I approached Shelter by New York Times Bestselling author Harlan Coben with the healthy amount of skepticism I approach all books where the author’s name is larger than the title of the book.  In spite of myself, I was begrudgingly surprised.  

This book was published back in 2011 as Coben’s YA debut, and since I have been digging around for more male YA protagonists, which are under-represented in our database, I decided to give it a try.  I am not a Coben reader, but the protagonist, Mickey, is the nephew of the protagonist in Coben’s Myron Bolitar series for adults.

Shelter is a mystery/thriller that starts out the set-up and action quickly.  The set-up is typical:  new kid at new high school with his own set of problems.  The cast is typical:  handsome new kid with athletic abilities, mysterious girlfriend, nerdy guy, cheerleader, outcast Goth girl, etc.  Nothing too novel and not deep character development in this read, except for the supporting character Ema.  However, be ready for some twists and turns plot wise that pull together seemingly unrelated events nicely.  Quite satisfying from an action and storyline perspective.  This book is a fast read and perfect escapist fiction.

Content Analysis:

Profanity/Language:  4 religious exclamations; 2 mild obscenities; 1 scatological word; 7 anatomical term.

Violence/Gore:  Report of death of a parent in an car accident and referenced several times throughout book; bullies threaten multiple times to beat-up a teenager; fight in school parking lot between two students, some minor injuries; man hits and punches teenage boy, fight with injuries; report of kidnapping; teenagers come upon a crime scene after a burglary and man has sustained injuries; man attacks a teenager and beats badly with intent to kill; man shot by another man, brief; teenage girl shows inflicted cigarette burns on arm; reports of verbal threats; girl tied up in chair and threatened at knife point; extended fight scene involving hitting, biting, punching, hitting with vehicles, etc.; hostage threatened at knifepoint.

Sex/Nudity:  Bullying/teasing about a boy not having luck with a girl; teenage boy looks at a photograph and thinks one of the girls looks hot; report of kissing; boy thinking about kissing a girl; report that his mother “got pregnant” with him when she was young; report that a girl’s tryout dance was racy; teenage boy lies about age and enters strip club, general descriptions about the premises and activities; teenage girls audition for strip club, one removes shirt but no details (implied bra still on); innuendo.

Mature Subject Matter:

Death of a family member, murder, kidnapping, bullying, white slavery, drug addiction and rehabilitation, strip clubs, breaking and entering.

Alcohol / Drug Use:

Dancer tries to get a teenager to buy her a drink in a strip club; drinking in a strip club; a parent is addicted to drugs and in rehab; joke about steroid needles; teenage son had to get his doped up mother from a bar; minors enter a strip club on a couple of different occasions; adult smokes.