Amy (amy_alwaysreading)'s Reviews > Shark Heart

Many thanks to my friends at @marysueruccibooks and @simon.audio for the #gifted free copies of this book.

“The main ingredient in transformation was not magic. It was pain.”

Wildly imaginative. Wholly unforgettable.

It’s a fully absurd idea… a genetic mutation that turns a husband into a shark. Unbelievable and ridiculous. And yet, Habeck completely convinced me.

THIS book. It was so much more than I expected. I bought into this WILD premise with abandon, completely immersed and utterly swept away.

Brimming with emotion and deeply contemplative, this is a love story in three parts: between romantic partners, between friends, between mother/child. The fragility and tenacity of love is on full display. It is vulnerable and tender. It’s a bittersweet ache. Even so, there is a hopefulness that permeates.

Habeck boldly experimented with the structure of the story, where she created a unique blend of prose that meandered between the poetic and simplistic and a format that was neither straightforward nor linear. Together, it added to the overall bizarreness in a weirdly wonderful (wonderfully weird?) way that kept me spellbound.

It’s the originality- both in premise and formatting- that makes this book stand out.

This is a special book, the likes of which don’t come around often. A book about a shark that brimmed with humanity. What an unforgettable debut!

🎧 I highly recommend combining both print and audiobook the full experience. There’s a uniqueness to the print page that demands the eyes. But the audiobook is exceptionally narrated by a full cast: Karissa Vacker (a favorite!), Shaun Taylor-Corbett, and Soneela Nankani. They brought a vividness and nuance to each character that heightened the overall experience.