A review by kdawn999
The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall

4.0

3.5--This was fun but imperfect. The beginning is exciting since both we and the protagonist don't know who he his, so it's interesting and mysterious to put the pieces of his life together from clues his former self left behind. But the Memento plot is fully supplanted when we break reality and our protagonist goes on the run from a fantastical, thought-eating shark. The creative and witty turns the story takes make it worth reading. The imperfect parts have to do with the romance in which we're treated to the manic-pixie-dream-girl trope. Things are just a little to cutesy and awkward here as we see the author reaching for poignant insight on loss and memory--something like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I also wish the new world of "unspace" had been explored and that more characters had been introduced in this realm. But I won't soon forget the creative recasting of the end of the movie Jaws or the grumpy cat who makes the entire journey with them.