Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane - A Book Review

Whenever I am on the internet browsing through book websites or scrolling through my newsfeed on facebook, I would normally stumble on posts like “Top 5 books that will blow your mind”. This usually interests me and I follow them up ending up reading about the premise of the books and checking for their price online to see whether I would be able to afford new paperbacks for my bookshelf. Once I fixated that I wanted to buy this book next, I kept my eyes glued on the websites on which I normally buy the books. I waited and waited until the prices fell. I did and I bought it.

You can get the book from here at an awesome price

·         Amazon

·         Infibeam

The book is about two U.S. Marshals who come for an investigation to the Ashecliffe Hospital to find an escaped criminally insane murderer/prisoner named Rachel Solando on the Shutter Island. As the investigation unfolds, Teddy Daniels (the Marshal and the protagonist) finds that the situation at the island is more than just a missing prisoner. The events that happen once they step foot on the island become so crazy that as time goes, Teddy can’t tell who the actual victim is.

Is Ashecliffe really a hospital like it claims to be? Why are they reluctant in giving information to the officers of the federal government? Does it experiment on the prisoners in the light house? And who is the patient number sixty-seven?

Now that we have got the premise out of the way, I would say this was pretty different book compared to the books that I have read before in terms of writing which was strikingly good. The perspective of Teddy Daniels gives us a clear picture of what Lehane wants us to picture in our minds. Teddy’s partner Chuck Aule calling him “boss” builds his character and as the story moves forward the writing got preachy at parts and gripped me in certain pages. The plot twist again was another thing that I knew beforehand. I think it is only surprising when you do not know that there is going to be a plot twist. I only say this because the whole time I was reading it even in the boring parts of the story I kept saying to myself “the plot twist is gonna be awesome. Just read on”. I mean, plot twist are better when they are unexpected if I am not wrong. 

The book was dark and thrilling, that’s for sure. The writing was so good that I never wanted to put the book down except for a few pages in the beginning of the book. You just have to bear through the first few pages. The way Lehane has written it would not be in a certain format that you can understand easily. The conversations that he has with the prisoners/patients about the murder leads to them talking about how they view the world. They talk about how they murdered some people and it gives you the creeps. The setup where the story happens is entirely in the Shutter Island except for the flashbacks. The recommended time to read this book is after midnight so that you experience the book to the fullest.

I would definitely recommend this book to someone who would be interested to read a book that is dark, thrilling, and suspenseful. There are not many parts in the books that would make you go ‘woah!’ or anything like that but still is a good book.

Did you like the book? Or absolutely hated it? Let us know!