(Audio) Book Review: Shark Heart by Emily Habeck

“It’s about a man who turns into a shark,” I told my family when they asked what I was listening to. “I think it’s a metaphor.”

I still think it’s a metaphor but I’m not entirely sure for what. Domestic violence, I thought for a while, because what is more obvious? A woman loves a man. The man turns into a giant predatory creature and she is literally in danger of her life if she continues to live with him. Yet the story spends so much time showing us how much Lewis and Wren love each other, how they were drawn together, how happy they were. Perhaps, then, a metaphor for what happens when illness enters a marriage. How something like a cancer diagnosis destroys what is good and beautiful and separates lovers before their time? But without giving away too much of what is revealed in the second half of that novel, that didn’t quite work either.

Lewis is a high school drama teacher, a failed actor who settled down in Dallas after he did not fulfill his dream of acting on Broadway. He met and fell in love with Wren, with all the exuberance that defined him as a person. Wren is more cautious, more structured, yet she falls for him too. They marry and a few months later, before they can even take their honeymoon trip to Europe, Lewis is diagnosed with a mutation. He is turning into a Great White Shark.

All this I knew from the book’s blurb so I knew it was going to be kooky and I was ready to embrace that. Within the world of the novel, these mutations exist. Sometimes people mutate into animals. We watch Wren befriend a woman who is pregnant with twin birds. Obviously a dangerous pregnancy because when the birds are ready to be born, they will peck their way out of her body. There is a medical system set up within this world to care for those who undergo these mutations. And yet, a lot of it didn’t quite make sense to me. The mutations don’t seem rare and yet everyone is still shocked by Lewis’ diagnosis. (Again, maybe a metaphor for chronic illness or something like cancer?) No one in the world seems to have any sort of different feeling toward animals than we do in our world and this seemed the most unlikely to me. People continue to eat meat and visit zoos but if there was always a possibility that you or someone you know could mutate into a cow or an elephant, how could you still consume burgers or visit a zoo?

The weirdness of the book isn’t bad but it constantly left me feeling unsure of the footing. I don’t often read books and think, But what is this really about? and yet I couldn’t shake that thought while listening to Shark Heart.

Then, in the second half of the story, it pivots to focus on Wren’s mother, Angela. We know a little about her at this point and we know that Wren had an unconventional upbringing with a teen mom. I don’t want to give anything away but what is revealed isn’t exactly shocking and mostly feels like it should have been addressed much sooner.

This is Habeck’s first novel and I applaud her for trying something so bold and unique. At the same, it’s bumpiness and uncertainties show it to be a debut effort. I’ll be interested to see what Habeck tries next.

This audio version was narrated by Karissa Vacker, Shaun Taylor-Corbett, and Soneela Nankani. I thought this worked well in audio format and I liked the three narrators to differentiate between the three major characters.