***Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review***
A thrilling start to a series. I liked the main characters and was interested in the premise of the book.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for the ALC of this book.

Set in a post-pandemic world, no one is allowed to touch or kiss or do much without the consent of the Key organization. Their lives and monitored for their own protection and everything is done in the name of keeping the pandemic from coming back to claim the 10% of the population that didn't die the first time.

I felt like this book had an interesting concept but fell extremely flat. The characters were very Mary Sue boring and bland and the plot was predictable and a little cringy. I did like the audiobook narrator a lot.

I also felt that this book perpetuated fatphobia and sexism without really claiming these things as issues. That's a problem. Overall I was pretty disappointed with this.

CW: sexism, fatphobia, guns, war, human experimentation, death

This book hit way too close to our current situation to not creep me out. I love a good dystopian story. This was no different. The whole pandemic wiping out humanity and people having to distance and quarantine. "No touching today for a healthy tomorrow" Could it be any more relevant. Honestly There wasn't much about this book I didn't love. The rebels and the fight against a corrupt government. Elites vs the 99% style. Maybe dystopian novels aren't as hot as they used to be.. but I am still a sucker for them.

This is my first Kristin Cast book and I have to admit I was slightly disappointing. I found the narrative confusing with too many characters being introduced throughout the novel. I never really cared about Elodie or Aiden nor did I ever completely understand what caused the characters to live in this dystopian world. This is the first book in a series and I will most likely not keep reading.

For fifty years, the Key Corporation has defended humanity against a deadly virus that spreads through touch. This story is told through the eyes of three characters. Elodie is a nurse who believes in the key Corporation until something happens to make her question it. Aiden has always known that the Key Corporation had a more sinister purpose. While seeing the book through their eyes we also get to look at the Key from the inside. This is provided by Blair who is ambitious and a much darker character than Aiden and Elodie.

The book unfolds slowly, but the development makes for a solidly created world. I would recommend this book to people who enjoy YA dystopian novels. I personally listened to it as an audiobook. The narrator was enjoyable, but I think have each point of view read by a personal narrator would have enhanced the audiobook.

I was provided an a copy of this book by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I was not a fan of this title. Although the subject matter was very timely and the concept behind the story was very thought provoking, it just didn’t pan out for me. The characters were pretty flat and I couldn’t get myself behind them. The world was quite detailed and had a lot of history behind it, but it still did not make me believe. If there is no touching and marriages are arranged, why have them in the first place? That is one of many questions I had about this world. I did find myself scanning a lot throughout the book as I just couldn’t get pulled into it.

The narrator of this audiobook may have had an impact on my enjoyment. It was a very monotone read and, without expression, there was no feeling.

I think that some readers would really enjoy the postapocalyptic society and the adventure that Elodie and Aiden set out on, while others question the world they live in. have purchased a print copy for those a fan of the author and genre. Down the middle on this one.

This novel needed to have spent more time on world development before introducing the amount of seemingly unconnected characters. By not having a strong understanding of the world, the plot seemed to be stagnant and it was hard to care about what was going on. The narrator of the audio has potential, especially as she is one of my favorite characters on OITNB. However, she needs to develop changing her voices for each character, so that it is easier to understand who is talking. Also, it would have been helpful to have another reader for the story within the story, because it confused the world building and who was talking.

I don't feel I can give the story an honest review because the audio presentation I was exposed to interfered greatly with my brain's flow. I know had I read the book, I would have appreciated it more. This is a type of dystopian science-fiction that will appeal to many teens.
Net Galley should NOT require a rating to receive this feedback if they are sharing the rating elsewhere as the rating is all some buyers will look at without reading the review to see why it received the rating it did.

I enjoyed the book but it was hard to listen to because it was too close to what is going on right now. It was hard to get lost in the story with it being so close to reality. Overall I did enjoy the book but now I have to wait for a well for the next book.

The key to fear by Kristin Cast
This book hooked me right away. Obviously from the description I was immediately feeling the tension of art impersonated reality. With the way the world is now, I’m often thinking about the loss of “touch”. Those quick hugs when greeting a friend. The longer embraces of comfort offered to a loved one in pain. The simple act of holding one’s hand while watching a movie or going for a walk. These are things I personally already miss and I can still do them occasionally. The description of a world years after a pandemic decimated the human race and those that survived living under the rule of a corporation know as the Key. Living by the strictest law of all no touching. Well it drew me in right off the bat. The main players in this story Elodie, Aiden, and Blaire, along with many interesting supporting characters did a great job of bringing this world to life. Elodie and Aiden seem at first to be so different from everyone they know. Why do they question? Why do they each engage in small acts of defiance almost daily? It seems only natural that they would find each other and feel connected immediately. But that very connection leads them down a path that they might not be able to return from. This book is clearly set up to be the start of a series. The pacing is fast and the reader races along just wanting to know what happens next? I would recommend this book to fans of the Hunger Games, Divergent or even the lesser known Matched trilogies for the similar dystopian settings, first person narratives as well as the underlying idea of free will vs. determinism. For the narrator Descha Polanco was wonderful. Descha’s voice gave this story a slightly ethnic feel which I appreciated. I knew I had heard this voice a lot somewhere and I finally looked the name up on IMDB. Seeing Descha’s face OITNB immediately jumped to mind. Since this is a YA book I’m not sure how recognizable she will be to teens, but I really enjoyed the narration. I will definitely be looking for the next in this series.

I picked with book because I love Kristin Cast or at least I love everything she has written with P.C. Cast. I say that so you understand that I had very high hopes for this book which may be why my rating is a little low.
This book started out solid. I am not sure if Cast started this before or after the covid outbreak but it felt like the book was written for right now. I know the purpose of a story is to be timeless but in this instant it worked perfectly. I felt exactly what the read was meant to feel.
  The problems with this book really started when Cast veered away from a simi-unique take on a plague infected future. Cast veered this book more towards a cheesey dystopian romance (heavy on the romance). I really wanted this book to work more on the dystopian part and less on the romance. The romance didn't even feel realistic within the setting of the book.
I would say if you want a dystopian romance then this is totally the book for you. It works very well as a romance. I only with the dystopian aspect of this book had been just as well thought out as the romance.

The Key to Fear by Kristin Cast

I have been in search of a new YA dystopian novel, as it’s a genre I do love reading. I am so glad that I read this amazing novel by Kristin Cast. It’s compared to novels like The Handmaids Tale and Vox, both equally amazing dystopias.

The Key governs the world, they tell their citizens that they must not touch. Intimacy between people is absolutely forbidden. This is due to a pandemic that wiped out Billions of people, and The Key blames humans for this and seeks to control all in a bid to stop another deadly pandemic. They don’t stop at making touching illegal, they have banned books and expect people to live their lives through VR, hardly meeting with actual people in real life.

Elodie the main character takes The Keys rules seriously and trusts their advice. However, in walks Aiden, a boy that makes Elodie think and ask questions, he makes her wonder if life can be lived another way, and whether the all-knowing The Key is actually the protector, or the captor playing with their lives, playing at being God.

I would recommend to anyone who loves YA dystopia.

This story will creep up on you.

It has a relevant post-apocalyptic vibe that feels eerily like foreshadowing for real life. It's set in a world that has suffered catastrophic effects from a virus that has wiped out most of the world's population. The Key corporation was able to safe the few survivors with a vaccine and other safety measures (like a Violet personal bubble) because of this the Key pretty much now runs the remaining world cities (for the good of the people - of course!!). In the fifty years since the pandemic, there is no longer social touching, hand holding, kissing, ANY intimate contact of any kind. All child are made in vitro uteruses and delivered to the families with a nanny bot to care for them for the first 4 years of life. Jobs are selected for you; marriage are made up of the perfect scientific matches. Perfect society, right?!?

Elodie has been living the life she has been told to live, working the job she has been told to work; she is even engaged to merry the man the Key told her to marry. She should be happy, but she isn't. She is restless, but doesn't know why.

Aidan is a rebel within the rules. He tries the boundaries, but never breaks them. He knows the consequences; he just wants to know how far he can push. When he meets Elodie, he sees the the hidden rebel on her. He just needs to help her find her way. No problem. No one will find out or get hurt. It will stay a secret. But in Westfall, nothing stays a secret for long and soon this little rebellion will end up having unexpected consequences, consequences that change both of their lives forever.

This story had a lot of different POVs and can get confusing sometimes as the authors is weaving this story and pulling this plot together. Even now there are still strings of storyline hanging that, I as the reader, hope will be addressed in the following book. It is a story that in my head I think of like piece of art. It starts out slow and vague with the reader trying to get a feeling of what is going on. Then it starts to pickup as more detail and fine tuning is added to give definition and intrigue to the story. Finally, you get that clearer picture of a scene and see what is going on and start to understand the portion that the author was trying to convey. The story unfolded very well. I can't wait for the next book.

While I like the narrator, I did think she spoke a little slowly sometimes and her pauses her a little long, the important thing for me was I enjoyed listening to her voice.

** I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review. **

The Key To Fear
by Kristin Cast
I listened to the audio version of the imprint by Blackstone Audiobooks, Narrated by Dascha Polanco. Dascha has the right voice for this young adult book. She encapsulates the nature of the characters Elodie, and Aiden with her young voice and range. The book is intriguing as an audio book.
It is not a large stretch that Kristin Cast was able to bring forward another great apocalyptic series. She is part of the author powerhouse for the House of Night series, written with her mother P.C. Cast. The Key to Fear is as different as you can get from her mother’s series. The idea of disease causing people to adopt rules that restrict personal connections is not as far fetched in our current political world. Her use of the idea of computer aided monitoring, and tracking is not as impossible as it would have been Pre-pandemic. The book like Asimov gives the reader a moment to think about when we allow politics to influence social, technological and legal aspects of life. I found the characters excellent, and the problems and conditions of their life endearing. I hope to continue reading this series as the next book comes out.

There’s nothing more timely than reading a post-apocalyptic book that’s the result of a pandemic in 2020.

No touching today for a healthy tomorrow.

After a pandemic decimates most of the population, those who remain live by this mantra. Physical contact of any kind has been outlawed. Babies are now conceived by science. The ruling government, which is referred to as the Key, chooses your career and love interest (amongst other things). The freedoms that once seemed obvious have ceased to exist.

The story starts off as a bit of a slow burn as the author does a spectacular job of immersing you into this eerie and desolate environment that makes 2020 seem like child’s play. The intricate set up of the Key and how it controls its citizens was equal parts fascinating and frightening.

This book is told from multiple POVs, but Elodie and Aidan were by far my favorites. Elodie is wicked smart and lives and breathes the rules that have been set forth by the Key. Well, that is until she meets Aidan who is pretty set on doing the exact opposite. I really enjoyed the chemistry between Elodie and Aidan and watching them work together to take on the Key.

Overall, if you love a good character driven dystopian novel filled with lush world building, action, and a government that you can’t trust, this one will definitely be for you.

Thank you to MTMC for the tour invite. Thank you to Blackstone Audio for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

This book was excellent! It is a great fun listen during this pandemic! I adore Dasha Polanco so I was very happy to hear her narrate her. The story of Elodie and Aidan was very good! This is a diverse book with a few words in Spanish. I hope everyone reads or listens to this title!

3.5 stars
This book was ok. It had an interesting premise, but it didn't hold my attention well. I think part of it was the fact that it hit so close to home for all of us right now. There had been a pandemic that killed (I think?) 75% of the population? No one is supposed to touch. People get their careers chosen for them, their friends and partners chosen for them. I really was interested in the beginning listening to Elodie and Aidan work their separate jobs, but the middle kind of lost me. The ending picked back up and I did enjoy the end.
I didn't really connect with any of the characters, Aidan may have been my favorite. I think part of it was because I listened to the audiobook and there was one narrator for the whole thing, even though there were 3 POV's, one of which was male. It was a little bit hard to remember whose POV we were on at times. While I did like Elodie for the most part, I feel like her "revelation" was kind of too quick to be believable.
The ending was kind of the typical dystopian/sci-fi ending with a cliffhanger, so I can't wait to see how book 2 turns out!

"No touching today for a healthy tomorrow."

I really wanted to love this book, but I just kept picking up other books and putting this one off. I never found myself to be invested in the storyline or the characters.

The narrator, Dascha Polanco, does a fantastic job narrating this book!

The Key To Fear is a dystopian view of the outcome of a pandemic. "No touching today for a healthy tomorrow."

This was a timely 2020 read, but this book is set in the post-pandemic and the aftermath of it. I thought that 3/4 of this book were really slow, but I was intrigued by the plot. The ending sped way up, and I would have liked it to slow down so I could enjoy it a bit more. I think if readers enjoy a slow-burn this is perfect for them. The ending leaves the reader on a cliff-hanger, which sets up book 2 really nicely! I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next for these characters!

I was provided a gifted copy of this book for free. I am leaving my review voluntarily.

I really wanted to enjoy this, but ended up not finishing. I felt like there was too much setting up the story and info dumping at the start of this. That combined with the whole not touching or being personable with people was I think a bad mix for right now with COVID. I also liked the characters, but it was a really slow start and it just bored me. I really wanted to just jump right in to this world and it just fell flat for me. Others may enjoy it, but I needed it to engage me more to keep me reading/listening.