I've loved sharks since middle school, when I read everything about them I could get my hands on. Makos are my all-time favorite, because as McKeever points out, they're like the F-16 of predators. I'm fascinated by how much scientific knowledge of sharks has advanced since my own first foray into learning about them, which is why I picked up this book.

And there are definitely cool shark facts here. For example: female great whites are larger, because they need to be that big just to survive 18-month gestation periods. A shark named Luci regularly dives deeper than 3,000 feet, surviving pressures that would crush any nuclear submarine like a tin can. Plus, it's cold. And she's probably hunting giant squid.

But I'd say the awe-inspiring shark facts that have nothing to do with human beings is probably 1/3 of the book. The other 2/3rds is an earnest appeal for environmental protections for sharks worldwide. Humans kill 100 million sharks per year. They only get four of us on average, and yet we think they are terrifying. The book spends a lot of time condemning longline fishing, sport fishing, and transshipping. The link between poverty, human rights abuses, slavery, animal cruelty, and devastation of the natural world is abundantly clear: "The root problem is that poor and politically unstable countries feed vulnerable men to the world's industrial fishing machine." They're an important points to make and I'll be eyeballing the labels of tuna cans for years to come.

Overall, the disparate parts don't always hang together well. I'd like to see the arguments against industrial fishing as a longform magazine article, and have the rest of it illustrated. McKeever emphasizes the most impressive species--great white, mako, and tiger--in a way that I think neglects the incredible variety of sharks out there. (I've always wanted to know more about the goblin shark and the Greenland shark.)

Received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

McKeever fights against prejudice and fear over one of the most feared creatures in the natural world--the shark. Interesting and well-researched look at this intelligent and misunderstood species. Lots of interesting anecdotes and facts about various sharks.