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Angelology by Danielle Trussoni
Blood Fruit edited by James E.M. Rasmussen
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again by Frank Cottrell Boyce
The Danish Girl by David Ebershoff
Deadly Décisions by Kathy Reichs
Demon Eyes by Scott Tracey
Emeraldalicious by Victoria Kann
Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett
f2m by Hazel Edwards and Ryan Kennedy
The Girl Who Ruled Fairyland - For a Little While by Catherynne M. Valente
Green by Laura Vaccaro Seeger
Highway Robbery by Kate Thompson
How to Dine on Killer Wine by Penny Warner
The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter
Mariana by Susanna Kearsley
One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia
Parrotfish by Ellen Wittlinger
The Pirate's Daughter by Margaret Cezair-Thompson
Polly and the Pirates 01 by Ted Naifeh
Poor Rich by Jean Blasiar
Rez Life: An Indian's Journey Through Reservation Life by David Treuer
Sapphique by Catherine Fisher
Sarah Emma Edmonds Was a Great Pretender by Carrie Jones
Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane
Six Chinese Brothers by Hou-Tien Cheng
Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith
This is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen
The Underneath by Kathi Appelt
Why Read Moby-Dick? by Nathaniel Philbrick

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Shutter Island: 02/28/13

cover art

Among book bloggers there seems to be two schools of thought on books to movies: read the book first or see the movie first. I fall into a third school � the "oh hey, this movie came from a book, who knew?" Which is pretty sad, considering I'm both a book blogger and a librarian, and a former film student. Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane is is one of my most recent "discoveries" after watching the film twice in short succession.

If you're wondering what the book is about — it's basically the movie, save for a few minor tweaks to better show rather than tell. If you haven't seen the movie — it's about an escaped convict running loose on a high security island and the two U.S. Marshals who are there to track her down in the middle of a raging hurricane.

As with any story involving a creepy, old, mental institution — whether occupied or not — there's bound to be mysterious happenings afoot. Cinematically, this goes all the way back to The Cabinet of Caligari. In either form — book or film — Shutter Island is firmly rooted in that tradition.

Although there is a twist (and there's always a twist), to the observant and genre savvy, there are clues sewn throughout the novel. As I listened to the book in audio, some of those clues weren't as obvious as they would have been in print form.

Five stars

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