Eight Keys Character Analysis

Elise is going into middle school, and little does she know how many problems, questions, and answers will occur in her new life. The main character in Eight Keys by Suzanne Lafleur, is Elise. She has a best friend named Franklin that has been with her since kindergarten, lives with her Aunt and Uncle (because her parents died when she was very young), and seems to have a perfect, carefree life, but it was still summer. When school finally did come, Elise got bullied by Amanda, her rude locker partner, for playing babyish games with Franklin. Then, Amanda had decided to smash Elise’s lunch everyday. She was being bullied everyday by Amanda for various reasons, misses the bus (because she will not get bullied by Amanda if she does not attend

Her dad died and before his death, he wrote her letters, a piece of remembrance for each of her birthday, but unfortunately this was the last letter. It said, “...I’m leaving something else for you, to discover and unlock when you are ready…” She kept playing with the clues in her letter when she finally remembered, she saw a key in her barn hanging on the wall. She checked every eight rooms upstairs in the barn and finally one locked room fit with the key, and inside each of the rooms she would unlock were little quotes that her dad wrote. Once Elise had collected and discovered all of the keys, and the doors were unlocked, she found the use of the empty room: it was for her to design and make her own. In the eight rooms she found: one about her mom, a library with nearly thousands of books, one about her and her dad together, one about Uncle Hugh, one with photos of memories, another library with a desk she worked at all the time, one with random and relevant questions, and of course, an empty room. Elise filled the empty room with her favorite memories of her life from the current and past. Elise’s whole life with all of her problems is put to peace, and this is how the eventful book

If you are interested in mysteric, relatable, drama-involved, realistic stories, you should give this book a try! One thing I enjoyed about this book is how after almost every chapter, the author foreshadows about what will happen later in the story. I think it is really cool how the last sentence in nearly every chapter gives sneak peak about an event that will happen in the future chapters. Another thing I was fond of in this book is how it was relatable and encouraging to others. Since this book is about a typical young teen’s life and shows how Elise was bullied, it is relatable to many who have been bullied and it encourages children and teens to open up and express themselves. Eight Keys is a suspenseful, emotional, moving book but I do wish it was more challenging. For example, there are certain places where there could be a better synonym, even something simple like cheerful instead of happy; even the overall book is a simple read, and I would like it to be a stronger novel. But because of the lower-leveled reading skills, I would recommend this book to older children or younger teens. I believe one of the themes is to cherish the time you spend with your family. This theme is shown in the book by memories on time spent with Elise’s parents. She wishes she could make more memories with them, even now that they’re gone. Another theme could be