This was an excellent book. It was excellent for all the reasons Fire was excellent: Strandberg and Elfgren are, simply, damn good at writing about people. Yes, the end of the world is approaching, and that is the plot that forms the background of this novel. But the plot background could have been after the apocalypse or about horses or anything else, because the draw of this novel is the characters. The Key involves betrayal and mistrust and anger, and love and secrets and truth and family and discovery and through it all these strong characters. I love Minoo, and her law abiding ways hurt her here. She becomes scary and scared and so much more human. I love Anna-Karin. She's afraid, and still vulnerable, but she's growing in confidence and trusting her power through her heartbreak. I love Vanessa, and her fears and her joy and her surprise, and how much she cares for her family and Linnea. She's so cool, and she doesn't abandon her non Circle friends, and I liked that. I love Linnea and her fear of getting to close and knowing to much coupled with her desperate desire for intimacy. I love how all these girls related to each other, especially Linnea and Vanessa. I love Viktor and Clara and their relationship. Sigrid was so well written. Walter was absolutely terrifying. I loved how family features in this book: Minoo's parents are back and Anna-Karin is on her own but she does have a dad and grandfather and Ida is afraid but trying to help and Elias has dead parents and Vanessa's family is lovely and Linnea's dad is trying to be different. I just loved this story. It means so much. The plot is this complex web of relationships and the people colliding and loving and existing within them. Read this book because you need resolution, and you love the characters and want to get to know new ones. The action never stops, and it's far from boring, and that's why I loved it.