumpy, not like mine, "how you help someone who doesn't want your help. What do you do when you can't do anything?”

  Ruby to Cora

• “Well, you can expect your hand to fall off, if you want," he said. "But personally, I just can't subscribe to that way of thinking.”

  Nate

• “Needing was so easy: it came naturally, like breathing. Being needed by someone else, though, that was the hard part. But as with giving help and accepting it, we had to do both to be made complete—like links overlapping to form a chain, or a lock finding the right key.”

  Ruby

• “My point is, there are a lot of people in the world. No one ever sees everything the same way you do; it just doesn’t happen. So when you find one person who gets a couple of things, especially if they’re important ones... you might as well hold onto them. You know?”

  Olivia

• “You get what you give, but also what you are willing to receive.”

  Ruby Cooper

• “But sometimes, we just have to be happy with what people can offer us. Even if it's not what we want, at least it's something.”

  Reggie

• “But now, I was beginning to wonder if you didn't always have to choose between turning away for good or rushing in deeper. In the moments that it really counts, maybe it's enough - more than enough, even - just to be there.”

  Ruby Cooper

• “We all have one idea of what the color blue is, but pressed to describe it specifically, there are so many ways: the ocean, lapis lazuli, the sky, someone's eyes. Our definitions were as different as we were ourselves.”

  Ruby Cooper

• Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers

• it’s a lot easier to be lost than found. It’s the reason we’re always searching, and rarely discovered—so many locks, not enough keys.

  Highlighted by 198 Kindle customers

• It’s never something huge that changes everything, but instead the tiniest of details, irrevocably tweaking the balance of the universe while you’re busy focusing on the big picture.

  Highlighted by 197 Kindle customers

• What is family? They were the people who claimed you. In good, in bad, in parts or in whole, they were the ones who showed up, who stayed in there, regardless. It wasn’t just about blood relations or shared chromosomes, but something wider, bigger. Cora was right—we had many families over time. Our family of origin, the family we created, as well as the groups you moved through while all of this was happening: friends, lovers, sometimes even strangers.

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• Family isn’t something that’s supposed to be static or set. People marry in, divorce out. They’re born, they die. It’s always evolving, turning into something else.

  Highlighted by 147 Kindle customers

• In the end, though, maybe it’s not how you reach a place that matters. Just that you get there at all.

  Highlighted by 144 Kindle customers

• “But sometimes, we just have to be happy with what people can offer us. Even if it’s not what we want, at least it’s something.

  Highlighted by 144 Kindle customers

• That was the thing about being alone, in theory or in principle. Whatever happened—good, bad, or anywhere in between—it was always, if nothing else, all your own.

  Highlighted by 139 Kindle customers

• Needing was so easy: it came naturally, like breathing. Being needed by someone else, though, that was the hard part. But as with giving help and accepting it, we had to do both to be made complete—like links overlapping to form a chain, or a lock finding the right key.

  Highlighted by 135 Kindle customers

• I thought again of how we can’t expect everybody to be there for us, all at once. So it’s a lucky thing that really, all you need is someone.

  Highlighted by 113 Kindle customers

• A lot can change between planning something and actually doing it. But maybe all that really matters is that anything is different at all.

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Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Poplar House
• Arizona
• Wildflower Ridge

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Series & Lists edit see section history

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Sarah Dessen (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Awards edit see section history

• New York Times Bestseller (October 2010: Young Adult, #1)
• New York Times Best-Selling Author (2010: Young Adult)

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
• Dewey: FIC DES

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Not meant for kids.

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Teens › Social Issues › Being a Teen
• Books › Teens › Authors, A-Z › ( D ) › Dessen, Sarah

More Books Like This edit see section history