Pick the Lock cover art

Pick the Lock

Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Pick the Lock

By: A.S. King
Narrated by: Max Meyers, Jorjeana Marie, A.S. King
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

From Michael L. Printz Award winner A.S. King, a weird and insightful new novel about a girl intent on picking the lock of her toxic family.

Jane Vandermaker-Cook would like her mother back. As Jane's mother tours the world to support the family, Jane lives and goes to school in a Victorian mansion with her younger brother and their mendacious father who confines Jane’s mother to a system of pneumatic tubes whenever she’s at home. And then there's weirdly ever-present Aunt Finch, Milorad the gardener, and his rat, Brutus. For Jane, this all seems normal until she suddenly gains access to the files for a lifetime of security-camera videos—her lifetime.

A.S. King's latest surrealist masterpiece follows Jane’s bizarre and brilliant journey to reconnect with her mother by breaking out of her shell and composing a punk opera.


* This audiobook edition includes a downloadable PDF that contains the set description illustration and legend from the book.
Bullying & Abuse Depression & Mental Health Difficult Situations Emotions & Feelings Family & Relationships Literature & Fiction Physical & Emotional Abuse

Critic reviews

"A roller coaster of a book, Pick the Lock is one thrill after another."—NPR

"Rendered with prodigious imagination and raw emotion, King’s surrealistic world is not too far from our own."—The Boston Globe

★ "Printz Award–winning King has written another remarkable, character-driven book that dazzles with its originality. With that and its employment of magic realism, it is sui generis, and at 400-plus pages, it is one of King’s most ambitious, and most successful, books. And that, God knows, is no lie."—Booklist, starred review

★ "A worthy literary heir to feminist novels like The Stepford Wives, updated and recast for a new generation, this is a much-needed, thought-provoking tale of survival and triumph.”—BCCB, starred review

★ "Cathartic."—Horn Book, starred review

★ "A young adult feminist anthem that thoughtfully addresses issues of abuse."—SLJ, starred review

★ "Three-time Michael L. Printz Award-winner A.S. King employs her signature surrealism to portray the emotional reality of domestic abuse through an unflinching feminist gaze. [B]eathtakingly successful."—Shelf Awareness, starred review

"A.S. King always leans into the weaird and surreal (think Vonnegut with a 16-year-old girls at the centre).... This strange, ambitious novel takes its young readers—and their pain—seriously."—The Irish Times

"Helmed by Jane’s penetrating commentary, this unconventional narrative melds punk anthems and bewildering interludes from a shape-shifting rat with King’s quirky blend of present-day issues and mind-bending twists to unlock complex, thought-provoking insight."—Publishers Weekly

An NPR Best Book of the Year

A Boston Globe Best Book of the Year
A Chicago Public Library Best Book of the Year
A Shelf Awareness Best Book of the Year
A Horn Book Fanfare Book
No reviews yet