Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane – Review and Thoughts
Federal Marshal Teddy Daniels arrives at Shutter Island, home to Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane. Teddy Daniels has traveled to Shutter Island to look for a missing patient with his new partner, Chuck Aule.
Already having seen the movie, I wanted to experience the genius of this story again and read Lehane’s writing.
My thought process during:
When I first began reading, I partially remembered this movie (I think I first saw it last year or in 2021). I got to page 40ish and BAM! The whole ending hit me. I was so proud of myself that my memory worked so well to have remembered this heavy plot full of twists. As I read, I waffled between enjoying seeing how the book was written and curious how Lehane would tie in the ending and being so mad that I remembered the ending.
Honestly, I’m pretty disappointed that I had remembered the ending while I was reading. But seeing as Lehane constructed this suspenseful, stormy mystery I will definitely be reading more of his works. I did LOVE the combination of the code with mental illness. It gave me a Dan Brown vibe with a touch of a couple of my grad school experiences that led me to begin thinking of how some people with severe mental illness are more intelligent and creative. (Similar to my previously proposed theory that also the most artistic people had very traumatic childhoods.) And seeing how I have Mystic River on my TBR and I just read a two-star review where the reader proposed that Mystic River is better, I’m ready to dive into that. The rest of my TBR and the 10 books I just got from the library can wait, I need Mystic River now.
“‘I believe in talk therapy, basic interpersonal skills. I have this radical idea that if you treat a patient with respect and listen to what he’s trying to tell you, you just might reach him.’”
Dr. John Cawley, Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane
I actually found Cawley as a very relatable psychologist (not that I’m a psychologist). I agreed full-heartedly on his position of treating with pharmacology – that medication should be used when a patient has no other options, has not been making any progress, or there is an emergency. But that can be mitigated with talk therapy (which is so useful), and it seems to me that psychology has taken the same perspective as the rest of Westernized life – that we need a fast solution. Obviously this does not encompass all psychologists currently practicing, but this is just what I see a lot with those I had gone to school with who are in PhD programs currently.
Read on.
Alessandra is reading... 
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