Shark Heart by Emily Habeck

For Lewis and Wren, their first year of marriage is also their last. A few weeks after their wedding, Lewis receives a rare diagnosis: He will retain most of his consciousness, memories, and intellect, but his physical body will gradually turn into a great white shark. As Lewis develops the features and impulses of one of the most predatory creatures in the ocean, his complicated artist’s heart struggles to make peace with his unfulfilled dreams.

At first, Wren internally resists her husband’s fate. Is there a way for them to be together after Lewis changes? Then, a glimpse of Lewis’s developing carnivorous nature activates long-repressed memories for Wren, whose story vacillates between her childhood living on a houseboat in Oklahoma, her time with her college ex-girlfriend, and her unusual friendship with a woman pregnant with twin birds.

Hardcover, 416 pages

Published August 8, 2023

by S&S/ Marysue Rucci Books

4.5/5 stars

I’ll be honest and say that I missed all the hype for this on social media and truthfully, if I’ve read the blurb it would not have appealed to me. Since it was a freebie from Book of the Month, I had it sitting on my TBR shelf. A quick glance through the pages made me realize it would be a quick read, even though it comes in at 400 pages. Some pages contain a sentence or a paragraph or two. So it wasn’t hard to flip through the chapters. I also had the audiobook from CloudLibrary to spur me on.

Shark Heart is the story of Wren and Lewis, it’s the relationship, his diagnosis and transformation into a great white shark, yes that is rather unique. The book itself stays current with Wren and Lewis, but it also travels back in time to get their history, There were many quotes to highlight and parts of the book  will stay with me.

Shark Heart is a story of grief, relationship, friendship, and family. Yes, you have to suspend your belief that turning into a critter is a thing in this world, but somehow it works.

This is the authors debut, it was unique and well written, it will have me on the lookout for her next book. 

This book was part of my 2024 reading off my shelf challenge and obtained through block of the month.