Posts Tagged ‘island’
#04 – Shutter Island
I will start by saying that this was a difficult book to finally get through reading. It was the first book I purchased and started reading on my Kindle back in early February. I found the book when I had seen information on the upcoming movie Shutter Island. I had not heard of Dennis Lehane before, but that is not surprising given I have not read much in the past. I first noticed that this was his third book that was made into a movie joining Mystic River and Gone Baby Gone. I had not read either of those books, but enjoyed both movies. I figured that they had to be somewhat good enough and I picked Shutter Island because I could finish it by the time the movie came out.
I was reading this book the morning that Caroline passed away. The truly odd connection was that the part I was reading that morning was where the main character was describing his trouble following his wife’s death. I am completely serious about that. I could care less about a lot of trivial things including this book for a long while, that once things settled down and I was looking for a diversion I had a lot of trouble returning to this book. The fact that I was reading it just 20 minutes before the police showed up at our door pushed me away from this book like we were both magnets. I was afraid to read anymore for awhile for fear it would just bring me right back to that day. It was over four months before I could pick up this book again. It was not as difficult as I had anticipated, perhaps that amount of time had helped. At any rate, I was able to finish it even if I was just trying to get it over with.
I had not read a suspense thriller in a while, so this was a nice change from my typical leanings toward non-fiction. I felt pulled into the story, although it did take a little longer to get going. It was not action-packed and I always felt it was just on the verge of just taking off but it never quite got there. I thought this book could have been just a little bit more of several things. Faster-paced at times – I did not feel like the action was as thrilling as it could have been. Scarier – I thought there was a lot of opportunity to really freak you out given they were trapped with psycho criminals. Darker – it never gave me a really creeped-out feeling and it seemed primed for that.
It all led to a big twist that was better played out then in the movie version. I certainly did wonder, in the book, who to believe in the final chapters as it did a much better job of setting that twist up for you.
I make it seem bad, but it is a good read. I did enjoy it and would recommend if you are a fan of his others or anything set in Massachusetts. Run out and read it next? Not necessarily.
Next up…non-fiction again with a biography of the late Chris Farley.