Review: Shutter by Courtney Alameda

Title: Shutter

Author: Courtney Alameda

Genre: YA, paranormal, horror

Publication date: February 2015

Published by: Feiwel & Friends

Source: Owned Hardcover

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Synopsis:

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.

My rating: ★★★★☆
I was very excited to read this one because it just sounded so amazing! I mean, not only was it horror, but it involved descendants of Van Helsing! How awesome does that sound?

The Van Helsing premise is definitely what caught my attention, and I loved it! I also love how there was a connection to Dracula... very creative! Overall, the plot was very interesting and fun—this whole world was fun and interesting! The idea of being a tetrachromat and having the ability to see the “spiritual auras of the dead,” was creative and so up my alley! Micheline herself was a pretty kickass, strong female lead. I very much liked her. She is smart, too, figuring out that you can capture ghosts on film using a camera. I love how that was explained ‘cause it actually made sense!

All the other supporting characters were great, too. I really enjoyed seeing the group interact with each other on these ghost hunts as colleagues, but also as friends. Plus, some of them have some pretty cool abilities as well. The character I particularly loved was Jude—he was just so funny! There was also some romance between Micheline and Ryder, which wasn’t on the forefront, but was absolutely fine with me! It was very sweet and I enjoyed it.

As for the horror aspect of this, it wasn’t that scary to be honest. Which is a shame ‘cause that was one of the things I was wanting out of this book. But I pretty much watch horror movies on a daily basis, so I don’t scare easily. Okay, maybe it did have some creepy creatures. Plus, it was also quite thrilling and suspenseful with a lot of fun action!

I also found that some parts of the book were quite predictable. I mean, those plot twists? Yeah, not surprising. I figured out that stuff way ahead of time. But overall, I actually really enjoyed this book! Even though it wasn’t that scary for me, I did appreciate the creepy setting and wonderful writing.

Oh, and hey, I also did some nail art inspired by this book ;)



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Have you read this book? If so, what did you think about it? If not, what do you think? Does it sound like something you might want to read? Leave me a link to your review or comment below! :)