Common Sense Media Review
By Michael Berry
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Scary horror thriller offers a fresh take on old monsters.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 14+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Read
What's the Story?
One of the last descendants of the infamous, vampire-killing Van Helsing lineage, Micheline Helsing is a "tetrachromat," able to see the auras of the undead and dispatch them with either a bullet (if they're zombies) or a camera lens (if they're ghosts). What should have been a routine ghost hunt turns deadly, and Micheline and the three male crewmates get infected with a curse known as a soulchain. With only a week to live, Micheline and her friends must unearth deadly family secrets and learn the identity of the powerful entity haunting them before it's too late.
Is It Any Good?
SHUTTER earns points for bringing a new set of trappings to the traditional monster-hunter story. Using photography as a weapon against ghosts is ingenious, and author Courtney Alameda makes the most of her unusual conceit. Shutter is hip, action-packed, and genuinely scary. The plot feels a bit overstuffed with complications, but most readers are likely to enjoy the wild ride.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about why ghosts, zombies, and vampires are such enduring figures in literature and popular culture. Why do writers and readers return to them so frequently?
Why do some writers choose to set their fiction in "alternate" versions of real-life settings? What advantages do they gain by mixing fact and fiction?
What happens when parents and their children have very different expectations of what family tradition means? What are productive ways to express the differences between yourself and the older generations of your family?
Book Details
- Author :
- Genre : Horror
- Topics : Fantasy ( Magic ) , Adventures
- Book type : Fiction
- Publisher : Feiwel and Friends
- Publication date : April 8, 2015
- Publisher's recommended age(s) : 14 - 17
- Number of pages : 384
- Available on : Nook, Hardback, Apple Books, Kindle
- Last updated : September 30, 2025
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