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A review by shansometimes
Shark Heart: A Love Story by Emily Habeck
4.5
Shark Heart strikes an impressive balance between beauty and bizarreness. The writing is poetic and stunning, and the premise is weird, but the author somehow conveys the intense emotions one might have if their new husband starts turning into a shark.
The story subtly and obscurely comments on what it means to love deeply and commit yourself to someone and mirrors the grievous process of slowly losing someone you love to a terminal condition. Outside of being emotive, Shark Heart was witty in a charming way. But it could've been silly in a dumb way if the author hadn't done it with so much feeling and flair (and this is coming from someone who has thought almost every other magical realism story I've read was corny).
I almost gave it five stars just because it made me cry twice, but I didn't love all of the writing choices. There were many storylines, and not all of them served the plot. Still, Shark Heart represents a lot of what I love about literary fiction (although I see how this could be called sci-fi or fantasy): don't just tell me that this man has a great white shark mutation condition and his wife is sad—show me how the hearts around him break a little more each time his skin changes or he grows a fin. Show me, through the kind of ridiculous assertion that a human could turn into a shark, how it feels to begin to lose someone who is technically still alive. Show me what it's like to no longer recognize yourself, lose control of your life and actions, and watch your unfulfilled dreams slip away.
And show Shark Heart did. I had to "suspend my disbelief" to get the message and metaphor, but when I did, this love story felt as real as any other. It didn't make perfect sense for the world I live in, and it was still a powerful, imaginative picture of grief and loss. I didn't exactly believe it, and I didn't have to. It still made me feel it.
The story subtly and obscurely comments on what it means to love deeply and commit yourself to someone and mirrors the grievous process of slowly losing someone you love to a terminal condition. Outside of being emotive, Shark Heart was witty in a charming way. But it could've been silly in a dumb way if the author hadn't done it with so much feeling and flair (and this is coming from someone who has thought almost every other magical realism story I've read was corny).
I almost gave it five stars just because it made me cry twice, but I didn't love all of the writing choices. There were many storylines, and not all of them served the plot. Still, Shark Heart represents a lot of what I love about literary fiction (although I see how this could be called sci-fi or fantasy): don't just tell me that this man has a great white shark mutation condition and his wife is sad—show me how the hearts around him break a little more each time his skin changes or he grows a fin. Show me, through the kind of ridiculous assertion that a human could turn into a shark, how it feels to begin to lose someone who is technically still alive. Show me what it's like to no longer recognize yourself, lose control of your life and actions, and watch your unfulfilled dreams slip away.
And show Shark Heart did. I had to "suspend my disbelief" to get the message and metaphor, but when I did, this love story felt as real as any other. It didn't make perfect sense for the world I live in, and it was still a powerful, imaginative picture of grief and loss. I didn't exactly believe it, and I didn't have to. It still made me feel it.