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m_liz's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts and Grief
Moderate: Domestic abuse and Pregnancy
theoceanrose's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Minor: Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Pregnancy, Animal death, and Cannibalism
cait's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Minor: Blood, Infidelity, Grief, Pregnancy, Body horror, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Physical abuse, Self harm, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Abandonment, and Terminal illness
snakem's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Minor: Body horror, Domestic abuse, Pregnancy, and Suicide attempt
dixiecarroll's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
Graphic: Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Abandonment, Death of parent, Grief, Terminal illness, Alcoholism, Animal death, Cannibalism, Blood, and Pregnancy
okiecozyreader's review against another edition
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.5
“She missed the illusion of grass and sky kissing at the end of the world.
She missed standing amid a rustling chorus of wind-waving grasses, the four horsemen of the tallgrass prairie - little bluestem, big bluestem, Indian grass, and switchgrass. She missed May fields dotted with black-eyed Susans, Indian blanket, and coreopsis. She missed bursts of red clay topsoil along dirt roads. She missed the smell emanating from meat smokers, the way the grocery store was always empty on Sunday mornings, good thirty-dollar haircuts, and scissor-tailed flycatchers, suspended like supermen in hot, dry air. She missed the evenings most of all: the grapefruit sun hovering above the prairie, dismissing the day with unpredictable strokes of cantaloupe, fuchsia, and violet.” P35
Wren and Lewis celebrate their first year of marriage, and soon thereafter, he realizes something is wrong with his body, and finds out he is mutating into a great white shark. His loving wife Wren takes care of him as his body and mind transform, and he loses the ability to direct the school play, and acting is one of his great loves. But their love for each other is incredibly beautiful.
“When Lewis finally came to bed, he took sleeping Wren's hand in his and closed his eyes, seeing if he could sense her electrical field.
"What... What are you doing?" she asked groggily.
"Just seeing what it's like to love you when I can't see you." P70
In part 2, we go back to Wren’s childhood and learn about her mother Angela. It was a totally different story, but while reading the first part, I wondered about her mother, and appreciated the backstory, even though it was difficult in many ways.
In part 3 we go back to Lewis in current day and then to Wren. I loved the mother and daughter story and how the author writes in the Acknowledgments, “When I write of a mother's love, I write not from the experience of being one myself but from being a daughter who has been so, so lucky to be loved by parents like you.” Throughout the book, I felt that love.
“Wren no longer sees life as a long, linear ladder with a beginning, middle, and end.
Instead, she considers how life is like a spiraling trail up a mountain. Each circling lap represents a learning cycle, the same lesson at a slightly higher elevation. Wren realizes she likes to rest as much as she likes to climb. She begins to enjoy the view.” P 397
“Angela had been grieving Marcos almost as long as she'd known him, and finally, like a rainbow against a bruise-hued cloud, she saw the real Marcos--not as an idea, dream, hope, or possibility - but as he really was,
Marcos drew an outline of a person who was generous, wise, and kind. and Angela's longing animated his image with life and color. This two-dimensional Marcos, the one she imagined, was never real.” P274
“And then Lewis caved, as usual, to the chatter of resistance, the recita-ton of his very important responsibilities, the weighty things that would require all his life force, attention, and creative energy, why he should not do the thing that was, deep down, most important to him.” P35
Moderate: Pregnancy, Abandonment, Drug use, Blood, and Domestic abuse
Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic and Abortion
blakeandbooks's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Medical content, Abandonment, and Grief
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Pregnancy, and Child abuse
Minor: Drug use, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts
farrahwho's review against another edition
3.75
The surface of love was a feeling, but beyond this thin layer, there was a fathomless, winding maze of caverns offering many places to see and explore. Wren used to think romantic passion only grew more intense in the depths. But this belief was naive and impractical, a by-product of a certainty-obsessed culture that equates love with longing and views ambivalence as a fatal flaw. Wren saw now how passion was delicate and temporary, a visitor, a feeling that would come and go. Feelings fled under pressure; feelings did not light the darkness. What remained strong in the deep, the hard times, was love as an effort, a doing, a conscious act of will. Soulmates, like her and Lewis, were not theoretical and found. They were tangible, built.
this has lots of my favorite things: lyrical prose, exploring themes of love, loss, grief, hope, change, and relationships; magic realism elements (human-to-wild animal mutations). it was so easy to care for the characters and empathize with their experiences. i want to give wren a hug so bad!!
however, it is structured in one of my least favorite ways of story telling which is though a series of non-linear vignettes making it hard to follow at times. the vignettes seem to get sparser throughout, leaving much to be desired. it also experiments with formatting in the sense that some "chapters" are written as scenes of a play which is fitting given lewis's character, but i felt like there were many times where the flow of the story was disrupted because of it.
might be a nonsensical comparison to make but the writing style gave me slight alone with you in the ether meets our wives under the sea vibes? so if enjoyed the prose in those, there's a chance you'll like shark heart as well
overall, i still really enjoyed this as much as it broke then mended my heart. giving it a 3.75, but it is practically a 4 star
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Domestic abuse, and Grief
Moderate: Alcoholism
Minor: Animal death, Death, and Pregnancy
kelseyr713's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Body horror, Grief, and Terminal illness
Moderate: Suicide attempt, Violence, Death of parent, Gore, Pregnancy, Animal death, Domestic abuse, and Blood
Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Abortion
carlyjb16's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Graphic: Medical content, Death, Chronic illness, Addiction, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Toxic relationship, and Grief
Moderate: Blood and Animal death
Minor: Pregnancy and Abortion