#Review - Smoke and Key by Kelsey Sutton #YALit #Paranormal

Series: Standalone
Format: Paperback, 304 pages
Release Date: April 2, 2019
Publisher: Entangled: Teen
Source: Publisher
Genre: Young Adult / Paranormal, Occult & Supernatural

An intricate gothic paranormal romance about a girl trying to solve the mystery of how she entered the Underworld, perfect for fans of Libba Bray or Kiersten White

A sound awakens her. There’s darkness all around. And then she’s falling… 

She has no idea who or where she is. Or why she’s dead. The only clue to her identity hangs around her neck: a single, rusted key. This is how she and the others receive their names—from whatever belongings they had when they fell out of their graves. None of them remembers who they used to be. Under is a place of dirt and nightmares, and Key is determined to discover the secrets of her past in order to escape it. 

She needs help, but who can she trust? Ribbon seems content in Under, uninterested in finding answers. There’s Smoke, the boy with sharp words and a fierceness that rivals even the living. And Journal, the boy who stays apart from everyone else and loses himself in books and science. Key’s instincts tell her that there is something remarkable about each of them, even if she can’t remember why.

Then the murders start, bodies that are burned to a crisp. After being burned, the dead stay dead. Key is running out of time to discover who she was—and what secret someone is willing to kill to keep hidden—before she becomes the next victim.

 

Smoke and Key, by author Kelsey Sutton, takes place in the Underworld, but even the characters there aren’t safe from being snuffed out for good. The story begins with a girl hearing a voice telling her to wake up, then falling into a mysterious dark cavern. She meets a boy named Smoke who begins to explain that she is dead and has fallen out of her grave into the area inhabitants call the “Under”.  

In Under, she meets a group of strangers whose bodies are in various stages of decomposition. While they can all remember general knowledge they do not remember anything personal from their lives before they fell. Each fell with an item that was buried with them; an item that helps their owner decide their Under name.  Once you've fallen, you can't move onward, and you can't go back. Under is neither Heaven nor Hell. 

The chain around Key's neck may be the only clue of who she once was, what happened to her, and why certain people like Smoke, Journal and Ribbon seem so familiar to her. Key is not like the others. She has dreams, hallucinations and memories. Key begins to understand that her death wasn't peaceful or natural. As Key pieces together parts of her life, she receives various messages that make her even more curious about what is really happening her. 

Meanwhile, the dead are turning up true dead. True dead meaning there's no chance they will ever rise again. Key pieces together memories of her past, as well as her familiarity with Smoke, Journal, and Ribbon, the woman who seems to have no problem with her setting and no desire to move on. But, when she is accused of being the murderer, Key must find a way to use the mysterious key and save herself before it is too late.

There’s a sense of mystery and tension throughout the story. In her previous life, Key’s memories are of a historical time who fell in love with a strange American, while also being betrothed to another. Key’s flashbacks provide frequent snippets of information about her life before death, building towards revelations that may hold more danger than she could imagine. If you're not a fan of flashbacks, try to get over it. The flashbacks are huge information troves. 

Smoke and Fury is a blend of paranormal and historical fiction and romance.  

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