Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Shutter by Ramona Emerson

25 reviews

katiecentabar's review against another edition

medium-paced

2.75

I wanted to like this more than I actually did

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

linnyb's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

awebofstories's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Police brutality, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

mmccombs's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

3.0

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Death of parent

bzliz's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

This supernatural thriller is told through a split timeline: half in the present day where Rita is a crime scene photographer and half in the past where she is growing up on a Navajo reservation, fostering a talent for photography and meeting with spirits of the dead. A particularly tenacious ghost- Erma Singleton- keeps inviting harm upon Rita for apparently not working hard enough to bring about justice for her death. Even after Rita is suspended from her job, Erma relentlessly hounds and haunts her, and she starts to piece together the truth of what happened. 

I don’t really feel like I know Rita even after finishing the book. Photography seems to run in her blood- her mother and grandmother also were bit by the bug- but I have no clue if she has a passion for it or if she does it but she’s good at it. Part of me thinks her lack of personality is showing readers how drained she is by the ghosts who haunt her. 

The descriptions can get grisly, particularly right at the beginning and at the judge’s house. The action takes a big backseat until the last third of the book when it really pops off. I was a little surprised by the ending because

I really thought it would make sense for Rita to die after her prolonged exposure to violent spirits so she can finally be free of their interference but instead she is condemned to life, forever aware of the ghosts of the dead that surround her.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Drug use, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

mayhem9683's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Drug use, Gore, Racism, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Eating disorder, Gun violence, and Alcohol

j_squaredd's review

dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

I think they did a disservice by marketing this book as a thriller. It only gets fast paced and thriller-y in the last quarter. The first three quarters is quite slow with not a lot of plot.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Drug use, Racism, Kidnapping, Car accident, and Alcohol

reading_and_roaming20's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

4.25

“I see dead people” but for a forensic photographer so sometimes the dead people want their murders solved. That’s Rita’s life plus outrageously long work hours and grizzly crime scenes. 

I had such a good time reading SHUTTER. The story flips back and forth between Rita’s past and present to give the reader a full picture of her life from childhood on a Navajo reservation to her adult life in Albuquerque. 

I enjoyed that Navajo beliefs and customs were seamlessly woven into a ghost story / mystery. I also really loved Rita’s journey with photography that led to her current predicament of a real unhappy ghost who vows to ruin her life if she doesn’t figure out whodunit. 

The crime scenes held nothing back (dude…that first one for real) and there were a few extra fun ghost-related moments. We also get to see a beautiful bond between Rita and her grandmother that is a consistent thread through the past and present narratives. 

There is so much more to this book than simply a murder mystery unraveling. It’s a bit of a slow burn on that front so if you’re looking for a fast-paced thriller with multiple big twists, this isn’t it. But it is a well told story of corruption, survival and culture with a supernatural twist that I’d highly recommend it any of that sounds like your thing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Blood, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

hcumbie's review against another edition

Too gory, too scary for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

jourdanicus's review

dark emotional medium-paced

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

4.5

I was so into this book I bought a copy of it on audio to supplement my library ebook copy. I wanted to get through it. It hooked me from the premise when I saw a hard copy in a book store, I knew I had to read it, and I'm glad I got to.

The story was propulsive, with believable (if not overly deep) characters and a fairly tight plot. I enjoyed the back and forth timeline. Aspects of Navajo beliefs, culture, and family history/life were woven in to a crime drama which didn't rely too heavily on trope.

I'd recommend to anyone who has a strong stomach for gore, appreciates a "gritty," dry female protagonist, and/or whose guilty pleasure is police procedurals but agrees with ACAB.

Edit/note: read ebook + listened to audiobook

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Car accident, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Violence, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Death of parent, Murder, and Colonisation

Minor: Drug use, Gun violence, Misogyny, Racism, Toxic relationship, Grief, and Alcohol