C.M P. (selkie) reviewed on 1/16/2007 + 418 more book reviews

After having read the advanced reader's excerpt, the completed version was a bit disappointing. (I know, I know, one is not supposed to compare the book with an advanced reader's copy.) Nonetheless, it was a very good book. It just would have been a lot better if the editor had not butchered it. The original version was so much more detailed, providing a vivid portrayal of Victorian life, which the final version only hinted at.
The book is, in a way, a biography of a rogue shark. But it also includes fascinating facts about sharks in general; their cannibalistic tendencies, their strong sense of smell, the sandpaper-like texture of their skin & the fact that it can retain enough salt to temporarily survive in freshwater, their methods of attack not only on animals & humans, but on boats as well.
Equally interesting are the misconceptions the Victorians had about sharks. It is difficult to comprehend that at that time people did not believe that the great white was a man-eater at all, & blamed the attacks on orca. Moreover, how tragic that at that time they did not have the medical knowledge to deal with shark attacks.

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