I love books about Hawaii, especially when they focus on Native Hawaiian culture. I also love books about nature and animals. So this book, about a marine biologist who goes to Hawaii to determine the cause of three shark attacks, checks a lot of boxes for me. Even better, it also features a woman in science. I just wish I’d liked it more.
Set in 1998, Dr. Minnow Gray is a marine biologist who is asked to investigate a series of shark attacks on the Big Island, Hawaii. Like in Jaws, the business owners and politicians are terrified that these attacks will impact tourism. Instead of educating people on safer swimming, they are gearing up for a massive shark hunt — even though the shark at fault might be long gone, and sharks are an important part of the Hawaiian ecosystem. Minnow’s job is to investigate the attacks and determine what type of shark attacked, and why, and how future attacks can be prevented.
Minnow Gray isn’t just a shark expert, she also has a feel for nature that most people lack. She hears and sees the world around her and feels deeply for its creatures. Even though a shark killed her father when she was a child, she loves them and is horrified at the idea of viciously killing all of the sharks in the area. Although stopping a mass attack seems to be hopeless, she’s helped by a family friend who’s a longtime Hawaii resident, his brother, a mysterious fisherman, and the victim of one of the attacks.
What I loved about this book: I felt like I was there with her in Hawaii. It’s one of my favorite places on the planet. I visited The Big Island in 2016 and stayed on the Kohala Coast. As much as I love Hawaii, I recognize that I’m always a tourist when I go there (though I try to be a respectful one). So I appreciate books that help me see what it’s like to live in Hawaii, to care about the land and the culture and the language. This book really did that. Ackerman clearly has a great love for Hawaii and its environment. And the beautiful cover captures that.
I also loved how much I learned about sharks and marine biology. Ackerman writes in great detail about the many things these animals can do and how important they are to our environment. If you loved learning all about the Giant Pacific Octopus in Remarkably Bright Creatures (which will be a movie soon starring Sally Field), you’ll like that about this book too.
Unfortunately, and maybe due to all of this detail, the story dragged. The dialog felt wooden, more to inform than to make the characters feel real (they mostly never did). A book about a race to stop the senseless killing of sharks should have been more exciting than it was. And the romance storyline was even worse. Something about the way it was written, it felt stilted. The two characters share almost nothing, they just think the other is hot. At least the romance is background to the rest of the story, so it doesn’t take away too much.
I did appreciate Minnow’s emotional journey, as she learns about her own past and her mother’s journey. She discovers why she feels so connected to the ocean and why Hawaii feels like coming home. But the structure of the novel occasionally detracted from this. Each chapter ends with a journal entry, but the entries jump around in time in a way that was distracting. I had some issues with the ARC formatting, though, and that might have contributed.
There’s a lot to like about this book, and if it sounds interesting to you, I encourage you to give it a try. It might be that the writing just didn’t work for me. If you’ve read anything else by this author, I’d love to hear what you thought.
Note: I received an advanced review copy of this book from NetGalley and publisher Harper Muse. This book was published January 13, 2026.
