Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane

Title: Shutter Island
Author: Dennis Lehane
Series: Stand alone 
Source: Borrowed
Format: Paperback 
Genre: Psychological thriller

Synopsis (from B&N):

Summer, 1954. U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels s come to Shutter Island, home of Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane. Along with his partner, Chuck Aule, he sets out to find an escaped patient, a murderess named Rachel Solando, as a hurricane bears down upon them. But nothing at Ashecliffe Hospital is what it seems. Is he there to find a missing patient? Or has he been sent to look into rumors of Ashecliffe's radical approach to psychiatry; an approach that may include drug experimentation, hideous surgical trials, and lethal countermoves in the shadow war against Soviet brainwashing. Or is there another, more personal reason why he has come there?

Situated offshore from Massachusetts, Shutter Island is an asylum specialise in housing the criminally insane person. US Marshall Teddy Daniels lands himself on this island for a reason – to investigate the disappearance of an inmate, a young lady named Rachel Solando. However, from the moment he and his colleague, Chuck Aule, step their feet on the island, they could smell suspicions everywhere: The general staffs that help running the place do not seem like persons they could trust, the medical personnel sounds like someone with hidden agendas and the stale, depressing atmosphere in the asylum also screams that something else is really wrong. As the strange hurricane starts brewing, Teddy finds himself trap in this island, force to solve the puzzles and begins to realise that besides his inability to trust anyone in the island, could he really trust his colleague? And most important of all, could he trust himself, what he believes and what he sees happening before his eyes?

Shutter Island is indeed a book with layer upon layer of secrets. I have to admit that I only pick this up because I didn’t get the chance to watch the movie but seriously speaking, the mystery that waits me in this book make the hours spend reading it totally worth it. The beginning of the book might be a little slow as nothing really happen for quite awhile, though Lehane’s style of writing making these dragging parts somewhat entertaining. He uses them to establish the ground at which this story is set in and also gives a general overview on Teddy’s current and previous lives. I truly enjoy the way he portrays how the people in the 50’s are like: the way they talk, their manners and the issues that they talk about which I find entirely fit with the whole settings.

Another thing that really intrigues me is his grotesque description on how the mental healthcare really like in the 1950s. Lehane appears to me as an author who loves detail and this make it easier for readers to imagine the whole things that happen throughout the story. Besides crafting an excellently creepy settings, the author also succeed in developing an interesting, mysterious character. Teddy is indeed an unpredictable man that is  very hard to read. On the outside, he appears to be a strong, stubborn person, but in the inside, he is an entirely different person. It is fascinating to see how the author dissects this man little by little, to give readers a better understanding on who he really is.

Reading through Shutter Island is like walking in a huge maze. You may be expecting something at first but after being wrong for multiple times, you simply just wait for the real bomb to drop. I honestly didn’t see such revelation coming towards the end of the book and it literally made me sits down, reanalyse back what I’ve been reading. With its creepy setting and intense storyline, Shutter Island is indeed a must read!

Favourite Quote: He wanted to ask her what sound a heart made when it broke from pleasure, when just the sight of someone filled you the way food, blood, and air never could, when you felt as if you'd been born for only one moment and this, for whatever reason, was it - Teddy Daniels

A fantastical psychological thriller with such a brilliant concept that is full with numbers of major twists and turns. As you begin to believe in something, another twist unravel, bring you to a brand new storyline that will indeed take you by surprise. Are you a fan of mystery/thriller? If yes, then this is made for you!