The Raw Shark Texts is a hugely successful book released in 2007 by first time U.K. author, Steven Hall. Raw Shark has often been referred as some bizarre cross between Jaws and The Matrix with perhaps a little Da Vinci Code thrown in there for good measure. Raw Shark follows the story of Eric Saunderson who awakes on his bedroom floor without any personal memories or ideas. The man remembers his basic motor functions but nothing resembling emotions or sense of identity. Shortly upon awaking, Eric finds a note left by the "first Eric Saunderson" with basic instructions on how to resume his life. From this point forward a proverbial can of worms is opened and the mystery unfolds itself in an addictive way, by which I mean, it's really hard to put this book down.

As I said earlier, I had an experience like this a few months back when I read "House of Leaves". The stories are quite different but the layout is just as ambitious. While Danielewski goes above and beyond with liner and foot notes as well as scratches and interchanging fonts, Hall goes with long gaps of pages with little to no words as well as diagrams and exhibits. The changing style throughout the novel really adds to the experiment and gets the reader more and more involved in what is happening to Eric's world.

Apparently, the novel has been shopped around in Hollywood for the last two years with hopes of a silver screen adaptation to be placed in the works but it has yet to be purchased. There is, however, a screen play written by the same person behind "Slumdog Millionaire". Some people might say that it would be a challenge to film, while I agree it has it's difficult areas, I would say this book is just screaming to be a feature film.

Continuing with what I had said in the opening, Matty has led me to yet another terrific author. While Hall is working on a second book, whether he can produce something on par to Raw Shark Texts remains to be seen but I know that I'll be checking it out. So, it was a good read, a repeat read for me at some point. ( )

The one thing bothering me most is that the book is full of potential, but unfortunately the author doesn't seem to notice it. The potential lies in the theory that the world, society, gender, whatever, is a construction of words and language - what will happen when the basic construction material is taken away by a word/memory-eating shark, when someone sees the "matrix" and can finally question it? But blah, as I read further, it became clearer and clearer that this was going to turn out to be a general dull-minded romance without a "deeper meaning" (or at least the meaning got lost along the way). ( )

An incredible concept, full marks for imaginative effort. In the end he starts too many narrative hares to be able to chase them all down, and the massive plot holes left me asking a lot of questions for a long time afterward - but well worth reading anyway for a completely mind-blowing experience. ( )

This book starts out strong with an interesting idea. It creates a conceptual world where the idea of a shark is just as damaging as a real shark. This shark and other conceptual animals can eat your memories, make you more passive, or keep you in a mental rut. (The Shark even accounts for Alzheimer patients.) However, throughout the book, you are left to wonder if this is real, or is he crazy. It treats the conceptual ideas of things very seriously in the beginning, but as the story gets more far-fetched (even to the main character), you begin to wonder if his psychiatrist is right and that he has a mental disorder. The ending will also re-inforce that with its ambiguous ending. More than anything, I think the ending sequence (but not the ending itself), was very annoying. It's one thing to hint or allude to something, but when you re-create the ending of Jaws and just insert the devices of the book, it isn't very interesting. That may be the point of the ending, I just didn't enjoy it as much.Overall, I enjoyed the book and concepts. It just fell apart in the last quarter.quotes:"This was a girl--a woman--who could make or unmake the world however she wanted. It was the most compelling thing I'd ever seen." — p 189"the books were even older, they made me think of the old British army abandoned and left behind still standing in their dusty formations." p. 221 ( )

Scintillating story of identity, conspiracy, and complexity. ( )