Reviews with content warning for Injury/Injury detail - 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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bzliz's review against another edition

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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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mayhem9683's review

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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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j_squaredd's review against another edition

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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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reading_and_roaming20's review against another edition

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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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hcumbie's review against another edition

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Too gory, too scary for me.

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