Shutter by Courtney Alameda (ARC) Review

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Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

Genre: Young Adult, Horror, Paranormal, Fantasy, Thriller, Romance

Release Date: February 3, 2015

Pages: 384

Goodreads Summary

Horror has a new name: introducing Courtney Alameda.

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 Review

I'm speechless I seriously am, I feel like none of what I say could ever give this book justice. It was that amazing (for the lack of a better word)! This book apart from the horror and non-stop action had such wonderful written character's that I can't even begin to describe my love for them. The plot was to die for, it kept me glued to this book until the middle of the night and even when my eyes were getting watery I couldn't stop until I reached the end, I had to know. Yes, there was horror and enough gore to go around which would normally scare me off but I was caught off guard because I couldn't put it down.

Micheline is one character that will forever stay in my mind she was just so hurt and her past was so tragic and yet she managed to keep going (I don't want to spoil anything but my heart really hurt for her! The guilt and pain she felt was so heart wrenching). She was such an amazing heroine and I just have so much respect for her! She could kick some ghost ass like nobody else but she could also be very stubborn and that was one of her shortcomings but at the same time I believe her strength came from her stubbornness and that kept her from falling into a black hole of despair. She was cold, calculating and, intense (other character's stated this a lot) she had to be though in order to save her loved ones and herself which wouldn't be easy but she knew she had try even when it seemed impossible and that to me is a true brave heroine.

Ryder the love interest, he was just all kinds of kick ass! I love him he was a little rough around the edges but when it came to Micheline his soft side came out. She brought the best out of him and so did he, they were each other's strength. You could tell they truly cared for one another even when they tried to stay away from each other because they couldn't be together since she's a Helsing and he's not. Their struggles and their pain felt so real to me! You would think that with trying to save themselves from a horrible death, there wouldn't be enough room for romance (at least I did) but there was most definitely romance and I loved it completely. It was a wonderfully done romance (none of that instalove or triangle drama) it grew from friendship to love. It was just beautiful to read about and I gushed every time they just brushed hands the chemistry you guys the chemistry it was very swoon-worthy. Oh and don't worry the romance didn't take over the story completely it fit right in without being the sole purpose of the book which I love.

The side character's were just as amazing as well Oliver and Jude just added to my love for this book Jude especially. Oliver was the techno-wiz for the operation and Jude was the strong boy with the devil-may-care attitude at least that's what he lead his friends to believe and also able to predict people's death . All of them together were amazing they could crack jokes even in the face of danger although they would sober up quickly when it became serious and the banter between Jude and Ryder I just loved. I grew to care for their character's as well! They were all just such powerful character's because they made me feel so much emotion and made me want to scream and cry at the same time. They were all just so brilliantly written!

The horror part of the book was spot-on! There was gore which was very gruesome and the descriptions were very well done as well, I could picture all of it, down to the severed eye sockets *shudders* and it totally gave me goosebumps and heart palpitations. There were ghost's, demons, mirrors which are portals for the dead, ouija boards there was just so much horror and creepiness in this book that I will never look at a mirror/ouija board the same again.

Shutter was just all kinds of amazing and it's one book you definitely won't want to miss!

Rating: 5 stars