Shutter by Courtney Alameda: Aaand I'm done

Shutter 

by 

Courtney Alameda

I picked this book out during my Halloween Top Ten Tuesday. Why? I’m not actually sure. I knew that there was a group of people tasked with hunting and trapping the ghosts, that the protagonist caught said ghosts with the use of an old camera, 

and that she and her fellows had a time limit with very deadly consequences.  

So I picked it up.

               And yet I have come to the conclusion that ghost stories and I don’t get along.

 Shutter was definitely better than most but honestly the bar wasn’t set very high in the first place.

Characters

Micheline: Can somebody tell me how to pronounce this chick’s name.

 I basically got to Mi-shi-line and kind of stuck with that. Micheline was O-Kay I guess. At least she was more active than the average YA horror protagonist. But GAH! she could be a fool. Y’all I don’t care who a person is to you. If they hit you that is a freaking no, no. Micheline’s dad is the aforementioned freaking no, no.

Ryder: hello vaguely one dimensional love interest. Don’t get me wrong there are so many characters that are way flatter than Ryder was. Still he didn’t really have anything else about his character except for . . . fighting? Totally in love with Micheline? 

 Okay he’s pretty flat.

Jude: I have said this before and I will say it again. It is quite disgusting enough when a full grown man is a womanizer. Much less some random teenager. Dialog wise I would venture to say that Jude had the most distinct voice, I just didn’t really like him. Sure he was interesting. Apparently he had some weird ability to read people’s blood. In dead people’s blood he could see the events leading up to their death which was cool. But in living people he could see their most likely death.

Oliver: Aww adorable little computer whiz. Who goes *poof* around the halfway mark because ghost/demonic possession.

Likes

There were some actually disturbing things: I’m looking at you strange flesh scorpion. Who definitely didn’t come straits from the depths of a Diablo game. Hopefully the fourth one, because I really want to play that one. Anyways the creepy factor was really turned up in this book. I’m really not one to get scared of books but I was at the very least grossed out by a few scenes and certainly put off by a few more.

I actually really liked the idea of capturing a ghost with a camera: It was very unique but well explained. Well I say well explained. There were several paragraphs describing how they caught a ghost by taking pictures of it but . . . I may just be dumb. 

I didn’t really follow the explanation but I still think the camera thing was cool.

Let’s talk about the distrustful hint giver trope: I’m sure that everyone has read about this guy in a book. The person who is most certainly untrustworthy but who seems to know exactly what’s going on. They offer hints or advise for the plot, at a price. For some strange reason . . . 

*cough* plot advancement *cough* 

the protagonist always take the information from said shady character.

  BTW

  

Shutter has one such shady character. And for once the main character does not take Shady’s advice. And terrible consequences ensue. Which actually gives the characters a reason to follow the questionable advice. I am so impressed okay. I really liked that bit.   

Dislikes

The characters could be quite frustrating: There were times when I just wanted to smack everyone in this story. Micheline could be incredibly selfish. Ryder was constantly doing whatever Micheline wanted him to do with his discount personality. 

Jude was extremely derogatory towards any female who wasn’t Micheline. Meanwhile Oliver was sort of cool but he disappeared before I could start liking him.

Plot twist was obvious: Oh no! A scary ghost is terrorizing the main characters. Who on earth could it be? Surely not the only dead character in the narrative?

 But I’ve probably just read too much. Pfft no such thing. However unlike usual I can’t really think of something better so . . . I don’t know what to tell you.

Ultimately I think I’m done with the YA horror genre. It just doesn’t do it for me. I really do like ghost stories but I like them for their mystery not their scare-factor. The idea of running into the shade of a former person and having to sift through the facts of a fifty? Hundred? Or two hundred year old murder case is just interesting to me. Unfortunately these books just aren’t that. 

For now. I think I'm done with this genre.