I was very unsure of the premise of this book but after reading many reviews I wanted to see what it was about. It was such a soul-searching book about love and loss. I loved the premise of turning into different animals as a disease. I really enjoyed the author's perspective.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for allowing me to read and review this book. All opinions are my own.

(I ended up listening to this book on audio and the narration was very enjoyable.)

This book genuinely took me by surprise! The concept behind this novel intrigued me from the start and the execution did not disappoint! I think going into this book blind is the best way to read this, so I will refrain from saying anything more other than everyone should give it a try. I definitely will be looking forward to reading more from this author in the future.

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon Element for this advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review!

This book is amazing. Each word calls for you to read it slowly and with thought. It draws you in and it’s like a big hug. The descriptions of the characters personalities and what ether love about each other is amazing. A unique perspective for a love story. I don’t often reread but for this one I will!!!

Newlyweds Lewis and Wren are just starting their marital bliss when Lewis discovers his health issues are the result of an animal mutation that will eventually change his body into a great white shark. This shocking news turns their lives upside down as Lewis physically and mentally changes, and the marriage is tested. Through it all, the love between Lewis and Wren stands the test of time.
This unique love story took me by surprise. I thought it would be an odd sci-fi love story, but it felt like an actual love story that could take place in the real world. Pages in I was sucked in and obsessed. The story of Angela was fascinating and heartbreaking. Overall, I am obsessed with Shark Heart and after laughing and crying, I can say this is one of the best books of 2023.

Man this is a weird book and that is a-okay. I went in thinking this book was about a guy who finds out he's turning into a shark and how that effects his new marriage. That is all true, but there is just so much more to this one. I actually found the sections of the book after Lewis completes his shark transformation to be my favorites. The story's emphasis on many different forms of love, especially a mother's love, was stunning. This book is funny, heartbreaking, and beautiful, however I am certain it will not land for everyone. I will be very thoughtful in my recommendations, but personally I will be watching the book world for what Emily Habeck does next!

Thank you to the author Emily Habeck, publishers Simon & Schuster, and NetGalley for an advance digital copy of SHARKHEART. All views are mine.

First, I want to say that I rarely give ratings this low or reviews this candid. But I took a lot of issues with SHARKHEART that I wasn't expecting to find. Second, the biggest problem this book has is how it looks at illness-- it's terribly ablist. We can't just offload sick people into the wilderness, no matter how their illnesses affect their behavior; and if we do dump them in the ocean, there is no coming back from that, no matter how sentimental our hearts.

I won't be sharing this review anywhere else but perhaps my own blog, at a much later date.

Things I loved:

1. The concept has real promise. I wish it was one of two slightly different concepts. Either the same story except Lewis is the first person to change, like ever. Or forget Lewis and Wren and write a story focusing on several other characters with the genetic disorder.

2. The description of loss of language Lewis begins to experience is the best writing in the book up to that point. Quote loc. 1368. Unfortunately, this story logic folds later in the story when Lewis has no trouble, as a shark, thinking in language.

Things I didn't love:

This section isn't only for criticisms. It's merely for items that I felt something for other than "love" or some interpretation thereof.

1. I don't know if this is the book for me, okay. This whole premise is, I'm afraid, outside of my ability to accept. That this is a world far enough into the future that humans have suddenly started to spontaneously transform into other species. For long enough and frequently enough that it's generated a whole advanced and well funded field of medicine of its very own. And yet, the world isn't different from contemporary earth in any other identifiable way? I don't know, that's such a long way to stretch! Maybe if Lewis was like the first case, but then it would be such a different story.

2. Habeck abruptly ends scenes right in the middle and then cuts to backstory, it kills the pacing and tension. All said, I really question a lot of this book's stylistic choices, such as artificially prolonging the withholding of pregnant lady's name so Halbeck can keep up the ridiculous word count booster. Or anonymity? Either is totally unnecessary.

3. I don't think the author really researched sharks very well. Because, why put gills on his face? They would be on his ribs. No higher than his neck, at least. There are other problems with the mutation process, things that don't really spell "shark," but too many to list here.

4. The goodbye party scene-- really this whole book concept-- is making me uncomfortable it's so ableist. There's something even worse about it that it's a disability the author made up just so she could ogle like this. And give her audience permission to do as well. Quote loc. 1482.

5. The backstory scenes are not only ill-placed, they appear to be irrelevant. She has whole parts of the book (Part 2 and Part 3) that are backstory, why not keep it all together? Or ideally, interspersed it where it is actually relevant because very little of it is.

6. Story logic problems abound. Here's one: Lewis loses language fairly early in his transformation process, but thinks in fluent English when swimming around as a shark.

8. Oh man, this book is nothing but sentiment. It should have been a novella that ended when Lewis went into the ocean. I even cried at that part. It was the only scene I connect to.

The premise was so interesting but the book fell flat for me. I enjoyed the first half which deals with his transition but then it went off on a tangent.

In this book a person can contract a disease that will turn you into an animal of some sort. A few weeks after getting married, Wren finds out that her new husband will turn into a great white shark. Now she must deal with this present situation, her childhood memories, and her own mothers tragic history.
This book is quite imaginative and definitely makes you think about lifes turn of fate.

THIS BOOK! oh my gosh- The concept felt SO strange and yet somehow, its one of my favorite most heart wrenching books of the year!! Such beautiful writing!

"'𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘴𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘵,' 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘥 𝘢𝘵 𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘢𝘴 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘦𝘻𝘦𝘥 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥. 𝘐𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘩𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘥, 𝘢 𝘣𝘺𝘱𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘵𝘩, 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘰𝘯𝘦."

𝗦𝗛𝗔𝗥𝗞 𝗛𝗘𝗔𝗥𝗧 is the weird and wonderful story of Wren and Lewis who learn shortly after their wedding that he suffers from a condition that will cause his body to turn into a great white shark. I know - it sounds crazy but this outrageously imaginative premise brought me to tears.

Emily Habeck explores marriage, motherhood, grief and love in this stunning debut, and I love the way she plays with prose. She had me laughing and crying all in the span of a page, and I was blown away by how she imbued so much hope into what could have been a tragic tale.

This is our Read Spin repeat Book Club pick for August and I cannot wait to discuss what I know will be one of my favorite reads this year.

Thanks to Simon Element and Mary Sue Rucci Books for the copy to review.

Rating: 4.5/5 ⭐️

Thank you @emilyhabeck, @_simonelement, @marysueruccibooks, and @netgalley for the eARC of Shark Heart which is out NOW!

It took me a while to gather my thoughts about Shark Heart and write this review. Like lots of literary fiction, I wasn’t sure what to make of it when I finished it but overall, Shark Heart is really poignant.

I was drawn in to reading Shark Heart because I wanted to read the story of a man turning into a shark. I binged the first half of the book as a result, however, the story was so much more than that. It reflects on love, loss, marriage, the relationship between mothers and daughters, grief, and life in general. Shark Heart masterfully depicted how life and love can be so sad, but yet there are things to savor in spite of that sadness.

Love isn’t without loss, but maybe loving in spite of a long, painful loss is brave. And worth it. Even if it hurts.

Overall, Shark Heart is a beautifully written, thought provoking debut novel!

Heartbreakingly beautiful read. This book is an incredible debut novel with so many elements to completely hook you in from the beginning.

This was Such an interesting story and a incredibly unique way of telling it. The style was so captivating. I Really enjoyed this one!

Shark Heart from Simon Element

“As they say in the theater, suspend your disbelief. Otherwise, the reality of this world is very much like yours and mine.”

I think this is going to be the most memorable book I read all year. I can’t picture anything topping it, despite for months left to go in the year. It is the first book in a long while to keep me awake until 4:50 am, desperately fighting sleep to reach the ending.

This is a weird book. You can tell that from its premise alone. I think I expected the premise to be played for laughs. It wasn’t. And that made what it accomplished even more surprising. It passed what I like to think of as the “Monster Pig Test” Years ago, I was listening to a Q & A with Jonathan Sims about his horror anthology podcast, The Magnus Archives and he talked about an episode he wrote about a terrifying pig on a farm. See, it really was frightening, and he argued that it was so much harder to pull that story off properly because it wasn’t intrinsically scary, not the way something like a ghostly child singing twisted nursery rhymes is intrinsically at least creepy. It takes effort to make the pig story work.

This book passes The Monster Pig Test. It somehow manages to make the story of a man who literally transforms into a Gray White shark into a poignant and reflective love story, that is both tragic and hopeful. It would have been so much easier to play this plot for laughs or horror, but Emily Habek took the harder road and made it something beautiful instead. Horrible too, but hopeful and meaningful always.

The pacing took some getting used to - at nearly the halfway point it feels like it should be over, and there are far too many pages left for the story that’s already been told. The story slows itself almost to a stop, where nothing should be left over to even tell. But it was worth it in the end, and in retrospect I think it needed that slow space. It would have been easy for the story to end there, but this is a story about hope too and climbing from the darkest point to still build a life full of love.

This one was experimental and emotional. Lewis discovers he's mutating into a Great White Shark, and he tries to make peace with this major life transition as he prepares to lose his life. His wife, Wren, has already lost her mother to mutation. The whole story uses the strange concept of mutation as an extended metaphor for terminal illness, loss, and grief. It was done so well! I was expecting something that came across gimicky and silly, but it was presented in the most natural way. By the end, I believed there was an alternative reality where animal mutations were a normal diagnosis as common as cancer.

The writing in this one was poetic, too. It was almost stream of consciousness, with choppy vignettes, and pages of script. It was experimental, but it worked well. I cried several times and felt a deep connection to the characters. I'm glad I picked it up.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

Wren and Lewis are madly in love when their world gets rocked by a strange diagnosis. Lewis has a condition that is transforming him into a great white shark.

Ok sounds cuckoo I know. But I imagined this condition as any terminal diagnosis one might receive and how that person and their loved ones deal with such a diagnosis.

It was heartbreaking and sad, while also being uplifting and hopeful. It’s about overcoming grief and finding joy.

The authors writing is concise and beautiful, poetic at times. They are short pages that pack a lot in and keep the reader intrigued. Guarantee you will reread many of these lines.

Short synopsis: Lewis has a rare disease where he mutates to a Great White Shark, his wife Wren cares for him and her history.

My thoughts: I’m going to start by saying, the premise on this is weird…. But don’t let that scare you from reading this. Is so unique, creative, and special. It’s raw, and deep and painful. It has so many deeper meanings, and the words so beautiful and poetic. Words about love, family, marriage, loss and lengths you go to for those you care about most.

I told my husband about this at the airport, I was weeping reading some lines aloud to him:
“He was an aimless kite in search of a string to ground him to the world, but instead, he’d found Wren, a great, strong wind who supported his exploration of the sky. “You make everything better than when you found it, especially me. Thank you for a wonderful marriage.”
Meanwhile, my husband was googling shark people. Very romantic.

I’ve never read anything like this before, and I probably won’t read anything like it again.

Read if you love:
🌻 Unique premise
🌻 Metaphors
🌻 Stories of love and loss
🌻 Marriage, family and motherhood
🌻Magical realism mixed with family drama

A gorgeous debut novel of marriage, motherhood, metamorphosis, and letting go, this intergenerational love story begins with newlyweds Wren and her husband, Lewis—a man who, over the course of nine months, transforms into a great white shark.

When I first heard the premise of the novel I was unsure what to expect. It's honestly a difficult book to describe because I've never read anything like it before. The author has written an incredibly creative debut novel. I was captured from the start by her beautiful, poetic writing. I was entranced by Wren and Lewis.. The story unfurled in an unexpected way and led me to contemplate everything from marriage to motherhood to caring for ill relatives to ethical medical care. I highly recommend this beautiful debut novel; I think it will touch you as much as it did me.

Thank you to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

What an emotionally resonant debut! A newlywed couple has to grapple with a life altering diagnosis. There were some absolutely gorgeous passages and I found it to be surprisingly engaging for being so experimental.

At 55% we get a part 2 and at first I was frustrated- but I absolutely see now why the author added it.

Im not connected with it as many other readers are, but still a solid 4 star read.

This book was really enjoyable and inspiring. I loved reading it. Thank you so much for the ARC. I really appreciate it.