Shark Heart
Ratings43
Average rating4
Too surreal for me. Or maybe just not surreal enough? It felt incomplete, like the mutation elements weren't explored to any interesting degree. Characters were simultaneously flat and shallow. Cringey white privilege: two instances of shark guy going batshit, destroying property and/or inflicting harm on others. Cops are called, oh, no problem, just go home and recover.
For a while I thought <spoiler>it was an allegorical exploration of dementia: loss of personality and control, helplessness in the face thereof</spoiler>. But no, the final third of the book strongly suggests otherwise. Those parts felt jarring and inconsistent with the first two thirds, <spoiler>in which the mutating characters lose all traces of humanity including human memories and behaviors. The Lewis-and-Margaret bits do not add up</spoiler>.
There's also an uncomfortable degree of <spoiler>mommyhood worship, to the point where I wondered if the author is a rabid religious antiabortion nut job. (I haven't bothered to look her up to find out). The Epilog was creepily saccharine</spoiler>. Maybe I'm overthinking it, but there was just a disturbing vibe.
Writing was lovely. Lyrical at times. Not enough to salvage the book.
Too surreal for me. Or maybe just not surreal enough? It felt incomplete, like the mutation elements weren't explored to any interesting degree. Characters were simultaneously flat and shallow. Cringey white privilege: two instances of shark guy going batshit, destroying property and/or inflicting harm on others. Cops are called, oh, no problem, just go home and recover.
For a while I thought <spoiler>it was an allegorical exploration of dementia: loss of personality and control, helplessness in the face thereof</spoiler>. But no, the final third of the book strongly suggests otherwise. Those parts felt jarring and inconsistent with the first two thirds, <spoiler>in which the mutating characters lose all traces of humanity including human memories and behaviors. The Lewis-and-Margaret bits do not add up</spoiler>.
There's also an uncomfortable degree of <spoiler>mommyhood worship, to the point where I wondered if the author is a rabid religious antiabortion nut job. (I haven't bothered to look her up to find out). The Epilog was creepily saccharine</spoiler>. Maybe I'm overthinking it, but there was just a disturbing vibe.
Writing was lovely. Lyrical at times. Not enough to salvage the book.
Added to listBooks to Read in 2025with 21 books.
Added to listlexi's recswith 8 books.
