Reviews with content warning for Gore - Shutter

I’m really sad I didn’t like this one more! I enjoyed the premise and was interested by Rita’s relationship with death, complicated by seeing ghosts and her cultural understanding of it. However, I just don’t think the structure or pacing worked. I think switching between the present and the past makes sense for a novel like this, but I don’t think they worked together well in this case. The flashbacks didn’t reach a climax that related to or expanded on what was happening in the present, in fact I feel like it dampened the impact of the action occurring in the present. Things kind of just dragged along until suddenly tons of plot was happening all at once, it didn’t really make sense to me. It was still generally fun to read, but I leave it feeling disappointed.

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lisaarnsdorf's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Having heard several interviews with the author, I was expecting a pretty gruesome book; she sure delivered. The opening was almost shocking in its explicit descriptions of a murder scene.

Overall, I really liked this book. My main complaints are: 1) the author uses an alternating timeline, with every other chapter being in the past and the present. As the two timelines converged, I started to get really confused about where we were in time. And the past timeline dragged on a little too long. 2) The ending was morally ambiguous and too convenient. It felt like a cop-out in some regards.

I hope this becomes a series because it's a really interesting premise!

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sasisaskia's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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irenemarie's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

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hayleemarie's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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phantasmaboo's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Shutter follows Rita, a young Navajo (Diné) woman who works as a forensic photographer at a police station. Rita, however, is plagued by ghosts and has been since her infancy. Things take a turn when a particularly stubborn ghost won't let Rita go until she has helped solve her murder.

I wanted to like this book so badly, and I did like most of it, but it really fell apart in the final 25% or so. Unlike the book description, the book is largely character-driven, exploring Rita's past and how she came to be the person is today. That being said, I had a hard time reconciling the Rita in the present with the Rita in the past. They seemed like two very different people rather than a person who grew into the other. The portions of the book written in the past were so touching and deep while the present portions seemed surface-level, dry, and patchy. Overall, the writing was just uneven.

Finally, the plot wasn't all that surprising to me, but the way the ending was written was like the author simply wanted the book to end. The characters became nonsensical farces of themselves and it makes their behavior very unbelievable. For example,

going to a nightclub and getting high after witnessing a murder

It really lost me at the end and I wish that the modern portions had as much depth as the portions where Rita was a child.

Overall, I give it 3 stars. I would definitely read more by this author again, but I hope that in the future their writing becomes more even.

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hazelgirl21's review

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

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