Guest review by Janelle Bailey, avid reader and always learning; sometimes substitute teaching, sometimes grandbabysitting, sometimes selling books

Shark Heart: A Love Story by Emily Habeck

Shark Heart: A Love Story by Emily Habeck

My goal in writing book reviews is to steer additional readers to consider reading the best of the books and/or to engage in conversations about what makes books “good” books. I fully relish the opportunities to discuss books in our book club, as we rarely all agree about books, and no matter what we read, whatever we discuss there is better for the various perspectives reading it.

Shark Heart: A Love Story presents a fairly unusual story, and as it is typically my practice to spoil nothing, to not reveal the biggest things about a book such that it is not how I feel about or interpret them that matters, wishing not to steer or direct another reader’s personal experiences at all, I don’t wish to say too much more about it here.

The format of the novel is also unusual, as it is a collage of short bursts of fiction (but not really “flash fiction,” as I understand it), some playwriting/script, and some few other forms. It’s not 400+ pages full of text. So here’s a deal for anyone wanting to say the have read or read “big books,” who then does not have to work too hard to accomplish that. A little sadly, I also report that I think this unusual format is what is currently most accessible to and most easily digested by the distracted-by-other-stuff readers that we have all become. You can easily get through several pages, for as little as is there, for there not being time to have to go do something else. I do think that anyone listening to the audiobook rather than reading the text will “miss” something about the seemingly intentional white space within.

All of that said, this is a somewhat heartbreaking and somewhat heart- and soul-restoring story, told in layers, of Louis and Wren, who meet and marry in their 30s. It is also the story of Wren’s mother, Angela, whom–we are told over and over–could grow a garden in an eggshell. I think it’s safe to share that something quite rough came Angela’s way when Wren was young, and like many other young people in such circumstances, Wren had to grow up very fast.

It’s never a book’s requirement or responsibility or task to stir response from me as a reader, but this book so very much did. There are many thoughtful beautiful passages. There are some greatly funny moments and scenes. There are layers of reference–second book I’ve read this year! The first was Tom Lake–to Our Town, that old and wonderful, treasure of a favorite play. Additionally, this book understands teachers and values them in ways they will appreciate and which may fulfill them in heart-deep ways. I felt some Mr. Holland’s Opus-like honoring taking place here.

Yep: it’s a tad odd/unusual/weird, this story…some well done magical realism, we mostly agreed at book club…and of a very interesting, perhaps very applicable, figuratively, sort.

Sincerely: I am really glad I read this book, and I look forward to discussing it with any others who have read it. I think it probably reads differently for a variety of readers. I think it is going to win a number of awards, including some for a tremendous debut novel.

Come back next Monday for another book review!