Book Review: Shark Heart by Emily Habeck
A blend of contemporary and magical transformations disguised as illnesses, Shark Heart is filled with love and loss, grief and the humanity that it takes to move on. Read my full review of Shark Heart below.
Book Information
Wren and Lewis are newlyweds filled with romantic bliss. For Wren, this is the happiness she never thought she’d find after all of the pain she’s experienced in her life. For Lewis, this is the beginning of his fairytale; a screenplay not yet written on their fantastical lives. All of that changes when Lewis is diagnosed with a mutation. Soon he will become a great white shark.
Years before this, Wren’s own mother, Angela works through loneliness and love. As she grows older and raises her daughter, Angela finds many things difficult to stomach. Mainly, though, it is the thought that she will one day have to leave her daughter.
Told with the dual timelines, Shark Heart shows the hardships of caring for sick loved ones and the feelings that overcome those who are sick. Through it all, though, love shows.
Review | Heidi Dischler
Wow. This was something else. When I read that it would be a love story, this is not what I was expecting.
The characters that we get to focus on are SO multi-dimensional. Each had aspirations. Hopes. Fears. Longings. I fell in love with them all. Lewis wanted to be a writer above all, but fear held him back from trying to conquer his dreams. Wren wanted to love and be loved, but her fear of abandonment kept her from it until Lewis came along. Angela was…. I don’t even know how to describe her except that her story made me so so sad.
Phew, and the story? Wow. Again. Like it’s just ordinary life stuff that happens to many people. You lose someone that you love. You find out the one you love isn’t who you expected them to be. You learn to move on. But the way all of these are presented? It brings these moments in life to a higher level. These characters are literally transforming into animals and it’s considered a disease. At first, I thought it was supposed to be comical. Then, I realized how it was showing something so much deeper that it left my head spinning more than once.
I was confused at first why we jumped back in time to Angela’s story, but I’m gonna be honest here in saying that I liked her story more than Wren and Lewis’. That could be because Angela’s had more depth to it, though.
One thing that I don’t particularly like is that this book is marketed as a love story. I don’t find this to be that much of a love story. Yes, you get Lewis and Wren and Wren’s unfailing ability to care and love Lewis through his mutation. Yes you get Angela and her love interests. The real center of this story, though, in my honest opinion, is the bond between a mother and her child. In my opinion, marketing this book as a “love story” sets it up where people think they’re reading about romantic love. The love written in this book is more of a general overall sense of love. Love between families, friends, significant others. Not just romance. I think it would’ve been better to leave that off the cover, but that’s just my opinion.
Overall, this novel moved me more than once. It was beautiful and tragic and completely unexpected in the most brilliant ways. I highly recommend going into this novel blind without expectations or any inklings as to what it is about. I think, had I know more about this book, I would’ve formed unrealistic expectations for a novel that is original in its own rights, but in a way that I never would have come up with just by reading a blurb. Definitely give this book a try and you won’t regret it!
Source: Personal Copy from Book of the Month
(P.S. You can read this book for free by signing up for a free trial of Audible, which gives you two free audiobooks of your choice!)
