As soon as I saw the author's name I had to request this book. Kristen Cast co-authored one of my favourite YA series, The House of Night books. Plus it's a YA dystopian so it sounded like something I'd love. The Key To Fear is set in a dystopian future where a virus pandemic wiped out most of the human population and so an organisation called The Key took control of society in order to put protective measures in place. Unfortunately now with the use of technology The Key controls everything and can monitor what everyone is doing all the time. They even allocate the job you will do based on your skills. The main rule The Key insist people live by is...... No touching today for a healthy tomorrow! That's right folks, people can't touch anyone else at all! Not even people in relationships or family members. Elodie does everything right, obeys all the rules and has her career plan sorted. However, all that changes when she meets Aidan. Aidan is the complete opposite of Elodie and is a proud rebel. All he dreams of is being free to live his life how he wants to live it, free from being controlled by The Key. Their lives collide in the middle of chaos when Elodie unexpectedly learns some not so great secrets about those that control society and the resistance movement that's building in the shadows.
Elodie was a believable geek turned rebel protagonist and whilst she's no Katniss, she is still someone readers can get behind. This book is your typical YA chosen one story with a fairly straightforward plot that's at times predictable but that was exactly what I expected and wanted from it. I'm a sucker for a chosen one and not having to use tons of brain power trying to remember complex worlds or a huge cast of characters. I absolutely loved The Key to Fear and can't wait until the sequel is out.

I wanted to love this story as the blurb sound promising but, even if it's well written, it didn't keep my attention.
Not my cup of tea.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Unfortunately this book ultimately fell flat for me. Our main character is a wet blanket, a total naive pushover with few redeeming qualities that readers would normally require to root for her. It takes her the entire book to find some gumption and finally start questioning the secretive regime that rules her world. 
I was also not a fan of the Insta-love relationship.
The world-building, while fascinating, was patchy and one can only assume the author will continue to paint the dystopian landscape in more detail in the following book, as this will clearly be a series. 
I did however like the “baddie”, finding her scenes and story a lot more interesting than the heroine’s.

Sadly this book really wasn’t for me. I found I lacked any real empathy for the characters, just didn’t find them likeable at all. The story felt mis-paced , there didn’t seem to be any depth at all to me.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

It is probably the best time ever to read this book.
The Cerberus pandemic that shattered the world in The Key to Fear and the consequent 'No-touching-today-for-a-healthy-tomorrow' policy eerily reminded me of what we are currently facing due to Covid-19 pandemic.
This parallelism and the perfect timing of its release could have been a winning point for this dystopian novel. Making the reader connect in a deeper way to the main characters, feeding on our anxieties and fears.

Sadly, it was not enough, at least for me. The storyline and the world-building, albeit interesting, lack of depth. The main characters were too bland, unidimensional, and I found it hard to connect with them.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher, Head of Zeus, for my review copy.

I was first drawn to this book because of this cover, plot and having read the House of Night series she co-wrote. It really sounded like my cup of tea. 

The Key to Fear is presented as a dystopian novel set in a world where touching is forbidden, books are banned and the power is in the hands of The Key, who are the ones in charge (consider the capitol in the Hunger Games)

Given the time we are living in, it made me really curious to see how this story panned out and the advanced technology around to help protect people from spreading the virus. This premise sounded extremely interesting to me also because I used to read a lot of YA dystopian novels so thought there might be another craze for them coming back. 

I think this book was not bad per se, but it was not the right one for me. I didn't feel as much attachment to any of the characters and felt that a lot of details were missed out as I wanted to know more about the virus and more of a backstory, however if this is a series I get that books down the line may offer more explanation. I think younger readers would like the romance side to this book but it just wasn't for me.

No touching. That's the rule in the new world, where The Key is the ultimate authority. After a pandemic destroyed the world as we know it, The Key rose to power in order to protect. But Eloide and Aiden are about to discover that looks can be deceiving, and The Key might not be aiming to save then all. 

YA dystopian had its hay day over ten years ago now, and believe me when I say I read a lot of dystopian coming of age novels around that time. Because of that, I'm not sure that The Key to Fear really brings anything new to the table. It reads like a lot of the same old stories, with no injection of anything new or exciting. Instead it falls back on expected tropes and tired protagonists. There are love triangles, naive protagonists who 'break the mold' and instalove. All on top of this futuristic dystopian world that seems perfect on the surface, but we all know isn't. It's just all very predictable and dull. 

The world building itself also isn't that great. I could get on board with a typical dystopian world if it was explored and described properly, but I found I just had more questions than answers about how and why the world ended up this way. There are lots of dumps of information for the reader to take in too, which I found overwhelming and clunky in the text. Elodie also has passages included from her 'secrer book' which I disliked immensely. They were poorly written, added nothing to the plot and actually took me out of the story. 

Unfortunately this didn't stand up for me in the vast sea of dystopian YA that's already out there.

I received a digital review copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This is a dystopian novel, set in a world where touching has been outlawed by the governing group, The Key. Elodie has lived her whole life trusting and following The Key. Aiden is a rebel, he just wants to be free but he’s on his last chance. The Key makes the rules after taking power following a deadly pandemic, they govern to keep people safe. But Elodie and Aiden discover that there is another side to The Key, and not all is as it seems.

This book was okay. I haven’t read a dystopia in a long time and thought I’d give this one a try as they used to be a favourite genre when I was a teenager. It has a fairly typical YA dystopia storyline: a government that seems nice but is actually evil, the protagonist finds this out and then rebels.

I wanted to like this book, I really did. But the storyline and the world-building was fairly bland. I had a general disinterest in the main characters, and so I found it hard to connect with the story.

Personally, I think that the last few chapters seemed very rushed in their plot. The events felt very unprecedented as the rest of the story had quite a slow pacing. They were unprecedented, yet entirely predictable because of how the story followed the ya dystopia tropes. Yet the use of so many of these tropes meant that the story didn’t quite fit together in the right way.

Overall, I think that this can be regarded as a fairly typical dystopia but it was an easy read. Fans of books like the Matched trilogy would probably enjoy this.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher, Head of Zeus, for my review copy.

Wasn’t for me, sadly it gave me pandemic anxiety. I thought I’d be ok with that but really wasn’t. Overall the writing style seemed ok but I was unable to finish it because of the anxiety.

After a slow start the last part of the book, when the action finally started, flew by. The premise of this book was good, living in a post-pandemic world where everyone is expected to tow the line as per the government rules, we find our central characters starting to question this way of living.
However, there were some strange parts to the book, namely the book within the book which I didn't feel really served any purpose & I didn't enjoy.

I felt this was missing something, rather than spending time describing the ELU & Aiden & Elodie's work they could have done flashbacks to the virus to give us some idea as to why everyone was so dependant on The Key. It also didn't really explore Aubrey, patient 92, & what the story there was. As well as having a few characters that were really surplus to the story & detracted from it. I don't know if this was a set up for further books or just unexplored threads?

The Key to Fear
Author: Kristen Cast
Genre: YA Sci-Fi
Rating: ⭐️   / 5
Reviewed: Maya

[Trigger Warning: fatphobia, fat shaming, pandemic, death of a parent, emotional abuse, suicide, human experimentation]

- PLEASE BE AWARE THAT I DID NOT FINISH THIS BOOK - 
I only got through 7% of this book but I knew that I would be unable to handle the information dumps because they kept coming. The writing style was okay - nothing extraordinarily and needing some work, so it was unable to pull me into the novel. The characters were bland and I didn’t feel that I would be connecting with either of them as the book progressed, which always ruins the book even if there is amazing writing or plots (which this book did not have). Elodie’s secret book passages were confusing and very poorly written; I can’t see how they have any relation to the plot of the book. I could have probably pushed through and finished this book but after reading other reviews and glares from my extensive TBR, I’m going to accept that this book is not for me. 

Huge thanks to Netgalley, Head of Zeus and of course Kristen Cast for providing me with a free e-ARC in exchange for my honest review. The publishing date was set for the 5th of November, 2020.

The Key to Fear is an incredibly engaging book, the writing style had me hooked from the first page and before I knew it I had devoured 50 pages just like that! It’s thought provoking to read this sort of book now when there are parallels with what is happening in my everyday life. Most books allow you to escape and this did that.. but at the same time how could I not draw comparisons with the post pandemic world and The Key with COVID and the current rules and restrictions we have now. The no touching one and giving people space are just examples. The world building, medical and technological advances were also so interesting and it makes you think when we’d start making advances like that, and I could have spent hours reading and thinking about that alone. Although could we have those without The Key? I don’t know how I’d feeI if the government became more like them...eek right? Finally before I go as I am trying not  to give much away at all because I feel like everyone should give this book a try but damn it’s hard haha. I just want to take a minute to talk about Elodie and Aidan. I love these characters, even when I first met them I found myself connecting with them Elodie it was the books and the door (been there done that ouch!)  🙈 whereas Aidan it was that rebellious streak and some of his internal thoughts, just the way the thinks things! Yeah.... but I’ll leave it there for now. Who knows maybe I’ll cave and write a blog post about everything at some point as I might not be able to hold it all in! But for now it’s goodbye from me and this beautiful book.

One thing I think you need to do if you’re going to write a book set in an alternate world is offer some attempt to build it up and help us to understand how this came into being. Sadly, this was lacking. In spite of numerous references to the Key and how it controls the lives of its citizens, and mention of some kind of virus that has affected people beyond ways they might imagine, there was little to explain this world.
Our two main characters are Elodie and Aiden. They have a brief run-in and before you now it are falling in love and renouncing everything they believe in to be together. I know sometimes you can’t explain how you feel, but an attempt to rationalise it would be welcome.
There’s some focus on their families and how this impacts on other choices, but not enough to really make me care too much. The signs pointing to the big twist were pretty obvious.
Thanks to NetGalley for granting me access to this before publication. It sounded as if it would be better than it was. For me, Aiden and Elodie shall stay in Area Seven and I will remain none the wiser of the fate that befalls them.

Okay look this book isn’t going to set the world on fire, it’s not going to bring about a resurgence of YA dystopia BUT it is a good addition to the genre. 

Books like The Key to Fear, Eve of Man, etc follow the same basic tenets-young “instant” love, a bad guy (usually the government), rebels, and jeopardy. But they do it because it works. 
I enjoyed The Key to Fear because it’s easy to read, it doesn’t drag, and the ending comes with such a punch that you’re almost disappointed to see the acknowledgments instead of another chapter. 

I’ll definitely be adding book 2 to my list when it comes out.

The ARC of this book was provided by the publisher Head of Zeus via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

2.25 stars

At first I was so drawn to this book because of this cover and its plot. It really sounded like my cup of tea. The Key to Fear is presented as a dystopian novel set in a world where touching is forbidden, books are banned and the power is in the hands of The Key, who are playing God instead of truly protecting the people.
We find ourselves in a future where touching is no longer allowed because of a pandemic that wiped away most od the population. Given the time we are living in, this gave me goosebumps but I was very curious to find out more about this story and futuristic setting.
This premise sounded extremely interesting to me also because I'm a sucker for dystopian novels and it reminded me of The Handmaid's Tale, Divergent, Hunger Games and Maze Runner.
I think this book was not bad per se, but it was not the right one for me. Even though the plot here created was interesting, I think it was too similar to other things I already read and I couldn't find something really innovative.As for the character, I wasn't the biggest fan of the protagonist, but I really liked Aiden. However, I guess a younger target might be able to appreciate it a lot.

Hello and welcome to the review of the worst book I have read this 2020. Now you probably know how much I love YA, I read so many in the early 2000s, both great and utterly terrible, and this book is even worse. This story is completely senseless, an insta-love romance using borrowed tropes from other Dystopia novels with seemingly no new ideas of it's own, before delivering a truly mediocre ending that I easily predicted.

Elodie and Aiden are out main characters, plus Blair, who I'll talk about later. Elodie is the stand out main character, a very bland YA protagonist nurse, who doesn't seem to have many duties than sit and watch patients. She has an abusive mother, but the story never goes into depth about this. Aiden, the second, confusingly lacks chapters, getting very few compared to Elodie and Blair. Major events happen in his life off-page, on page seems to be dedicated to his thoughts about Elodie.

The world itself... everything about this book is bland and this is no exception. It's a futuristic city with amazing technology that can keep it's world uncontaminated. There are holograms for every citizen, keeping a watchful eye and barring access to places citizens don't have access to. How was this amazing tech developed in 50 years? This is never explained. Meanwhile other things, like fashion, language and events stay pretty much exactly the same.

Blair is the other POV, and mind-numbingly boring. She's older than Elodie and Aiden, with an office job, and aspirations to rule the city I guess. Her whole chapters are just her being shallow and scheming poorly. While these characters have these assigned jobs, one stated to have been working since 13, the actual education system is never explained, and young children (aside from one who is unconscious) never make an appearance.

The resistance is a big part of a Dystopia, and we get to see Elodie as she doesn't join the Resistance because she never fully meets them, gasp as she breaks the mold and climbs a tree one time and be in a state of shock and wonder as she... eats corn. Katniss would bow to Elodie's fearlessness, it's just incredible. Aside from this, I can't actually say much of anything about Eos, because I didn't find out anything.

Other gripes I had was Elodie's secret book, which we get sections of is so poorly written and annoying, I skim read that. There's a lot of chapters and they're all in roman numerals, so after a certain point I have no idea which chapter I was on. Blair spends most of the book trying to get her brother a job for some reason. Aiden's home life does not exist, we never see it. The VR games are never explained. I could go on! I won't be picking up the sequel.

I LOVED this book! It was so unique and yet so hauntingly fitting for the current world situation. A world where touching is forbidden, books are banned and the Key governs the people with tight rules, err yes please! We are given a story filled with drama, mystery, adventure and romance and @kcastauthor does not disappoint.

The characters were well written and fleshed out. I loved Elodie and Aiden so much! Elodie trusts the Key completely and yet when she meets Aiden everything takes a turn and the world isn’t quite what Elodie thought she knew. The mystery and intrigue they find themselves on are action packed and their dynamics with the other characters gives the story that extra depth. 

The secondary characters build the tension and add extra levels, however I felt some of their storylines were a bit choppy. That said the world building is so unique and the intrigue is high! A world were there are monsters and contagion beyond where the government permits you to go. A world where you can’t touch. I cannot wait to read book two and see where these characters go!

Remember when YA dystopian was a massive craze? I've got to admit I fell straight into that trend. I loved reading about all the weird dystopian worlds, what kind of rules they'd have in place, and how people were treated. Sure, there usually wasn't a lot of depth, but they were fun! Sometimes we need fun. The Key to Fear makes me think, maybe YA dystopian still has a bit more life to it. Maybe it's time for a comeback.

The Key is the corporation that governs after a pandemic nearly wiped out the human race. It creates the rules. It keeps people safe. Elodie obeys the rules, at least, she used to. When she meets Aidan things begin to change, he's different, and she likes it. She's drawn deeper into the world of resistance, but there are consequences to every action.

What I look for in a good dystopian book is compelling worldbuilding, and this book pulled through! It's set fifty years after 75% of the population are wiped out by disease. The Key takes responsibility for saving the remaining people and keeping them safe in the present. That consists of creating a world with strict rules; no touching, ever. You've got bubbles that people walk around in to keep safe, soldiers burn the environment outside of the city to stop pathogens mutating in the wildlife, jobs are chosen based on aptitude, and harsh punishments face those who want to resist. Of course, the resistance is building, said to attack people with biological weapons their motivations are mysterious.

To introduce us to this world, the beginning of the book is a slow-paced build-up. That's not something I mind at all; I love immersing myself in a world before everything falls apart.

The Key to Fear is a fun, easy read, but it doesn't add much new to the dystopian genre. It's been a long time since I read anything like this book, so I was excited regardless, but if you don't like the genre this book won't convince you otherwise. It seems to be following the arch of the first book being heavily romance based until found to be breaking the rules and then things change. Some of the rules don't make too much sense to me other than being typical to the genre. Why are their jobs chosen? Why are there arranged marriages? Why are books banned? I'm sure the author could give answers to these questions, but they don't seem to fit with a post-pandemic world.

That being said, I did enjoy the romance. It has instalove elements, but it takes a long time for them to come together, so the dynamic worked well. They had a lot of chemistry, and I enjoyed reading about the couple. The people that surround Elodie don't treat her very well, namely her mother and her boyfriend. It was great to watch how her relationship with Aiden taught her that she wasn't wrong for wanting more.

This is very much a romance-forward book. It seems to be setting the stage for a larger overarching plot in later instalments, but The Key to Fear is highly character-driven. I loved seeing the hints at something more malevolent occurring in the background, and I can't wait to see what happens later in the series.

Overall, The Key to Fear was a fun read that I tore through, excitedly learning about the world and watching the characters grow. It isn't without faults, but it's very typical of the genre. If you were someone who liked YA dystopia you'd definitely enjoy this.

The Key to Fear is the first Kristin Cast book that I have read, and my first dystopian novel in a long time. I am not sure what I was expecting heading into this, but the plot didn't surprise me that much, as it seemed the same as every other dystopian that I have read. One thing that I did find unique about the plot and setting was that it was set post-pandemic rather than post-war/post-natural disaster. And a post-pandemic book seems very apt at this moment. 

The Key to Fear switches between three different PoV's which made it initially hard to get attached towards any of the characters, but as the plot was developing, it was easier to connect to them. While I could see the point of both Elodie's and Aiden's PoV, Blair's felt a little unnecessary for this book, but I have a feeling she will become much more key later in the series, so it was good to understand her motivations before that plotline develops. In The Key to Fear there is a developing romantic relationship between Aiden and Elodie, but to me it felt like insta-love, which is not something that I like from my romances. Because as soon as they meet Elodie is in love with Aiden and he is all she can think about. But I can see the possible development of a more realistic romantic relationship in future books.  
 
I did find part of the book hard to read, as Elodie's relationship with both her mother and her matched fiance are very toxic. Within the first chapter of the book, her mother is fat-shaming her, so please do be aware if that is a trigger for you. Later in the book, her mother is also verbally abusive towards her, just because she is not the perfect clone of herself like she wanted. Rhett, her fiance, is very misogynistic, blaming her emotions and not wanting to shoot a gun on her being a woman. I found this hard to read and a little bit unnecessary for the plot as it didn't add anything to it, so it didn't need to be there. 

One issue that I did have with The Key to Fear was that there was a lot of missing information and context. As events would be mentioned in early chapters, and I thought everything was going to circle back round to them, yet they were never mentioned again. This left me with questions, which I probably will have forgotten by the time the second book in the series is released. I would have also loved to have got an explanation as to how the Key came about, and what actually happened during the pandemic as it is never addressed. This made it feel like necessary context was missing, making the book very confusing at certain points.  

Overall, The Key to Fear was a solid start to a new dystopian series. I definitely feel that there is room for improvement within the plot and the relationships, but I have high hopes for the series. I will probably pick up the sequel when it is released.

It really is quite bizarre reading a story like this which centres around a virus that decimated the population when we are in the situation we are in now!

Alas though, this story differs quite a bit from our own. 

Admittedly I did struggle initially with the characters and who’s who as it all seemed to blur into one. I would have perhaps liked more context to Cerberus and The Key but I imagine there’s room for this in book 2. 

Elodie is a sweet young girl who you can tell by her reading of banned novels is yearning for a life outside of her own and one that is more exciting. Her betrothed, Rhett is vile. His attitude to Elodie, treating her like a weak, soft girl I found hard to read. Same with Elodies mother, her behaviour is manipulative and they were hard to read. 

I did like Aiden, I suppose like Elodie, he too wanted to seek a life outside of the Key and found just that. 

There was a nod to what the so called ‘terror’ organisation Eos is doing but we never really delve past the surface there. 

Same with the doctor who was experimenting on children, it’s like a fleeting mention but nothing really sticks. 

I enjoyed reading this book but felt that it needs some development, it’s a little bit flat and it would be good to give some depth to the stories and the characters a little more. 

The ending leaves me hopeful for book two and hopefully the concerns I have will be alleviated there. 

An enjoyable dystopian futuristic story. Thank you to Netgalley and the Publishers for this copy to read and review.