 "Too Smart for My Own Good" | 2008-07-21 |
| - Reviewed By User: A38YOD3XMGVDZD |
| I solved the anagram on page 205 and from that I predicted the entire last half of the story. LeHane should have hidden such a revelatory clue a little better. It is like a major spoiler right in the middle of the story, making the last half a bit of a chore instead of the breathless progression it was intended to be. The finale still stung my heart, but if I had learned the twists when they were properly revealed, I would have called this story a masterpiece. |
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 "Really, Mr. Lehane? Really?" | 2008-07-20 |
| - Reviewed By User: AYK9MY9F7RQYZ |
This book is well written, yes. At several points it had me frightened, and caught between dying to turn the next page and too scared to. It got my blood pumping, got me angry, I think, as it was intended to. I cared about Teddy, and I really liked Chuck. Cawley and Naehring were delightfully mysterious and sinister. A number of the surprises were fairly organic and quite shocking.
I know what you're thinking. How did this idiot manage to click one star, when he's obviously writing a five star review. You would be right to think this. However, you are wrong. This is a one star review, and here's why:
DO NOT READ THE BACK OF THE BOOK!!!!!!! To any person with half a brain (I know, not THAT many people have that much of a brain) the book description will give it ALL AWAY.
DO NOT READ THE BLURBS IN THE BOOK!!!!!!! To any person with half a brain that can add, after reading the back of the book, two and two, will immediately get four.
If you read these, you will know EXACTLY what's going to happen within the first couple of pages. And it will make you mad, just waiting for it, hoping that, praying that, this isn't the case. Its a trick. Please, God, let it be a trick. Its not. That's what's going to happen.
Now, for those that have NOT read the back of the book or any of the blurbs. You will have a little more fun. You will enjoy the first fourth of the book. Then you'll know too. You'll know exactly what's going to happen. Maybe you'll be like me. You'll think its a trick. A red herring. Again, I say, ITS NOT!!!!!!!!
Scorsese's movie I know will be good. Perhaps he and the screenwriter will think up a way to make the ending more organic. But, I don't think that's possible. Regardless, I can't wait to see how atmospheric and shocking the movie will be. I mean, look at what Eastwood did with Mystic River. The book was good, yes, but my God, man, not in a thousand universes could coincidences stack up like that. When everything fits like a jigsaw puzzle, you lose large amounts of realism, and tend to make people weary, and you take a lot of the punch out of it. But Eastwood's film had a transcendence to it (I'm picturing the scene at the end where Sean Penn has his arms spread like a shrugging Christ as he drinks his way from all this. . . coincidence). And Scorsese is at least twice the filmmaker Eastwood is. So, here's hoping. . . . . . |
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| "fun and intriguing read" | 2008-07-01 |
| - Reviewed By webermoeller |
| This is the second Lehane I have read, following Mystic River (before the movie came out), and I wasn't at all disappointed. The theme of this book is very different from Mystic River in that it is less realistic, but I found myself buzzing right through it. I was always looking to figure out the next turn. I am a person who bores with books very easily (I can't even count the number of books I have read half of), but this book really kept my attention and interest. The end, when everything is pulled together, is pretty brilliant as well. Looking forward to Scorcese's movie. |
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 "Boring beginning, great middle, horrible cop-out/rip-off ending" | 2008-07-01 |
| - Reviewed By raychensmith |
This is my first Dennis Lehane novel, and I read this because I know this is the next Scorsese/DiCaprio movie.
The story starts off VERY slowly--two US marshals investigate the disappearance of a crazy woman who'd killed her three kids. This woman is in the loony bin on Shutter Island, where the story takes place exclusively.
So the beginning unfolds, and I can say this much: Dennis Lehane is not a great writer. His dialog is often witless and overly long, and his prose quite pedestrian. When he tries to be poetic, he is often pretentious and nonsensical, like writing "he had a silkworm of a smile." And structurally the story would've been better if he'd sped up the pace a bit.
Then the middle act is absolutely terrific when we find this giant conspiracy, and Teddy and his partner Chuck (the protagonist and his sidekick) have to escape the entire island because of this giant conspiracy. Yes, Lehane's prose is still pedestrian, but you can write inelegant prose and the novel can still pack a wallop. So I was very excited reading this middle part.
*** SPOILERS AHEAD ***
Finally, though there's the climax, and when Teddy gets to the lighthouse and confronts the mad doctor, and the mad doctor starts babbling away, I was like, You got to be kidding me?!! This is A TOTAL RIP-OFF of the 1920s movie The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari! I was like, No, it can't be. At some point, we would see the mad doctor truly IS the mad doctor, and he's just trying to trick Teddy into thinking he's insane. But noooooo, Teddy really is insane, and everything in the story is just his delusion. Even cheesy action movies like Arnold Schwarzenegger's Total Recall don't stoop to: "Ohhh, everything's just a dream." I mean, this is grade-school storytelling!
Cop-out ending + ripping off a famous movie = a crappy novel. I gave it 2 stars instead of 1 because Lehane had me fooled it was a great novel in the middle. |
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| "Such a disappointment after MYSTIC RIVER" | 2008-06-27 |
| - Reviewed By mspencer56 |
I listened to this novel set in Massachusetts read by Tom Stechshulte and he was absolutely the wrong person to read this book. He turned every African-American character into some trash-talking ignoramus from the South.
The novel itself has suspense and if I had read it instead of listening, might feel more positive toward it. The ending was so farfetched that I just had to laugh.
I need another story like MYSTIC RIVER to make me believe in Dennis LeHane again. |
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 "OK but bad ending..." | 2008-05-27 |
| - Reviewed By mbrown3 |
| The first 2/3rds of the book are great. Really draws you in as the mystery develops. But the end is very anti-climactic, with a very predictable "surprise" ending...lame! |
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 "Amazing!" | 2008-05-22 |
| - Reviewed By zaxoma |
| Am an admirer of Lehane's books and his writing style but this one blew me out of the water! I couldn't believe the ending and found myself re-reading the last 10 or so pages several times - brilliant! |
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| "Like mindf--ks? Well, come on in..." | 2008-04-18 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1E2SIK6JRKO2H |
I've known of Dennis Lehane for a while. Noticed a few films had been adapted from his works, so I thought I'd give him a shot. I picked up Shutter Island because it isn't a movie (yet, it's coming), and thus I would be able to come to it objectively.
Right from the start I liked his writing style. There's a plot, but it isn't aggressively pursued in the beginning. Instead we kind of ease into the very strange island, and it's inhabitants. Gradually the plot becomes stranger and stranger, with plot turns making it less and less clear what exactly is going on, rather than slowly narrowing it down.
If I am being vaugue, it is because I really don't want to spoil anything. Suffice to say, I like mindf--k stories, and found this one to be a very satisfying one. I didn't know where it was going, and by the end I stopped trying to guess and just enjoyed the ride. I would suggest this book to people who like a good shake-up of traditional Noir and mystery.
Agatha Christie on Hallucinogenics! |
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| "Great suspense. I hope to find many more books that engage me like this." | 2008-04-18 |
| - Reviewed By privatjokr |
Shutter Island's only inhabitants are the patients in a mental institution and the instution's employees, and Federal Marshal Teddy Daniels was sent to the island to investigate the highly unlikely disappearance of a patient. While on the island Teddy cannot tell if the puzzles he encounters are clues to solving the case or if they are all an elaborate setup to keep him from ever leaving.
For a long time I read nothing but mystery/suspense novels because it was only within their pages that...well it was only these books that could challenge me. Some authors in the genre are so good that the books become almost interactive. As the main character tries to sift through the case, I am a puppet on a string. There is nothing better than a good thriller that makes you sit up in bed and talk to yourself while you read. This was that type of book.
Dennis Lehane's Mystic River was a pretty good book, but I would not really compare the two. Shutter Island was much more intense and in my humble opinion, a much better book.
The book is short and a lightning fast read and my recommendation to you is to read it in as few sittings as possible. Lehane weaves a web of intricate and minute details and fewer sittings will hopefully allow you to enjoy seeing how each detail is important. If you have to, or even prefer to, read the book more slowly, the overall thrill of the book should not be lost on you at all. I really liked this book and I hope someone out there has some suggestions of books like it for me to read.
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| "Thrilling throughout...truly a great novel" | 2008-04-09 |
| - Reviewed By User: AWDAPXX516W44 |
| I just finished shutter island today after buying it two days ago. I must say it is an amazing read. I found myself staying up late into the night fully enthralled in the book. The plot gives nothing away to what truly is a shocking ending. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to read a book that will have you on the edge of your seat until you finish the last page. |
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