SHUTTER by Courtney Alameda

Review by Paola

SHUTTER
by Courtney Alameda
Hardcover: 384 pages
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends (February 3, 2015)
Language: English
Goodreads | Amazon

Micheline Helsing is a tetrachromat -- a girl　who　sees the auras of the undead in a prismatic spectrum. As one of the last descendants of the Van Helsing lineage, she has trained since childhood to destroy monsters both corporeal and spiritual: the corporeal undead go down by the bullet, the spiritual undead by the lens. With　an　analog SLR camera as her best weapon, Micheline exorcises ghosts by capturing their spiritual energy on film. She's aided by her crew: Oliver, a techno-whiz and the boy who developed her camera's technology; Jude, who can predict death; and Ryder, the boy Micheline has known and loved forever.

When a routine ghost hunt goes awry, Micheline and the boys are infected with a curse known as a soulchain.　As the ghostly chains spread through their bodies, Micheline learns that if she doesn't exorcise her entity in seven days or less, she and her friends　will die. Now pursued as a renegade agent by her monster-hunting father, Leonard Helsing, she must track and destroy an entity more powerful than anything she's faced before . . . or die trying.

Lock, stock, and lens, she’s in for one hell of a week.

I am in love with Courtney Alameda. I want her to write a hundred books so I can read them all. She impressed me that much. Shutter was in my radar but it wasn't a priority. I can't believe how wrong I was to overlook it.

One of the best things about Shutter is that the action never stops. There are countless fighting scenes and fun surprises along the way. The reading experience was thrilling and I don't say that often. I didn't have to wait for something to happen and that's an awesome feeling. Everything fell into place rather quickly, which is both a blessing and a curse. I love fast paced novels but I also wanted this one to last forever. I guess we can't have it all.

Even though I loved most of the characters, my one complain is that they were very bland. The main character, Micheline, is amazing (read: strong) but the rest are just there. All of the secondary characters are very superficial and I really wish that I knew more about them. The little glimpses of personality and background were good enough to keep me reading but I wanted so much more. Maybe I'm just being picky because I really enjoyed everything else. I'm assuming Shutter is a standalone but I'm hoping it isn't. I want more of this world and I want it now.

If you like not-too-scary stories and want to check out an amazing new voice, definitely pick this one up! You won't regret it.

Paola

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