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WORK TITLE: Devil Sharks
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY:
STATE: MA
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY:
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Male.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Author. Worked variously as an office employee, bouncer, drama teacher, assistant hockey coach, and liquor retailer.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Prior to beginning his career as a writer, Chris Jameson worked numerous other jobs. He has penned two novels.
Shark Island
Shark Island serves as Jameson’s literary debut. It starts with a young woman by the name of Naomi Cardiff who, during a visit to the beach at Cape Cod, falls victim to a horrific attack. She goes for a swim in the ocean for the sake of approaching several seals resting on the sand. However, her attempt is cut short. She winds up being pursued, and loses most of one leg from an encounter with a shark. This tragedy does not occur unnoticed. The media latches on to Naomi’s case and sparks an outcry against the rise in the shark population, which is believed to have developed in response to the overwhelming boom of seals in the area. Yet attempts to assuage the issue leads to further trouble.
“In any case, if Shark Island sounds like your kind of thing, then it might just well be your perfect summer read,” wrote one Bibliosanctum website contributor. “Speaking as someone who enjoys kicking back with the occasional pulpy horror novel about killer creatures running amok, this one seriously hit the spot.” On the Criminal Element blog, Angie Barry called Shark Island “a strong thriller that stands out from the crowd of imitators.” She added: “If you’re a fan of Anaconda, Piranha, and Deep Blue Sea but want just a hint more realism and representation, this one is a must-read.” Michael Patrick Hicks, a contributor to the self-titled Michael Patrick Hicks blog, said: “This one is getting all five stars from me for being a wicked bit of fun.” He also commented: “I was craving a solid bit of shark action and got exactly what I wanted out of this one.”
Devil Sharks
Devil Sharks follows after Shark Island. Its focus is Harry Curtis and Alex Simmons, two formerly good friends whose relationship was ruined by a devastating loss. They decide to patch things up in the form of a vacation, which will involve them taking Harry’s yacht out to sea. Along for the ride is the rest of their own friend group. Alex is unwilling to accept the offer at first, but ends up being swayed to join in with everyone else. Yet this vacation doesn’t go quite as Alex imagined. Harry leads the yacht out to the an area known as the Orchid Atoll. Harry recognizes this location on a personal level, as his father was stationed there long ago. Yet during their stop there, the group quickly runs into danger. The area is filled with pirates and sharks, both of which are eager to attack the group for their own gains.
“This dark, bloody beach read will make readers think twice about getting in the water,” remarked a Publishers Weekly contributor. While the titular writer on the Carrie’s Book Reviews blog expressed that the book ‘s plot is “not overly original,” she went on to add: “I honestly did not mind at all though diving into this somewhat campy good old fashion horror for a couple of hours and think most fans of this genre would enjoy it.” A reviewer on the Bibliosanctum website stated: “I would recommend Devil Sharks (and to a greater extent, Shark Island) if you’re looking for some over-the-top and campy creature horror this summer.” On the self-titled Michael Patrick Hicks blog, writer Michael Patrick Hicks commented: “Once the action gets going, this book is impossible to set aside and I spent much of this book with my stomach churning like the frothy blood-red waters Jameson continually chummed.” He added: “If you’re looking for some wonderfully grisly and violent encounters with killer chondrichthyes, Devil Sharks viciously and unrelentingly delivers.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Publishers Weekly, May 7, 2018, review of Devil Sharks, p. 51.
ONLINE
Bibliosanctum, https://bibliosanctum.com/ (June 27, 2017), review of Shark Island; (June 25, 2018), review of Devil Sharks.
Carrie’s Book Reviews, https://carriesbookreviews.com/ (June 7, 2018), review of Devil Sharks.
Criminal Element, https://www.criminalelement.com/ (June 30, 2017), Angie Barry, review of Shark Island.
Michael Patrick Hicks, https://www.michaelpatrickhicks.com/ (June 6, 2017), Michael Patrick Hicks, review of Shark Island; (June 21, 2018), Michael Patrick Hicks, review of Devil Sharks.
That Artsy Reader Girl, http://www.thatartsyreadergirl.com/ (July 14, 2017), review of Shark Island.
CHRIS JAMESON has been a bouncer, a liquor retailer, an assistant hockey coach, a drama teacher, and an office drone. Summers on Cape Cod have given him a healthy respect for ocean predators. He lives near the coast of Massachusetts, but doesn’t spend a lot of time in the water. He is the author of Shark Island.
Devil Sharks
Publishers Weekly. 265.19 (May 7, 2018): p51.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Devil Sharks
Chris Jameson. St. Martin's, $9.99 mass market (304p) ISBN 978-1-250-13956-6
A once-in-a-lifetime chance to cruise the Pacific turns into a deadly nightmare in Jameson's latest fast-paced horror-thriller (after Shark Island). Alex Simmons and Harry Curtis were college pals, but a friend's death drove them apart. Years later, Harry invites Alex on a yachting trip, claiming that all is forgiven. When Harry asks to detour the group to Orchid Atoll--where his father served in the Coast Guard--and no one objects, Alex wonders whether Harry had this planned all along. Once at the atoll, they come face-to-face with cruel pirates and frenzied sharks. Throwing in plenty of characters to facilitate a high body count, Jameson does a fair job of balancing all their emotional backstories with the ever-present gore and violence. At times, introspection bogs down the pace, but sharks lurking in the background pulls the suspenseful story to a satisfying conclusion. This dark, bloody beach read will make readers think twice about getting in the water. Agent: Howard Morhaim, Howard Morhaim Literary. (July)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Devil Sharks." Publishers Weekly, 7 May 2018, p. 51. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A538858683/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=ca6c4c70. Accessed 18 Sept. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A538858683
Book Review: Devil Sharks by Chris Jameson
I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.
Devil Sharks by Chris Jameson
Mogsy’s Rating: 3 of 5 stars
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Series: Stand Alone
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press (June 26, 2018)
Length: 304 pages
Author Information: Website
I rate Devil Sharks a solid 3 stars—nothing more and nothing less. Though I didn’t really think it was as good as Chris Jameson’s previous shark thriller Shark Island, if you’re looking for the book equivalent of a cheesy creature feature or the type of B-movie horror flick you’d catch on Syfy, then this will do the trick nicely.
When Alex Simmons was in college, he and his group of friends were as thick as thieves—or they were, until one of them took their own life. After the suicide, nothing was the same again, and a bitter rift also formed between Alex and Harry Curtis, the most complicated of them all.
Now, a decade later, Harry appears to want to make amends. A financier who has done very well for himself since graduation, out of the blue he invites Alex and the rest of the gang to an all-expenses paid trip to Hawaii where Harry owns a vacation property as well a hundred-foot luxury sailing yacht called the Kid Galahad. An innocent college reunion, the invitation claims, where old friends can come together again and spend a week in paradise. Despite his doubts that Harry has changed, Alex reluctantly accepts, and soon he and his wife Sami are jetting off to Honolulu to meet up with the others.
The next day, all ten of them—including the six surviving members of the original college crew, a few of their spouses, and the first mate of the Kid Galahad—set sail for a perfect day on the water. Then, Harry surprises them with even more news. In the middle of the ocean hundreds of miles from anything is a small island called Orchid Atoll, the site of an old defunct Coast Guard station where Harry’s dad used to be stationed. Harry wants to make a personal pilgrimage there to pay his respects, and the others, touched by his story, agree to go along. Once there, however, the group discover that the station is not as abandoned as they thought. Shell casings and maps of illicit trading routes point to the presence of drug smugglers, and soon, paradise turns to hell as Alex and his friends become trapped in a nightmare full of man-eating sharks and pirates.
Like I said, Devil Sharks was an overall solid and fun read, though I do have a few quibbles. For one thing, I did not think that the story was as well put-together as Shark Island. I always hate to make comparisons to an author’s previous works, but in this case it’s a little hard not to, since both are ocean-bound thrillers dealing with the theme of killer sharks. Whereas the plot of Shark Island followed a logical progression of events, Devil Sharks seemed to lack a sort of cohesion, with multiple story threads that seem to hit dead ends or trail off with no resolution. There’s also not enough detail explaining the rivalry between Alex and Harry, or enough focus the latter’s ultimate reasons for inviting them all out to Hawaii especially given the way his motives were questioned again and again by the former.
There’s also a lot of death, as you’d expect. I don’t really have a problem with this by itself, since horrible and gory demises are par for the course when it comes to books like Devil Sharks. What irked me, however, were the number of stupid deaths. Again and again, the author would build up a character only to kill them off abruptly as soon as he or she was starting to become interesting, seemingly for no other reason than “just because”. It felt like such a waste. Recall what I wrote about Shark Island and why I thought it was such a great read because of how sympathetic the characters were; I actually cared about them before they were all consigned to their watery, shark-infested graves. In contrast, I felt nothing of the sort for the people here, and quite honestly, it was hard to care when any of them died. Most of them were shallowly written, underdeveloped, and unlikeable to boot. Part of this was due to the sheer number of characters, and I feel the story would’ve worked just as well, if not better, with fewer of them to keep track of.
But of course, if you’re just in it for the shark action—like I was—you’re probably not going to care too much about any of the novel’s shortcomings. In this context, they truly are minor annoyances that overall shouldn’t take too much away from the bloody, brutal, intensive shark feeding frenzy this book was intended to deliver. At the very least, it succeeded in its goal, and hence I would recommend Devil Sharks (and to a greater extent, Shark Island) if you’re looking for some over-the-top and campy creature horror this summer.
Review: Devil Sharks by Chris Jameson
June 21, 2018 Michael Patrick Hicks Horror, Book Reviews
Devil Sharks: A Novel
By Chris Jameson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Just when you thought it was safe to go for a swim, Chris Jameson returns with another shark themed horror standalone following last year's release of Shark Island. Packed with plenty of summertime thrills, Devil Sharks would be a perfect beach-read if only Jameson didn't make you deathly afraid of being so close to the water.
Here, a group of now-distant college buddies meet up in Hawaii for a reunion. Invited by their former classmate Harry, now an uber-rich businessman, the group and their spouses expect to enjoy a few days of sun and surf aboard a luxury sailing yacht. After visiting the abandoned Coast Guard station where Harry's father once served, the group find themselves adrift off an atoll and at the mercy of drug runners using the old building as a base. Surrounding the atoll are sharks - sharks the pirates have been routinely feeding humans to, and who have since developed a lust for the taste of landlubbers.
Devil Sharks is, first and foremost, a work of survival horror. Things get off to a bit of a slow start as Jameson lays the groundwork on who his characters are and explores their relationships to one another, but once this book kicks into high gear, good lord this sucker is frenetic.
Jameson takes our cast, a wonderfully diverse group fronted by Alex and his wife Sammi, and puts them into one deathly encounter after another. As I said, this is a book about survival, and Jameson puts a ton of obstacles in the cast's way. Much like the pirates, Jameson is a take-no-prisoners type of author, and Devil Sharks takes some shockingly bleak turns. I will say, though, that I was a tiny bit disappointed by the somewhat ancillary nature of the pirates, but I get what the author was going for with them. They're certainly capable and loathsome antagonists, but ones that exist largely as a plot device to kick the story's central hook into focus.
Devil Sharks is not a Die Hard riff of Alex versus hardcore killers - although I thought for a moment that's where Jameson was headed - but a story of your common Everyman characters against the impossible odds of hungry, man-eating sharks. We're here for the sharks, first and foremost, and the pirates are a way of getting us there, even if their presence makes the story feel slightly unbalanced as a whole. While some of the story threads are left unresolved (but hey, c'est la vie!), their purpose in serving the plot is largely secondary; they're an appetizer to the main course. Devil Sharks is, naturally, all about the sharks - that's what we're here for! We want the threatening promise of fins in the water and lots of toothy shark carnage! And hoo boy, Jameson doesn't play any games on that front. In fact, Jameson proves to be just as bloodthirsty and merciless as his oceanic apex predators. Things get brutal quick.
The last half of Devil Sharks is absolutely fraught with tension and horrifying encounters. Once the action gets going, this book is impossible to set aside and I spent much of this book with my stomach churning like the frothy blood-red waters Jameson continually chummed. If you're looking for some wonderfully grisly and violent encounters with killer chondrichthyes, Devil Sharks viciously and unrelentingly delivers. Grab a beer and a blanket and hit up the beach with this one, but maybe take a moment to consider how badly you want to go for a swim and wonder, if only for a second or two, if you might become fish food.
[Note: I received an advanced copy of this title from the publisher, St. Martin's, via NetGalley.]
By Carrie on June 7, 2018 • ( 9 Comments )
Devil Sharks by Chris Jameson @StMartinsPress #bookreview #horror #thriller
Title: Devil Sharks
Author: Chris Jameson
Publisher: St. Martin’s Paperbacks
Publication Date: June 26, 2018
Page Count: 304
My rating: 3 stars
About the book:
A pleasure cruise in Paradise leads a group of friends to a shark-infested Hell in Chris Jameson’s Devil Sharks. . .
When Alex Simmons is invited to a college reunion in the Hawaiian islands aboard the private yacht of his old pal Harry Curtis, he is not sure what to expect. The two men had a falling-out years ago over the suicide of one of their friends. Could this be Harry’s way of making amends? Or is something more sinister in store?
The crew sets sail and arrives at Orchid Atoll, the site of a deserted former Coast Guard station. But they are far from alone. Out here, three hundred miles from civilization, Alex and his friends are about to encounter two very different brands of evil―one human, the other with fins―unlike anything they could have possibly imagined. They have entered a place where there’s no law, no mercy. . .and no way out.
Alright everyone raise your hand if you’ve ever watched cheesy horror movies…. *hand goes up* Reading Devil Sharks by Chris Jameson I really felt like I’ve seen or read this story before, I mean I’ve even seen all the Sharknados just for something different done with some killer sharks and a few laughs. Devil Sharks felt very much like one of those made for TV horror movies that not only the sharks are dangerous but other nefarious elements out in the middle of nowhereland.
Alex Simmons and his wife are invited to the Hawaiian Islands to go out on a luxury yacht for a college reunion and who could turn that down even if the person hosting wasn’t your favorite? And of course even though Hawaii is exceptionally beautiful the host has to find an out of the way private spot to steer the yacht where no one else can come to their aid once the doo doo hits the fan.
Cue the campy horror music or simply play the theme from Jaws as of course things do not go well for our partiers. Insert an unknown bad guy mumbling about the “Devil Sharks” in his native language and some other dangers and tada, presto chango you have a lot of blood and scary stuff to ramp up the intensity for more ominous music to be played.
Not a bad read at all but as I mentioned it’s not overly original either, just turn on the Syfy network during Shark Week and you’ll see my meaning. I honestly did not mind at all though diving into this somewhat campy good old fashion horror for a couple of hours and think most fans of this genre would enjoy it.
I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.
Find this book online:
Goodreads / Amazon
About the author:
CHRIS JAMESON has been a bouncer, a liquor retailer, an assistant hockey coach, a drama teacher, and an office drone. Summers on Cape Cod have given him a healthy respect for ocean predators. He lives near the coast of Massachusetts, but doesn’t spend a lot of time in the water. He is the author of Shark Island.
Book Review: Shark Island by Chris Jameson
I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.
Shark Island by Chris Jameson
Mogsy’s Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Series: Stand Alone
Publisher: St. Martin’s Paperbacks (June 27, 2017)
Length: 320 pages
Author Information: Website
Let’s face it, guys—sharks are so hot right now. Actually, they’ve always kinda been. Ever since Spielberg made Jaws and traumatized a whole generation of moviegoers from swimming in the ocean, the ongoing popularity of books, films, TV shows about these fin-tastic fishes are proof of our obsession. I for one was thrilled when I found out about Shark Island, and literally swept aside about a hundred other books on my TBR just so I could leapfrog this one all the way to the top. My fascination for shark fic is something I can’t really explain, but if you grew up watching cheesy horror flicks and creature features like I did, I’m willing to bet this book will also tickle all the right synapses in your brain.
Our story opens on a beautiful summer day on Cape Cod. College student and aspiring photographer Naomi Cardiff and her girlfriend are sunning themselves on a boat when she notices a large herd of seals on a nearby stretch of beach. Deciding to swim towards them for some close-up shots, Naomi subsequently gets attacked by a shark, which takes off her left leg from the knee down. The incident sparks off a media frenzy and reignites the debate surrounding the seal overpopulation problem, which has been blamed for the increase of Great Whites in the area drawn to their natural prey. The solution ends up falling to a group of Woods Hole scientists who have developed an acoustic signal system that could be used to lure the seals away from the cape, and eleven months later the team is ready for its first trial run.
The result? The signal to attract the seals ends up working marvelously, as thousands of the pinnipeds flock in the wake of the scientists’ boat leading them all up to a secluded channel in Maine. What they didn’t expect, however, was how quickly the sharks would follow. Within hours, they’ve attracted more than few dozen Great Whites, and all around the boat, it’s like:
Now a journalism student, Naomi is also along for the ride, determined not to let what happened to her the previous summer keep her away from the ocean she loves. However, a powerful Nor’easter has blown in, causing torrential rain and massive storm swells. After the frenzying sharks ram and breach the hull of their boat, Naomi and the six other passengers’ only hope of survival is a rusty old watchtower situated atop a tiny piece of rock named Bald Cap. But with the water rising faster than you can say “you’re gonna need a bigger island”, how long can the survivors hold out before the seas swallow up their refuge and let the sharks in to play?
Okay, let’s see what we’ve got. Outlandish premise? Check. Rampaging sharks? Check. Lots and lots of blood and gory death? Check and double check. We’re neck-deep in pulpy, guilty-pleasure reading territory here…and quite honestly, I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. In fact, I’d even hazard to say there was probably less cheese than I expected in the story—sure, Shark Island is a book that’s meant to be far-fetched fluffy fun, but I was a little surprised to find it also had plenty of substance, especially in the wonderful and diverse cast. Damn you, Chris Jameson! Damn you for writing sympathetic characters, making me actually care about them before you consign them to their watery, shark-infested graves! When I picked up this book, I expected the usual B-movie style disposable and interchangeable archetypes, but instead you gave me all of these multifaceted and well-realized characters that I genuinely felt bad for as I watched them being chomped up into bloody bits.
And yes, there was a lot of screaming, dying, and limbs getting ripped off. No one is truly safe, so you’re always going to be on the edge of your seat wondering who will be the next victim. So if you’re the kind of reader who just wants to get their gruesome shark porn fix and doesn’t give a fig about anything else, chances are you’ll also be perfectly happy with what Shark Island has to offer. The story is fast-paced and jam-packed with shark action, saving up the grisliest and most intensive heart-pounding moments for the gripping climax near the end.
In any case, if Shark Island sounds like your kind of thing, then it might just well be your perfect summer read. Speaking as someone who enjoys kicking back with the occasional pulpy horror novel about killer creatures running amok, this one seriously hit the spot. When I head up to the beaches of Cape Cod for my vacation later this summer, I’m sure I’ll be thinking of this book fondly from the safety of dry land.
Review: Shark Island by Chris Jameson
By Angie Barry
June 30, 2017
Shark Island by Chris Jameson
In Shark Island by Chris Jameson, a shark attack survivor believes she has already lived through her worst nightmare—she's dead wrong.
Take a visual tour of Shark Island with GIFnotes!
Hands grab hold of her arms, start to pull, and she turns to see a mop-headed surfer straddling his board. It bumps her again as he drags at her and that's the moment when the worst thing of all happens. Worse than the blood and the tugging and the screams.
It's hope.
Nothing so far has terrified her more than this moment of hope.
She grabs at him, pulls at the wet board, and he's yelling at her to be still, to let him help. Naomi's screams rip from her throat, heart racing so hard that she starts to black out again, and the surfer can see he's got no choice. He drops off the board and into the water, puts a hand under her butt, and tries to hoist her onto the board.
They both see the shark coming back.
Naomi Cardiff used to love the ocean. Then, a stupid mistake splashes her across the news, spurring the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute to fast-track an experimental process that promises to lure seals—and thus, their primary predator, the Great White shark—away from heavily populated beaches.
By broadcasting an irresistible frequency, the WHOI hopes to reprogram the seals' natural migrating instincts, convincing them to gather at the remote Bald Cap rather than the touristy Cape Cod.
The scientific team behind the project, headed by Dr. Kat Cheong, includes audio expert Eddie Wolchko, grad student Rosalie Suarez, and behavioral scientist Dr. Tye Ashmore. Naomi, still adjusting to her new life post-shark attack and determined to be a serious reporter, joins the quartet on the good ship Thaumus—piloted by Captain Amadou N'Dour and his first mate, Peter Bergting—in order to write a profile on the project on its first run.
The WHOI group has the best of intentions—they just want to prevent future shark attacks. However, there are plenty of people who want to see them fail. Among the forces mustering against them: a militant group of SeaLove members who are following the Thaumus in an attempt to hijack their broadcast frequency and a pair of disgruntled fishermen, Jamie Counihan and Walter Briggs, who fish the waters around Bald Cap and can't afford to lose daily catches to hundreds of seals.
Then, there's the storm building up around them and the fact that the signal is making the sharks act unusually aggressive…
As we all know from countless horror movies and cautionary tales, it's never a good idea to mess with Mother Nature.
A larger bit of debris floated nearby, perhaps more reliable. He let go, hoping he could get the chair later, and he swam to the dark thing floating on the water. Cushions from the cabin, maybe. No. Ivor's duffel, that was it. The fabric had soaked through, and looked black, but it was floating, so he reached out. His fingers grazed it on the first try, and as he reached again the thing turned in the water and he saw it wasn't Ivor's duffel at all.
It was Ivor. The top half of Ivor. His face shone pale and bloodless, his mouth frozen in a rictus of horror. Below the waist, there was only ragged flesh and trailing viscera.
Feole screamed.
Shark Island sets up a scenario familiar to anyone who loves nature-gone-wrong movies. All of the ingredients are there for a predictable paint-by-numbers thriller.
Jameson, however, zigs when you expect him to zag. Just when you're anticipating a particular twist, it's thwarted at the crucial moment. POV characters you expect to survive, or at least make it further in the story, are snuffed out with minor fanfare. The death scenes are particularly lightning-fast and brutal, which makes them all the more sobering and realistic.
The primary message here, as with most animal attack horror stories, is that humans mess with nature at their own peril. Just because science can do something, doesn't mean it should. Solving one problem (too many seals luring sharks into tourist waters) only has a domino effect, creating all new problems (sharks willing to bash through hulls to stop a siren song).
“They will send someone to check on us,” she said. “It'll be hours yet. And when that someone comes, the sharks might attack their boat.”
Tye cocked his head. “Come on. They could have gone on smashing at our hull for days and nothing would've happened. If that one hadn't smashed in the propeller shaft, we'd still be afloat.”
“I know you're right. I just… the malice—”
“Sharks don't feel malice,” Tye said. “That's a human trait.”
“How can we really know that?”
“It's what we do. We're supposed to know.”
Kat shrugged. “We think we know. But we're also the geniuses who worked out a way to use acoustics like catnip on seal herds, and never bothered to consider that it might alter other marine life, too. We turned every shark in range of that signal into a hyper-aggressive monster. We did this, Tye. The two of us and Eddie.”
For most of the book, Jameson keeps strictly to scientific reality. These sharks aren't super-intelligent and don't have a personal vendetta against the WHOI crew. Naomi is only attacked in the story's opening because she was foolish enough to be swimming among seals and was mistaken for one of the Great White's natural prey.
Even the plot point that an acoustic signal drives the sharks into a frenzy isn't entirely far-fetched. There are some moments near the climax where the sharks behave in a more Jaws-like fashion, single-mindedly channeling their anger and hunger at the protagonists, but it's still not entirely implausible, as so many entries in this genre tend to be.
One of the strongest, most enjoyable aspects of Shark Island is the diversity of its cast. Naomi is a disabled lesbian whose prosthetic plays a key role in the narrative and whose disability never makes her a liability. Audio engineer Eddie Wolchko is visibly on the Autism spectrum yet is never treated as a joke. Burly fisherman Walter is a 6' 4″ black gay man who shares a devoted friendship with his straight partner, Jamie. Kat is Chinese-American, Rosalie is Latina, and Captain N'Dour is Senegalese.
It's absolutely refreshing to read an action-packed thriller peopled with such interesting characters—people you immediately like and connect with. The diversity makes for a more compelling story, and when the inevitable death scenes come, they're all the more disturbing and crushing.
Shark Island doesn't quite reach the same plateau as Jaws, but that's fine. It's still a strong thriller that stands out from the crowd of imitators. If you're a fan of Anaconda, Piranha, and Deep Blue Sea but want just a hint more realism and representation, this one is a must-read.
It's a great summer beach book—though I'd suggest reading it after you're back from your swim.
Shark Island by Chris Jameson | Mini Book Review
Posted July 14, 2017 by Jana in Adult Fiction, Book Review / 2 Comments
Shark Island by Chris Jameson
Published by St Martin's Paperbacks on June 27, 2017
Genres: Suspense, Thriller
Pages: 320
Format: eARC
Source: From the publisher through Netgalley
Amazon • Add to Goodreads
A shark attack survivor believes she has already lived through her worst nightmare. She's dead wrong. . .
Naomi Cardiff is not one to give up without a fight and now, after learning about a series of shark attacks in Cape Cod, she s joined a team of scientists to put a stop to the terror. The plan: to lure the sharks to a remote island far from the populated coastline. Meanwhile, a fierce Nor Easter is underway. . .
In the midst of the storm, an alarming number of Great Whites have come to slaughter the seals in a vicious feeding frenzy. When sharks ram and breach the hull, Naomi and her team must jump ship and swim desperately through a sea of circling fins and gaping jaws to the tiny island. But as the swells from the storm begin to swallow their rocky refuge, how will they manage to make it out alive?
I don’t know what it is about shark stories, but I gobble them up. I love the movies Jaws and The Shallows, and I love Shark Week… Sharks are just my thing. Unfortunately, it takes a lot to not make a shark story come off as outlandish and stupid. And this is how Shark Island turned out for me. I allow a LOT with books like these, but I just could not with this one.
The entire store was very unbelievable. The entire premise was to lure the sharks away from Cape Cod by broadcasting a signal that turned the seals into robots who could no longer think and act on their own, regardless of the danger they were in. This signal also turned the sharks into vicious killing machines with a revenge complex. It just seems far too outlandish. I was bored for the first half until the characters actually become stranded, and then I spent the second half rolling my eyes. I didn’t like any of the characters, and found their backstories very boring and drawn out. There was an INSANE amount of profanity and gory, bloody shark attacks. Sharks were flying out of the water and snapping bodies in half with one bite, sending all kinds of carnage and refuse into the water. There was so much blood that people were feeling the water temperature rise. It was just too much gore, too much profanity, too unbelievable, and too over the top dramatic and theatrical for me. I’m willing to suspend disbelief, but this was gratuitously silly and I’m irritated I made myself finish it. lol
Review: Shark Island by Chris Jameson
June 6, 2017 Michael Patrick Hicks Horror, Book Reviews
Shark Island
$7.99
By Chris Jameson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I've been racking my brain trying to think of the last shark book I read, and come to think of it, I don't think I've read any proper shark-fic. I've read books with giant squids, aquatic parasites, and oceans full of otherworldly terrors, but have somehow managed to avoid Great Whites altogether. So, consider this my first proper introduction to this popular horror staple, and just in time for Shark Week!
After reading Shark Island, I can certainly see the appeal behind this particular sub-genre, and this book is pretty well crafted and entertaining as all get-out. Naomi is a shark attack survivor, and one year after her near-death experience she joins the scientific crew of the Thaumas to document their efforts in relocating a massive proliferation of seals off the Massachusetts coastline. The plan is to use an acoustic wave to target the seals, get them to follow the Thaumas and relocate them to the remote island of Bald Cap. The seals essentially become bait to help move the sharks away from the Cape Cod shoreline, but the acoustic signal has some unexpected side-effects (well, to the scientists anyway. Even people who have never read shark-fic before will know things have to go sideways pretty quickly with a plan like this.). Throw in a brewing Nor'Easter, a whole lot of blood-lust, and you've got a seriously fun The Perfect Storm by way of Jaws mashup.
Chris Jameson delivers a knock-out debut that kept me constantly wanting to know what's going to happen and who's next on the chopping block. Suitable to a shark horror story, there's plenty of chum in the water thanks to our large cast of characters, and the body-count is significant. The characters are all pretty well developed, each one given a strong moment to shine, if not several, and their interpersonal relationships are all believable and well drawn.
The main draw to Shark Island is, of course, the sharks, but Jameson keeps the human factor front and center, never letting you forget that these are normal people caught up in horrific circumstances. And while the narrative gets pretty bleak, with some moments that are downright hopeless, the story maintains an energetic buoyancy that kept me sailing through each page. The ending is a bit on the simple side, but makes up for it with an emotionally resonant send-off in the last few chapters.
This one is getting all five stars from me for being a wicked bit of fun. I was craving a solid bit of shark action and got exactly what I wanted out of this one. This was just pure joy for me!
[Note: I received an advanced copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley.]