45 pages • 1 hour read
Lindsay CurrieThe Mystery of Locked Rooms
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | BCEA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Character Analysis
Sarah
Sarah Greene is one of the protagonists and the narrator of The Mystery of Locked Rooms. She and her best friends Hannah and West are in seventh grade, and she and her family moved to town three years earlier. Sarah’s mother works two jobs, as a nurse and a candy store worker, to support her family. Sarah’s father was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome a few years earlier and is now unable to work, which has put financial strain on the family. Sarah also has an older brother, Sean, who is preparing to go to college.
Sarah is very caring and loyal. She is driven by her desire to help her family, which is why she sets out to find the triplets’ treasure after her mother receives a notice of foreclosure. Sarah is also very close with West and Hannah, her best friends: “For the first time in my life, I felt like I belonged. I was the person West and Hannah were missing too, the third side of the triangle” (14). Throughout the novel, Sarah is supportive and caring toward her friends, and she always comforts them when one of them is upset or scared, highlighting the theme of Teamwork and Friendship.
Sarah is good at math and is particularly interested in probabilities. This makes her a key member of the Deltas, as she and her friends call themselves: “I was our decision-maker. Ever since starting to learn about probabilities, I’ve loved them. If you understand probabilities, you understand risk. And taking too many risks in an escape room is a bad idea” (4). As this quote illustrates, Sarah’s interest in probabilities is an asset during the Deltas’ adventure, but overcoming her aversion to risk and her need for control is her main character arc.
In the end, Sarah realizes that although she can’t always control everything, this isn’t necessarily always a cause for fear, illustrating Emotional Growth Through Challenge. Over the course of the story, the triplets’ challenges push her out of her comfort zone, and she gradually learns to embrace luck. She slowly lets go of the things she cannot control, like when she realizes that a lot of the riddles can only be solved by chance. At the end of the story, Sarah earns the deed to the triplets’ funhouse both through her hard work and sheer luck, illustrating the completion of her story arc. She also highlights her new understanding of the need to let go of control when she takes on the wishbone, a symbol of luck, as her own personal symbol.
West
West Jones is one of the three members of the Deltas along with Sarah and Hannah. He is very tall for a seventh grader, generally thoughtful, and, as Sarah comments, “Careful. Practical. Not adventurous” (72). He also has a dry sense of humor, which Sarah appreciates: “[T]he way West says things—all flat and without smiling—makes it funnier” (118). However, West can be quite anxious at times. Sarah comments, “As outgoing as he can be, West also worries a lot. He says it’s usually at night when everything is quiet and his room is dark, but I know there are other times too” (13). West’s quiet nature contrasts with his friends’ outgoing characters.
Like his two best friends, West enjoys riddles and escape games. He has an exceptionally good memory, which enables him to figure out puzzles faster. When the Deltas find themselves in the second Box Room and have to repeat the pattern from the first one, West immediately recalls it without effort. His friends are impressed, but West confesses that his good memory can be a curse: “I’m tired of it. […] It’s not just that I can’t forget things the way a normal person does. It’s that once people figure out that I have a different memory, they make a huge deal of it. Like you guys just did” (125). Despite Sarah and Hannah’s compliments, West explains that he has occasionally pretended to forget things so as not to be treated like a genius or an outcast.
West’s character arc involves learning to embrace his memory and rely on it as a strength, illustrating the power of Teamwork and Friendship. Later in the novel, he shows how far he has come when West jokes about remembering to take the keys they have found so far. Noticing the change, Sarah comments: “I smile back, my heart warming with the idea that for once, West isn’t embarrassed by his gift. He looks proud” (190). This shift from embarrassment to pride marks the completion of West’s character arc.
At the end of the book, Sarah notes that West has gained more self-confidence. West tells her that he is “not sorry at all” about going to the funhouse and getting in trouble (223), revealing that the day has been meaningful to him and that he values his relationships with Hannah and Sarah. West’s character arc concludes with him resuming his role within the Deltas, ready to try out a new escape room, and more secure in his identity than ever.
Hannah
Also a fan of escape games, Hannah is the third member of the Deltas along with Sarah and West. She is strong, confident, and sporty. Hannah often provides comic relief with silly jokes and banter to cheer up her friends, but she can also be more openly empathetic when they need emotional support. Incidentally, Hannah is always chewing gum, which West and Sarah often comment on throughout the story.
While Sarah is good at assessing risks and West’s memory can be very helpful, Hannah is the most athletic of the three of them. When they need to swing on a rope in the circus room, for instance, Hannah is the only one who does so enthusiastically and even lands gracefully on the other side. Hannah’s athleticism comes from her years of doing ballet, which she claims she quit a year before. However, she eventually tells her friends that she actually failed out of dance class but hid it from them, showing her deep insecurity about this issue. She hid it from Sarah and West because, as she states: “[L]etting you guys down would be so much worse. I think that’s why I make decisions so fast” (100). Hannah’s impulsiveness is driven by her insecurity and her desire to redeem herself.
However, Hannah’s impulsivity can also be an issue for the team at times. In the Box Room, for instance, the Deltas lose precious time when Hannah grabs a box at random before they have time to agree on a strategy. Sarah gets upset at first but quickly apologizes when she notices how apologetic Hannah is. Sarah and West reassure her and tell her that she is not weak or a “loser” and instead is a valued member of their group.
Hannah’s character arc involves being able to balance her impulsiveness with patience. Thanks to her friends’ support, Hannah can relax and act more thoughtfully in later challenges, such as when she carefully prods the key before picking it up in the second Box Room. By the end of the book, Hannah has learned to be more patient and to rely on her friends more, and she feels more secure when it comes to her role within the group. In the last chapter, she, Sarah, and West are ready to start a new escape game together.
Hans, Stefan, and Karl Stein (The Triplets)
Hans, Stefan, and Karl Stein are triplets who, although they do not appear directly in the novel, are referenced throughout the story. According to Sarah, West, and Hannah’s research, they built a funhouse in the 1950s full of riddles and traps meant to work as a giant escape game. The funhouse is the main location of the narrative, as the three young friends are now exploring it decades later.
An old picture of the triplets depicts them as “[t]hree men in suits are standing side by side. They all wear the same small round glasses and even the same curious expression. They look like adults, but young adults” (25). They are characterized as clever, tricky, and passionate about their funhouse.
After emigrating from Germany and losing their parents when they were eight years old, the triplets were adopted by different families and grew up separately. The Deltas surmise that it may have been due to the impossible financial strain of adopting three children during the Great Depression. Once reunited as adults, however, the triplets found a shared passion for games and riddles and decided to build the funhouse together. West finds out that “Hans was taken in by a family who owned a cabinetmaking business. And Stefan […] went on to college. Must’ve studied math or something because he became a banker [while Karl] may have briefly studied literature before taking a job at a local bookstore” (27). Many elements of the funhouse illustrate the triplets’ occupations, such as passageways disguised as cabinet doors, math problems to solve, and a Library Room.
When Stefan died at the age of 28, his brothers were unable or unwilling to open the funhouse without him. Instead, the project was abandoned, and the triplets started a rumor that a treasure was hidden inside it. Many people, including Stefan’s great-grandson William Taters, unsuccessfully attempted to find the treasure, but the Deltas are the first to complete the entire funhouse. By the time the Deltas have completed the funhouse challenge, they feel they have come to learn something about the triplets, highlighting the Parallels Between the Past and the Present.
