divineauthor 's review for:

Shark Heart by Emily Habeck

4.5

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“[…] joy and grief are human birthrights, but mostly, being alive is everything in between.”
—page 152, Lewis Woodard

some people hear ‘magical realism, experimental, nonlinear narrative’ and run for the hills, but i love a book that does something funky. i’m a freak like that. 

SHARK HEART is quick-footed and warm-hearted. there’s a deeply human quality to it—never mind that people are turning into animals—that leaks through every bit of it: the play scenes, the back-and-forth of the POVs, the enduring love between all these characters. it’s a love story, really. a bittersweet one. habeck’s prose is lyrical and curious about the world. my few qualms are how part two was handled; i came to appreciate the history of angela’s story that grounded wren and her experiences, but there was a long stretch of time where i simply was coasting along the narrative, not really diving in it. then by part three, i struggled to connect back to the love-grief of part one, but this could also be an issue if it being a debut. all in all though, i enjoyed it fr. i’m interested to see habeck’s upcoming work to see if her writing decisions affect her prose though. okay, that’s it. love n light y’all.