Shutter Island in Basically Books!

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Shutter Island

Dennis Lehane

Start date: August 1, 2013

Finish date: August 31, 2013

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Feb 13, 2011 Terri rated it really liked it

Shelves: mysteries, historical-fiction, thrillers-suspense

Teddy Daniels is a US Marshall and he goes to remote Shutter ISland to investigate an escaped prisoner/patient. Shutter Island is a facility where the violently criminally insane are treated with experimental methods. He along with his partner Chuck, find a lot of secrets in the locked doors of the island as a hurricane strikes. And Teddy finds that very little is as it seems

This is a very good book (and a very good movie adaptation IMO) and I leave it not sure what to believe.

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Feb 08, 2010 Nicole rated it really liked it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Please, if you haven't read this book, then don't read my review until you've finished completely or else you'll ruin a great ending for yourself.

I wish I could give this 4 1/2 stars but I won't give it 5 because even though the story and writing style is truly amazing, the swearing (though understandable) and the couple of "adult" situations were a little too much for me. Kind of like too much and sometimes unecessary information.

There's so much mystery to Teddy Daniels character, but at first Please, if you haven't read this book, then don't read my review until you've finished completely or else you'll ruin a great ending for yourself.

I wish I could give this 4 1/2 stars but I won't give it 5 because even though the story and writing style is truly amazing, the swearing (though understandable) and the couple of "adult" situations were a little too much for me. Kind of like too much and sometimes unecessary information.

There's so much mystery to Teddy Daniels character, but at first Lehane makes it seem like you know everything about him and what his intentions are when he goes to the island to find the missing patient. But you soon learn that there's so much more to his purpose there and you become even more confused and suspicious as to what's really going on at this prison for the criminally insane.

I have to say Chuck is my favorite character. As Teddy said, he had the wit and the charm, something Teddy himself didn't have and it was in its own way a comic relief sometimes. Teddy was often too serious, and then Chuck would make a grim joke that lightened the mood. They were truly the perfect partners; especially after hearing them banter back and forth. It was as if they had known each other for years and were good friends.

Which is why at the end everything makes much more sense! It's why Chuck was so agreeable to everything and how they got along so well. I can't imagine anyone that would condone a federal marshall killing the man that killed his wife (which ironically turned out to be himself). Every single thing, every conversation had pretty much been rehearsed! It was honestly an ending I wasn't suspecting, not one bit (not that I gave myself much chance to think about it because I wanted to be surprised). But to be honest I read the last couple lines of the book and read that they were still using the same names and that Chuck and Teddy were still together and no one had died. But after completely finishing it I realized I set myself up to be fooled. It was that Teddy (Andrew Laeddis as we find out) had gone back to his forgetful insanity and that he was soon going to have his innevitable labotomy. I never thought that HE would be the crazy one.

This novel really made me think about whether everything around me was real or just something my very detailed and wild unconcious was making up. And the fact that the "missing patient" had drowned her children and wanted to treat them as if they weren't dead was the same thing that Andrew's wife had done was brilliant. Just another thing to jog Andrew's memory that in the end was futile.

I would absolutely recommend this book, especially if you like mystery/suspense. But I love teen fantasy/romance novels and couldn't put this down so it's really just for anyone that loves to read! ...more

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