Hello Beautiful People! Welcome back to another Baddie Book Review! I hope you enjoyed my last post and I would love to hear some recommendations from other book lovers on books I should add to my want-to-read list.
Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane is honestly one of the best books I have ever read. The mind-fuckery that goes on in this book constantly kept me glued to the pages and I ate it up. If you are looking for a book that you can’t put down I definitely recommend this one. I will also say that I have never seen the movie so I didn’t have any idea going into the book the ending or the plot or anything.
The rating has to be a solid 10/10 on this one.
Band of Characters:
- Teddy Daniels: US Marshal who goes to Shutter Island to help locate a missing resident
- Chuck Aula: Teddy’s partner who accompanies him to the island
- Dolores Chanal: Teddy’s wife who was murdered by Andrew Laeddis
- Andrew Laeddis: A man who is a killer and is on Shutter Island
- Rachel Solando: The missing patient who is on Shutter Island for killing her children
- Dr Crawley: Chief of Staff at Ashecliffe Hospital
The book starts with a prologue from Dr. Sheehan that was weird and one that really made no sense to me until I finished the book. The book starts with Teddy Daniels on a ferry to Shutter Island which houses the Ashecliffe Institution. It’s a center for people who are mentally ill and have committed violent crimes. Both Teddy and Chuck, his partner, are US Marshals and the two are described as total opposites. While both are veterans Chuck is described to be soft, whereas Teddy is a scarred and tough man. Teddy’s wife Delores was murdered recently enough by an arsonist Andrew Laeddis. Along with this Teddy describes early on having an unhealthy relationship with his father as a child. I thought it was interesting these two were paired up. It seems like Chuck is kind of supposed to be the ‘good cop’ of sorts or the angel on Teddy’s shoulder. The two are at Ashecliffe because the institute has lost one of their patients. Rachel Solando was admitted because she was convicted of killing her children despite still believing them to be alive. Ashecliffe is known for using the no longer used methods for psychiatric patients like lobotomies and electric shock, along with inhumane medication regimens. The island itself is described as having really creepy vibes. It’s in the an inescapable island, that’s gray and dreary.
The two meet Dr. Crawley who runs the hospital. Dr. Crawley comes off to be a little bit of an ass. This all makes sense later on but it seems like he’s just annoyed to be there. Teddy and Chuck go to look at Rachel’s room. The joint is a shoe box and they see that there was nowhere for her to hide or escape from. They find this weird message ‘The law of 4, I am 47,+ You are 3, We are 4, but who is 67?” I’ll be honest I am not a riddles girl so I didn’t get this at all until it was explained. All in all Teddy and Chuck decide that with the security measures here she must have had help to get out of the building and has to still be on the island because there’s literally no way to get off.
The two learn that a doctor Sheehan left for vacation from the island around the time that Rachel went missing. Teddy and Chuck presume that the two fell in love and are living it up somewhere off the island. Crawley wants the men to stay on the island to look further but Teddy is insistent that they can’t do anything here and will head off the first Ferry in the morning. In the night Teddy dreams of Dolores. She tells him to count the beds and that Andrew Laeddis the man who killed her is a patient on the island. I thought this was interesting because it was such a vulnerable look into Teddy’s pain. It’s clear in this part that he missed Dolores desperately and I honestly felt really bad for him. When he wakes up he and Chuck discuss the fact that the storm happening means they probably won’t be leaving the island, and Teddy claims he has cracked Rachel’s code. I tried to follow and understand Teddy’s explanation of the code but I’ll be honest this made no sense to me. They break down the meaning for most of the code and it’s essentially on her life but they can’t figure out the 67 part. Dr. Crawley gives the boys a suspicious vibe in which he acts like he doesn’t know what the 67 means but the boys think he does. I thought this part was interesting because it seemed to be an important key to Teddy. It’s clear when reading this part that Teddy is very smart, and is good at decoding mysteries. The boys start to interview some other patients at the hospital and with one patient Teddy asks her if she knows of anyone named Andrew Laeddis. She seems afraid but says no that she doesn’t. Chuck questions Teddy on this and he tells Chuck about how Andrew killed his wife. We get a glimpse at Teddy’s last day with Dolores and we get a sense that Dolores was mentally unwell. I wondered for a bit what the point of this was. It made sense to me that Teddy was devastated by her death but this description of her was so different from the ones before so we got this very different sense of her. I think it is important though because it is clear that Teddy tries to keep the good things and the forefront of his memories.
Chuck finds out that Teddy had heard that Laeddis was transferred here some months before and was hoping to find him. Chuck is understanding but presses Teddy as to what the plan is. He doesn’t care if Teddy wants to kill or beat him up but just wants to know what he wants with Andrew. Teddy avoids the question. I think this part was really telling in that Teddy doesn’t even know what he wants with Laeddis, he just knows that he wants to find him. Teddy let one of the patients (the one whom he asked about Laeddis) write something in his notebook. When he and Chuck see what she wrote all it says is “run”. Chuck and Teddy go exploring the island and find a rock pile with 13 rocks. 13 came up in Rachel’s code and Teddy believes it’s a code from her so the two continue on looking. Teddy talks to Chuck (kind of out of nowhere) about the fact that he read that they may be using different drugs to experiment on the patients. He then spills that he has been looking into this place and Laeddis for a very long time. He apparently tried to come to the island a while ago to interview him but found that Ashecliffe said that they had no record of him being there. I feel like we now see a more damaged part of Teddy here. It’s clear his wife’s death has been eating at him for a long time. Apparently, Andrew was never convicted for the fire that killed his wife and it seems to me that he isn’t content enough with him being away for another crime and needs his admittance for being the one that killed his wife. Chuck finds it weird that Teddy had called Ashecliffe a year before and then gets assigned to the Rachel case. It seems that Chuck is supposed to be the conspiracy brain behind this story here, he seems to always be bringing up things like this. Chuck kind of freaks out a bit and starts throwing around that Rachel might not even be real and it’s all a trick to get Teddy there and never let him off. Teddy to calm Chuck down tells him that he’s been sent here by some senators who want to know exactly what all the money that goes to this place goes towards. I’ll be honest I did question Teddy a bit in this part, it all seemed a bit too coincidental that all of these things may fall into place, the connection to the senators being made to find out the wrongdoings, and Rachel going missing all so he could track down Laeddis.
The storm gets crazy and the men get back into the building. The storm is causing flooding and in the process, Teddy and Chuck find out that the institute houses 66 patients. Teddy concludes this must have to do with the part of Rachel’s code questioning who 67 was. All the staff insist there is no 67th patient and there are only 66. All of a sudden Crawley announces that they have found Rachel. At this part, I was like wtf? I honestly started to wonder if Chuck’s theory about Teddy being tricked to the island so he could not expose the institute was real because how did they find her all of the sudden? When they meet Rachel it’s clear she is mentally unwell. She believes she is home and her entire family is alive. Rachel believes Teddy to be Jim her dead husband who died in the war. Eventually, she comes back to her senses and gets very upset when she sees Teddy is not Jim. Teddy experiences a huge migraine and is given some medication from Dr. Crawley. At this point, I was like ‘DON’T DO IT DON’T TAKE THE PILLS’ because I was convinced Chuck was right and they were going to drug him or something.
After he takes the drugs Teddy has a weird dream. It has children in it (I thought Rachels) and Dolores in it. He dreams of Andrew as well. Teddy dreams of loving Rachel, and keeps interchanging Delores and Rachel. I thought at this part if Dolores was mentally ill maybe Teddy sees similar things in Rachel making him feel connected to her. Teddy and Rachel in the dream agree to make a new life, and Rachel says she’s alright now and won’t hurt their children. I wondered if this was to show how lonely Teddy is. He’s so desperate to get back the life he thought he was going to have that he’s desperate to make it with anyone who reminds him of the life he had. When Teddy wakes up Dr. Crawley is there and he asks Teddy who Dolores is. Teddy tells him about how much he misses her. When Teddy finds Chuck, Chuck says he snuck into Dr. Sheehan’s office. Chuck didn’t find much but found on his calendar he had days blocked off, on those days it said patient 67. That night Teddy thinks of Dolores and the start of their relationship. The way Teddy describes their love is one that’s very pure. Teddy gets a strike of genius I guess and starts looking at Rachel’s code again. He breaks it down (in a way I don’t understand) and figures out it spells out Andrew Laeddis. If I am being honest I was super confused at this point. I was wondering why Rachel would be telling Teddy something about Andrew. I was thinking that maybe Teddy was looking for something that wasn’t there and was just desperate for another sign that Andrew was here somewhere and he could avenge his wife. I started to wonder too if Teddy had some further connection to Rachel because he was dreaming of her and whatnot. I couldn’t think of how that would be though. Teddy then says he’s going to find Andrew and kill him.
The next morning Teddy and Chuck go for a walk around the facility. The storm is over and the institute is trying to repair all the damage from the night before. The two sneak into a different center in the building that houses clients who are also physically unwell. Teddy is hoping to find Andrew in here. They see one of the guards beating brutally on an inmate, and the fact that this building isn’t in the best shape. The guard says they could be on the brink of a riot due to the fact the island has no power and some of the generators aren’t working. Teddy runs into a patient who is down there named George Noyce. George is badly beaten and is upset with Teddy. He says Teddy was supposed to expose this place but all he is intent on doing is killing Andrew. George tells Teddy that Dr.Crawly is actually a specialist in violence and that all of this was for Teddy because they always knew. George questions Teddy on how well he knows Chuck. Teddy admits that this is his first time working with Chuck but that he trusts him. George tells Teddy that if he hasn’t found Andrew yet he can only be in one place and that’s the lighthouse. The lighthouse is the space where they do lobotomies and electric shocks. At this point, I was a bit confused about George and this conversation. The conversation went on like the two knew each other better. George seemed to know that he wanted to kill Andrew and I don’t get how he knew that. Teddy was promising to get him out of there and stuff and I didn’t understand why.
Chuck shows Teddy that while he was talking to George he found Andrew’s intake form. Teddy takes it but doesn’t look at it. I thought this was weird that he didn’t look at it because if I was him I would have been tearing that open. The two continue walking trying to head to the lighthouse and get lost. Chuck and Teddy get split up at some point.
***STOP IF YOU DON’T WANT ANY SPOILERS***
Teddy looks for Chuck and finds a cave on the island. Teddy finds a woman in there and concludes that this is the real Rachel. Rachel tells him that she never killed her children, never had any, and was actually a staff member at Ashecliffe. She tells him that the only people who get off this island are those who get their brains messed with (lobotomies). Rachel started to ask questions about the large amounts of weird drugs that they were receiving. She explains that they drug everything here, the food, the drinks, the cigarettes, everything. All in a radical experiment to see if they can heal the patients. She says that they won’t let him leave the island, they will figure out a way to keep him there. Teddy tells Rachel that he knew the one he was presented was a fake because her hair had been dyed recently. Before Teddy leaves she tells him that he has no friends on this island. I thought this part was so strange. The fact that there was even a real Rachel was surprising to me. I really started to think at this point that this whole thing was an elaborate ruse to trick Teddy to the island. They just used a patient they were already missing, found a double, and soon after Teddy would arrive they would ‘find her’.
Teddy heads back to the main building and finds the Warden there. The Warden and him chat and the Warden accuses him of being a violent man. The Warden says that he knows men like Teddy and has dealt with them for years. At this point, I was certain Chuck was right all along. Teddy goes looking for Chuck again but still can’t find him. Teddy finds Dr.Crawley and Crawley questions him about being in the medical ward earlier. Crawley tells Teddy that George is very unwell and to not listen to the things he says. Teddy asks Crawley about Andrew. Crawley denies knowing who he is. At this point, I knew something was up. Clearly, patients at the building knew who he was but staff were denying it. I assumed they did a procedure on him or something and wanted to hide it. When Teddy asks the doctor if he has seen Chuck he denies ever knowing Chuck and that Teddy arrived on the island alone. At this point, I thought Chuck was dead or something. I didn’t think this was one of the scenarios that Teddy was just imagining because other characters talked to Chuck and had conversations with him many times.
Teddy thinks Crawley is trying to trick him into seeming crazy so he can keep him here. He tries to play this off by then denying he ever brought up a partner. Teddy leaves the doctor and questions other staff as to if they have ever seen Chuck. The staff denies it but he gets one staff to kind of drop to him that he isn’t ‘crazy’. Teddy goes back to try to find Rachel in the cave but she’s not there anymore. I will say I did wonder a bit if Teddy was imagining things but I was still stuck on believing that Chuck and real Rachel were real. Teddy wakes in the cave to hear the warden talk to staff as they go to search for Teddy. Teddy starts thinking that Chuck is right and this was an elaborate ruse to get him on the island. Teddy tries to get to a ferry that has arrived on the island now that the storm is over. Teddy sets up an elaborate scheme to blow up Crawley’s car to create a distraction so he can get to the Ferry. Teddy takes down a guard and gets a gun. Teddy decides to go to the lighthouse instead in hopes of finding Andrew. Instead, he finds Crawley.
Crawley invites Teddy to sit. Teddy learns that Dr.Sheehan has been on the island this whole time. Crawley explains to Teddy that his migraines are because he’s currently detoxing off of a medication he’s been on for two years. Crawley tries to get Teddy to tell him what he did before he got on the Ferry but he can’t. Crawley tries to explain to Teddy that Edward Daniel and Dolores Chanal, are anagrams for Andrew Laeddis and Rachel Solando. Then Crawley breaks the dam and tells Teddy that he is Andrew and Andrew is Teddy. Now when I tell you I had to put the book down for a moment at this and say wtf I mean it. I was like there’s no way. Teddy is a sweet troubled man who lost his wife and Andrew is this arsonist, how do the two connect?
Crawley tells Teddy that as Andrew he compensated for the terrible things he has done by creating Teddy. Teddy is a vet widower who is incredibly smart and uses those smarts to help people, he is the anti-Andrew. Crawley tells Teddy that he was given four days to conduct this experiment. The experiment is one in which they take Andrew off his meds allowing him to become truly Teddy. They would play out the scene that Andrew has been presenting to them in the past two years (US marshal looking for a missing girl, on a mission to avenge his wife and expose the place) in order to see if this would allow Andrew to return. Crawley tells Teddy that if he failed to get Andrew to return he would be forced to send Teddy to the lighthouse. I wondered at this point if maybe Crawley was gaslighting Teddy or something.
Crawley tells Teddy that it can’t be a coincidence that Rachel Solando would have the same letters in her name as his wife Dolores and that Rachel killed her children just as his wife did. Now at this point, I was certain he was gaslighting because Teddy had never mentioned any children with his wife before her death. If anything he seemed depressed that they had never been able to get to that point before she left him. Now Crawley wrote out for Teddy, Edward Laeddis, Daniel Laeddis, and Rachel Laeddis, which sends a reaction through Teddy that he doesn’t understand. Crawley tells him that these were the names of his children. Teddy says those were Rachel’s children, not his. Now hold up… Why do the kids have Andrew’s last name? This was when it hit me that Crawley was not gaslighting and this was the big twist. Teddy is really Andrew and Rachel/Dolores is really his wife. Crawley tells Teddy that his wife was very ill. She burnt down their apartment and their therapist suggested Andrew move the family to a secluded lake house in order to help her. Crawley tells him that she was suicidal and that she hurt their children. Andrew had taken to drinking (Teddy had mentioned earlier in the book that he used to have a drinking problem) in order to hide from the issues at home and with Dolores. He ignored what was going on, and was told by many medical professionals that she was a danger to the children. Crawley tests Teddy to show him he’s a dangerous man and always has been. He gives him back the gun he arrived with and tells Teddy to use it as he pleases. Teddy picks up the gun and shoots Crawley and it’s only a water gun. I think what messed me up the most about the twist was I was kind of attached to Teddy. I was so sad to learn that he was just the figment of someone’s imagination. I had gotten pulled into his story and his hurt and to a degree it was real, but still, it was kind of like he died without dying.
After this Chuck comes into the room and the man in a damn lab coat. So it was all true. This damn hospital actually did a crazy thing and re-enacted a patient’s fantasy and illusions. They allowed him to become Teddy in a clear mind and allowed him to become a Teddy that lived and felt. Fucking crazy. Then they drop that he CHUCK is Dr.Sheehan. He was right under Teddy’s nose the whole time but because Teddy lived in a different consciousness than Andrew it allowed Dr.Sheehan to be a different person to Teddy. Sheehan and Crawley tell Teddy that they played his fantasy as he had been describing it to them to a tee. Teddy questions them about the hurricane and they admit they can’t create one but they can predict one. They tell Teddy that Andrew beat George up, and that’s because when he was Teddy he had called him Andrew, and this was what he was and did. He was a danger and if they couldn’t fix him his brain was going for a scramble. They show him the last of the code spells out ‘you are him’ and that it was Andrew’s way of trying to tell Teddy. Teddy won’t break so they take him away. A nurse enters the cell they put him in and it’s the woman who was pretending to be Rachel.
That night Teddy dreams and he dreams of his wife and his children. He dreams of Dolores, and it’s clear she was very mentally unwell. It’s also clear she was desperately trying to tell her husband about her feelings and he ignored them or didn’t want to deal with them. When he arrives home one day he finds that he didn’t lock her medication up and that she had taken it all. Along with this, she was all wet. When he goes into the back of their lake house he finds all of his children floating in the water and they are dead. He notices when retrieving their bodies that she had tied them up and drowned them one by one. This just made me so sad. I will say that the time of this book is in the 1950’s. Mental health specifically women’s mental health was not taken seriously at all. Things like depression and postpartum were things that people were scared of and were taboo. If you experienced these you were crazy and could not be helped other than to be locked up and over-medicated. I do believe that if Dolores received legitimate help she would have been able to be around her children safely. Her mental illness absolutely made her a danger to her children but this didn’t make her a bad person, or one who couldn’t receive help. She then asks Andrew to kill her, and he does. When Andrew wakes up he is well Andrew. Crawley and Sheehan talk to him and he accepts that he is Andrew and killed his wife after she killed their children.
In the next chapter, Andrew goes to Dr.Sheehan, and it’s not Andrew it’s Teddy. Dr.Sheehan is disappointed but assumes this will happen. We can only assume that Teddy is headed to get his brain messed with, as it ends with Chuck and Teddy wondering if Ashecliffe is onto them.
I thought this was a really incredible book, one that keeps you guessing the whole time. I wondered if we don’t really learn that Andrew and Teddy are one and the same so late in the book to create such a divide between the two. I am sure that there are some parts of Teddy that are very similar to Andrew but in all reality, we don’t totally know who Andrew is as a person. We have the Andrew that Teddy knows which is an old custodian who likes to light things on fire, and then there is the real Andrew who was a US Marshal who drank to ignore his family. Then there is the Teddy that Teddy told us about, and the Teddy (Edward) who was Andrew’s son who was murdered by his mother. In reality, we don’t know what Andrew’s perspective of the Teddy we know is. I think this book is also just a sign that we all just want to find a way to hide from the horrors of the world. Whether we create another personality, drink our way out of it, or hide in other ways, we all hide. Crawley hid from the fact that his business (the hospital) was failing and was doing horrid acts by playing out these elaborate therapies that harm people more than heal in the hopes of maybe having a breakthrough. He and Sheehan acted as though they wanted to try to keep Andrew from a lobotomy but I think if that was true they could just do that, and even if Andrew is violent that doesn’t mean he deserves to be turned into a zombie. I think the fact is as well that Andrew did not want to live with what happened and Teddy made that happen. Andrew was never going to return and he was always going to have his brain messed up because that’s better than being forced to be Andrew.
Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed it! Please feel free to leave comments below on our thoughts or recommendations, or reach out on social media @baddiebookreviews
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