This is what I want a thriller to be; quick, exhilarating, tense, and enjoyable.

Shark Island starts by introducing Naomi, as close to a main character as the book has, losing part of her leg to a shark attack while photographing seals off the coast of Cape Cod. Several months later has her joining a scientific expedition experimenting with a beacon that would lure the masses of seals, and thus the feeding sharks, to a remote island far from people. Throwing a wrench in their plans is a huge storm, environmental terrorists following them in another boat, and the discovery that the beacon while the beacon does entice the seals to move, it also drives the sharks into an intense frenzy. And it only gets worse from there.

The book is both tense and intense, with moments of real humanity. It's brutal in places and had me flinching, but I count that as a success as I was connected to the characters and I wanted them safe. There's a diverse cast of characters, there are queer characters, characters of different races, of different economic backgrounds, etc. All these things are important to the characters, yet also utterly unimportant in the face of furious great white sharks driven mad with bloodlust. Though Naomi is the de facto protagonist, there are numerous perspectives, some more major than others. Chris Jameson really managed to capture the right balance there, giving each character their own voices and motivations.

The plot moves along quickly and once teeth start gnashing at the characters, your heart starts pumping, in simultaneous dread and excitement. It's a wild ride from start to finish, thrilling even. Definitely a great summer book, but maybe not one you want to be reading by the seaside. ( )

4.5* I am so torn in regards to what I should rate this because quality wise it's a 4 but I freaking LOVED it and according to GoodReads "I loved it!" warrants a five star rating. So what did I love:
- Sharks...the reason we're all here
- takes place, in part, in Mass and my beloved Dunkies gets a shout out
- Shark fins
- all the characters! There was a pretty big cast and they were each developed really well considering how many there were
- Shark teeth
- DI.VERS.ITY. Characters of color, LGBT characters, characters with different socioeconomic backgrounds, I could go on...
- feels! Sometimes action packed stuff lacks emotion but this was really well balanced.
- Sharks.
- the author kept the science simple and didn't try to make shit up
- SHARRRRRKSSS

This book really got my blood pumping and kept the pages turning. I hope this new author keeps writing, I'd definitely read more by him...especially if it's about sharks.
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