Locke & Key

By: Joe Hill, Gabriel Rodriguez

Narrated by: Haley Joel Osment, Tatiana Maslany, Kate Mulgrew, full cast

Length: 13 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's summary

Audie Award Finalist, Original Work, 2016

Based on the best-selling, award-winning graphic novel series Locke & Key - written by acclaimed suspense novelist Joe Hill (NOS4A2, Horns) and illustrated by Gabriel Rodriguez - this multicast, fully dramatized audio production brings the images and words to life.

A brutal and tragic event drives the Locke family from their home in California to the relative safety of their ancestral estate in Lovecraft, Massachusetts, an old house with powerful keys and fantastic doors that transform all who dare to walk through them. As siblings Tyler, Kinsey, and Bode Locke discover the secrets of the old house, they also find that it's home to a hate-filled and relentless creature that will not rest until it forces open the most terrible door of them all....

Featuring performances by Haley Joel Osment (Entourage, The Sixth Sense), Tatiana Maslany (Orphan Black), Kate Mulgrew (Orange Is the New Black, Star Trek: Voyager), Joe Hill, Gabriel Rodriguez, and Stephen King (The Stand, 11-22-63), as well as a cast of more than 50 voice actors, this audio production preserves the heart-stopping impact of the graphic novel's astounding artwork through the use of richly imagined sound design and a powerful original score.

*Locke & Key contains explicit language and adult situations.

Experience this title in immersive 3D audio by setting your download quality to High within the app. Headphones recommended. For more, browse our entire collection of 3D audio listens.

©2014 Joe Hill (P)2015 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"The concepts in this production, based on a graphic novel, are perfectly executed by a full cast.... Kate Mulgrew leads the way with her perfect portrayal of an ancient grandmother with an evil streak." (AudioFile)

this has become my favorite book

I read through the graphic novel along with audible book which just magnified everything. It's a really great story and very suspenseful! Do not pass this up!

Love It!

Would you listen to FREE: Locke & Key again? Why?

Yes, I love that it is done as a play with multiple characters. I had listened to something similar on a podcast and was trying to find more things like it, luckily I had preordered this!!

What did you like best about this story?

The acting.

Have you listened to any of the narrators’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No, I have not listened to the narrator before, although there was more than one!

Any additional comments?

Get it, you won't regret it!

Something got me...

Something about this story grabbed me. It was hokey, but just the right kind of hokey. Lovecraft fans delight.

Pick up this audiobook right now

We find ourselves following the Locke family as they relocate to the family estate of Keyhouse in Lovecraft, MA in the wake of their father's death. What they fail to realize upon their arrival is that there are secrets at Keyhouse just waiting to be unearthed. As the children begin sifting through the estate, interesting looking keys begin turning up left and right. Keys that unlock more than just ordinary doors. While everyone is adjusting nicely, their father's killer has escaped from prison and is out to help an evil spirit who has reached out to him. The evil spirit wants to escape... It wants to recover all of the keys in Keyhouse and re-open the portal from whence it came; to allow other demons to come into this world and possess any human unable to turn their eyes away from the mesmerizing door. But will the children have what it takes to keep this creature from exacting its revenge? Only with the help of the keys and a few new friends will the Locke family be able to keep their estate in tact, not to mention their lives.

First and foremost, I listened to this audiobook while following along with the graphic novels. This does not mean that you will have to do the same in order to understand all that is happening, but it makes the audio increasingly more enjoyable when you have visuals to attach to the scenes, characters and actions. With the way the audio has been published, some scenes can become confusing at times but are ironed out within a few panels. This does not take away from the enjoyment of the audiobook, promise.

The voices are easily discernible as the cast includes over 50 actors and they all spot-on. Tatiana Maslany, Haley Joel Osment and Kate Mulgrew are the headliners for the audio, but the cast includes other well known actors/writers such as Hill himself and the illustrator, Rodruguez. Even Hill's father, Stephen King, drops by for a cameo appearance. Holy Moly!!!! Also, I can't fail to mention the original score. It is so powerful and just brings out all the feels.

Pick up this audiobook right now, especially if you are a fan of Joe Hill's work. I suggest you pick up the graphic novels as well because they just add so much to the audio. This is definitely one of the best, if not THE BEST, audiobooks I have ever listened to. The ability to create an audiobook from a graphic novel sounds impossible, but this team has done it and I commend them wholeheartedly.

Please find this complete review and many others at my review blog

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this was FREE?

there were 2 characters I had a hard time telling apart but that may have been my headphones, aside from that this was a stunning performance.
I loved the story, and wish it was longer.

Excellent story telling

This was a very fun and exciting audio experience. The voice acting was incredible and the sound effects drew you into the story. What a pleasure to listen to this to get into the spirit of Halloween. Loved it. Thank you!

Kinda glad it was free...

The extra music that filled dead space was really weird. I didn't get that nor enjoy it. This book sounded like some one recorded a movie and not narrated it. I didn't know what was going on sometimes due to quietness and music playing instead of someone saying what was happening :(

Could have used more narration and less acting

Tough to follow at times since you're essentially listening to a play without any of the visuals to accompany it, and unlike the radio dramas of old this tries to emulate, the narrator is markedly absent for most of the process. Good story, just gonna take you a few times to really absorb it all/

Scary Fun

Like an old-time radio drama, this book puts you in the middle of the action. It's a little over-dramatic, but not terribly so, and by the time I was through the first few chapters, I was hooked. Great voice performances, especially from Tatiana Maslany.

Not Joe Hill’s best work but ok

Not a fan of the narration of this one. Strange but decent storyline. Compared to NOS4 and HSB this novel falls way short for me. I didn’t find it intense or thrilling, only somewhat intriguing. If your a Joe Hill fan it’s worth the listen. If you aren’t, do yourself a favor and start with NOS4A2 then Heart Shape Box.