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breanneporter's review
emotional
hopeful
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I’m not totally sure how to rate this one. It’s a very quick read and an interesting concept written in a fairly unique style, but I’m not sure I’ll be taking much away from it, and I was a bit disappointed by the ending. Shark Heart takes place in an alternate version of our timeline where humans can undergo mutations into other animals, and follows newlywed 35-year-olds, Lewis and Wren as Lewis transforms into a great white shark. It flashes back and forward through time, to both Wren’s and Lewis’ (but mostly Wren’s) childhoods and young adulthoods, and shows us the before, during, and after effects of Lewis’ transformation.
It’s certainly a whacky concept but it was an interesting thought experiment and I liked the format of the novel, which had short chapters and various “scenes,” as if from a play that Lewis was writing. I really liked Wren’s backstory and how her past was gradually revealed to us. I was engaged and interested to keep reading, but was disappointed by the ending.I didn’t particularly like Lewis’ final chapters, taking place in the ocean with the other human-turned-shark character, which I found just slightly too strange and cringey (I think the exaggerated audio narration may have played a part in this assessment) I also think the ending was a cop-out, with Wren being surprised by a pregnancy and giving birth to a daughter that becomes her whole reason for living. I’m not sure what it really said about love and grief in the end, or perhaps I’m just not sure it said anything new or interesting about either one. Also I hated the tiny pregnant woman storyline so much.
All in all it’s a fairly enjoyable short read and time will tell if it leaves a larger impression on me.
It’s certainly a whacky concept but it was an interesting thought experiment and I liked the format of the novel, which had short chapters and various “scenes,” as if from a play that Lewis was writing. I really liked Wren’s backstory and how her past was gradually revealed to us. I was engaged and interested to keep reading, but was disappointed by the ending.
All in all it’s a fairly enjoyable short read and time will tell if it leaves a larger impression on me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief
Moderate: Alcoholism, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, and Pregnancy
brinotbrie's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse and Body horror
Moderate: Animal death
Minor: Alcoholism
kmilazzo's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
You know it’s going to be a good book when it makes you tear up in the first 2 pages. I would’ve never expected to fall in love with a story about a man turning into a shark but here I am! What a creative, gut-wrenching, thoughtful, and intricate story that manages to evoke so many heavy feelings in such a careful way. The author takes some creative liberties with form throughout that are somehow cohesive and help the story come together. This one is the definition of “trust the process.”
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Grief, Drug abuse, and Addiction
Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, and Alcoholism
bridgetam's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Body horror, Blood, and Animal death
Moderate: Alcoholism and Domestic abuse
Minor: Abortion
dixiecarroll's review against another edition
emotional
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't to cry over a great white shark being lonely in the ocean. This was ultimately a portrait of grief and felt very much like a fever dream coping mechanism for someone who has experienced great and traumatic loss. This is a fast read - extremely easy to binge read in one sitting, but it is of the "weird" variety - duh. I recommend picking this up if you need to escape the reality of your own grief (or if you want to have a wild experience).
Content Warnings
Graphic: Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Abandonment, Death of parent, Grief, Terminal illness, Alcoholism, Animal death, Cannibalism, Blood, and Pregnancy
fkshg8465's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Hard to say how I feel about this book. I think the closest I can get to it is that it’s bittersweet. Love lost, family lost, family created, love found, metamorphoses, letting go, hope - these are all the things the book is about. Dispute its many unresolved issues, the ending still provides a kind of unexpected closure. The only open question for me is whether or why or how Wren is a common denominator no one in the book considers. Three people in her life, two of whom she loved dearly, end up with illnesses that are presumably extremely rare. Yet she knows three such people. So what is she doing to be on the receiving end of that so many times?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Child death, Grief, and Physical abuse
farrahwho's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
3.75
The surface of love was a feeling, but beyond this thin layer, there was a fathomless, winding maze of caverns offering many places to see and explore. Wren used to think romantic passion only grew more intense in the depths. But this belief was naive and impractical, a by-product of a certainty-obsessed culture that equates love with longing and views ambivalence as a fatal flaw. Wren saw now how passion was delicate and temporary, a visitor, a feeling that would come and go. Feelings fled under pressure; feelings did not light the darkness. What remained strong in the deep, the hard times, was love as an effort, a doing, a conscious act of will. Soulmates, like her and Lewis, were not theoretical and found. They were tangible, built.
this has lots of my favorite things: lyrical prose, exploring themes of love, loss, grief, hope, change, and relationships; magic realism elements (human-to-wild animal mutations). it was so easy to care for the characters and empathize with their experiences. i want to give wren a hug so bad!!
however, it is structured in one of my least favorite ways of story telling which is though a series of non-linear vignettes making it hard to follow at times. the vignettes seem to get sparser throughout, leaving much to be desired. it also experiments with formatting in the sense that some "chapters" are written as scenes of a play which is fitting given lewis's character, but i felt like there were many times where the flow of the story was disrupted because of it.
might be a nonsensical comparison to make but the writing style gave me slight alone with you in the ether meets our wives under the sea vibes? so if enjoyed the prose in those, there's a chance you'll like shark heart as well
overall, i still really enjoyed this as much as it broke then mended my heart. giving it a 3.75, but it is practically a 4 star
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Domestic abuse, and Grief
Moderate: Alcoholism
Minor: Animal death, Death, and Pregnancy
carlyjb16's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical content, Death, Chronic illness, Addiction, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Toxic relationship, and Grief
Moderate: Blood and Animal death
Minor: Pregnancy and Abortion
laura_berger's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Chronic illness and Grief
Moderate: Domestic abuse
Minor: Alcoholism, Pregnancy, and Drug use
servemethesky's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
I received an ARC of this book from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I took a chance on this book based on the intriguing description and I'm so glad I did! I'm a big fan of weird, dark books and surprisingly, this one was weird and...happy?! Ultimately, it's all about what it means to be a human and how all the mundane moments of daily life are what counts, not the big fancy accomplishments or material things that occupy so much of our mental energy.
It's fascinating to read others' reviews and see how people are interpreting the whole mutation into an animal thing. Lewis transforms into a great white shark, and as someone married to a person with depression, I read that mutation as being a metaphor for mental illness. Despite my mother dying of cancer, I didn't read it as a cancer metaphor like so many other readers did. I love that you can interpret the animal mutations any way you please--either way, humans are fallible, and life can throw all kinds of unexpected tragedies and traumas our way. What can we make of it when there's so much pain in the messy middle? How can we find joy?
At times, I found Lewis absolutely insufferable. He doesn't seem to see Wren as a whole person. Overall, Wren felt underdeveloped as a character despite being our protagonist. I LOVED the Angela section and by the end of it, I felt like I understood Angela more than Wren!
Sometimes it feels like this book is trying really hard to be deep, but I think sometimes it actually *is* deep. It may just depend on your mood when you read it.
Margaret C. Finnegan was a damn delight and I cackled picturing her singing Avril Lavigne songs to a miserable Lewis in the ocean.
Lastly, I'm glad there was no final scene where Wren and Joy meet Lewis in shark form, and no depiction of what Joy could mutate into someday. It's better without that cheesiness.
My only lingering qualm is... when the heck did Lewis have time to impregnate Wren?!? They could not have been having sex when he was 99% shark, right?!? I suspended disbelief the whole way through, and could not get past this one last thing haha.
I took a chance on this book based on the intriguing description and I'm so glad I did! I'm a big fan of weird, dark books and surprisingly, this one was weird and...happy?! Ultimately, it's all about what it means to be a human and how all the mundane moments of daily life are what counts, not the big fancy accomplishments or material things that occupy so much of our mental energy.
It's fascinating to read others' reviews and see how people are interpreting the whole mutation into an animal thing. Lewis transforms into a great white shark, and as someone married to a person with depression, I read that mutation as being a metaphor for mental illness. Despite my mother dying of cancer, I didn't read it as a cancer metaphor like so many other readers did. I love that you can interpret the animal mutations any way you please--either way, humans are fallible, and life can throw all kinds of unexpected tragedies and traumas our way. What can we make of it when there's so much pain in the messy middle? How can we find joy?
At times, I found Lewis absolutely insufferable. He doesn't seem to see Wren as a whole person. Overall, Wren felt underdeveloped as a character despite being our protagonist. I LOVED the Angela section and by the end of it, I felt like I understood Angela more than Wren!
Sometimes it feels like this book is trying really hard to be deep, but I think sometimes it actually *is* deep. It may just depend on your mood when you read it.
Lastly, I'm glad there was no final scene where Wren and Joy meet Lewis in shark form, and no depiction of what Joy could mutate into someday. It's better without that cheesiness.
My only lingering qualm is... when the heck did Lewis have time to impregnate Wren?!? They could not have been having sex when he was 99% shark, right?!? I suspended disbelief the whole way through, and could not get past this one last thing haha.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Death of parent, and Alcoholism