SHUTTER ISLAND by Dennis Lahane

(William Morrow)

Best for: older teens and adults

READ...

Teddy Daniels and Chuck Aule are U.S. Marshals who, in the summer of 1954, take a ferry to Shutter Island. But this isn't a pleasure cruise. The only thing on Shutter Island is Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane, and these agents are traveling there to search for an escaped patient, Rachel Solando. As their search progresses they're hampered by a hurricane, cryptic clues left by the escaped woman, and the evasive answers of the hospital staff. And the longer they're on the island, the more it appears to Teddy Daniels that something else is going on at Ashecliffe--such as drug experimentation on patients and using patients as surgical guinea pigs. It even seems that someone is manipulating events to make it appear that Daniels himself is criminally insane. 

Dennis Lehane has fashioned a gripping and twisty thriller in Shutter Island. He's begun with a lead character with whom readers quickly empathize. Teddy Daniels is both a federal agent striving to do what's right in a bizarre situation, and he's a husband grieving for his dead wife. Then Lehane tosses Teddy into a strange setting with patients who are clearly insane and doctors who seem indifferent to the escaped patient. To top it all, the man who killed Teddy's wife should be a patient at Ashecliffe, but Teddy can't find any record of him. It's a strange world, and readers find themselves rooting for Teddy and wanting to mentally warn him of the dangers ahead. "Don't take the pill!" "Don't borrow clothes from the orderly!" "Don't go out in the storm!" But our warnings fall on deaf ears, so we have to read faster to discover what's going to happen. And when it's over and you figure out the truth, you may have to go back and read it all again.

Even though Shutter Island deals with several murders, it's light on gore. The book does include foul language and sexual references. There is no "Christian" content, but it deals with a longing to know the truth, and to be set free by that truth.

THINK...

• Even though many of his patients are murderers, Dr. Cawley says, "I can't help their victims. It's the nature of any life's work that it have limits. That's mine. I can only concern myself with my patients." What's your opinion of this view? 

• Doctors go to incredible lengths to bring the truth to Teddy. What lengths would you be willing to go to to be sure someone else understood truth?

• In Shutter Island there's a difference between what is true and what we perceive to be true. How is this like real life? Have you ever heard the saying, "My mind's made up. Don't confuse me with the facts"? When do you treat truth with this attitude? 

• How is Teddy finally "set free" by the truth? Why does this truth fail him in the end? How is this different from the truth we know in Jesus Christ?

LIVE!

Read John 3:16-21. How does this passage relate to the story in Shutter Island? More importantly, how does this passage relate to the reality of your own life? Are you living by the truth? What would it take to bring you into the light? 

If you were intrigued by SHUTTER ISLAND, you might also enjoy: 

Mystic River by Dennis Lehane (HarperTorch)

Three boys from various backgrounds play in the street. A car drives up and two men convince one of the boys to get into the car with him. A few days later, the child escapes, only to return to a life of sorrow and mental torment. 

Years later, the boys are grown and are still loosely connected. One, Jimmy Marcus, is a reformed criminal who learns his beloved daughter has been brutally murdered. Another, Sean Devine, is now a police officer who must investigate the murder. And the last, Dave Boyle, is a suspect. 

In Mystic River Lehane creates a slow-paced story that never lets go of your heart. The sadness of the lives of the boys, and the sadness they cannot escape, is haunting. The book raises a few good questions. Can people really change? How do people become hardened to the misery of others? Who can truly heal us?

One other thought--I found Lehane's choices in names for some of his characters interesting. I can understand his use of Devine and Boyle. Can anyone shed some light on the name Marcus and ideas on the significance of this name? 

Due to graphic content, best for older teens and adults. 

Out of Time

When retired submarine commander J. D. Stanton takes two college-aged assistants and five troubled high school students onto the ocean in a catamaran, he expects the journey to have its adventures. He expects the crew to grow closer, and he expects the teens to learn from the experience. What he doesn't expect is that they'll face a damaging storm, then be thrust into a mist-filled space of nothingness. Or that they'll lose all power. Or that they'll come upon an abandoned pre-WWI battleship that's been missing for nearly a century.

Out of Time is full of mysteries and disasters. It's one of those stories where it seems that nothing more can go wrong, yet more does go wrong. And then some! 

This book is a good one for early teens through adults. It's characters demonstrate faith and courage in the face of daunting (and truly bizarre) circumstances. Gansky allows the teens to be heroic, which will certainly appeal to younger readers, and he keeps the story clean of profanity or other objectionable content.