Book Review - "Raw Shark Texts"

"The Raw Shark Texts" by Steven Hall

My grade: B+

This book is conceptually very similar to Scarlett Thomas' "The End of Mr. Y" and Murakami's "Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World" - both excellent books, may I add (reviews of both available on my blog). For those not familiar with these works, they are in a kind of genre dealing with a world within a world, a Matrix of sorts.

Hall's writing is absolutely exceptional! Not to speak of the endless creativity. The work is very conceptual and definitely requires a lot of concentration. This is also the kind of book that requires several readings, and I'm sure I will come back to it at some point in the future. What I did find on the negative side, though, was the underlying love story at the beginning and end of this. It was a bit too sappy for me, although very cute. In general, though, I definitely recommend this book.