Book Review: Salechii by Carolyn McCray

Salechii: A Shark Park is supposed to be all about learning to respect and protect sharks, however after a Level-5 Hurricane hits and the sharks get out of their pens, the only lesson learned is how fast can you swim?

If you are glued to Shark Week, Sharknado, Jaws, or Jurassic Park, Salechii is going to be your new feeding frenzy!

My Review: 
Salechii is a new underwater shark park, with the aim of entertaining and educating the visitors about sharks and conservation. A soft opening is planned with celebrity and VIP guests arriving to test the facility and rate it so improvements can be made and problems ironed out before the main opening. However a massive storm is on a collision course with the park and the underwater areas begin to flood, with guests getting closer to the sharks than they ever wanted to get. Will anyone survive Salechii and make it out alive? 

I'm a massive shark fan and can never get enough of reading about them in fiction and non fiction. I've been scared of them and fascinated by them since I was a kid and first saw Jaws! I heard about this from Laura over at http://fuonlyknew.com/ and I was intrigued by the thought of it. I finally downloaded this year as a box set on Amazon and devoured the whole thing in a short period of time. I'm pleased to say that it was even better than I hoped it to be!

I loved the whole idea of the underwater park with the tunnel complex connecting all the parts of it, guest bedrooms with windows looking into the shark pens and a wide range of species from the scary bull sharks and great whites to the docile and friendly whale shark. I liked the idea of a mixed human and robot staff running the place and it added something new to the plot. The cyclone is bearing down on them and even Callum is getting nervous about how the park will cope with such a bad storm in terms of the shark welfare as well as the underwater complex itself. If all of that isn't bad enough, someone in the park has a serious grudge against Callum and wants to destroy his park. This person will go to any lengths to sabotage Salechii even if it risks the lives of the guests. There is plenty going on with the plot.

Salechii is owned by Callum who runs it with his son Dillon, an enterprise that has allowed father and son to bond. Callum is all about teaching people about sharks to ensure the long term survival of the predators, and has constant battles to stop investors from turning it into a marketing circus. Now both are nervous about letting the visitors in to see the park for the first time. The welfare of the sharks was important to them, which is a quality that I liked in both of them. They have been assisted by Tonaka Yashimoto, who designed the robot staff that assist the guests and do any diving required into the shark pens for repair work or for the welfare of the actual sharks. Dr Shalie Hofstrum has been working with the robots and has experimented with modifying a few to give them more human qualities. A lot is at stake for these four people as the opening gets closer and they need good feedback from the guests at the soft opening, which is being threatened by the storm. 

Dillon's best friend is the most human of the robots, called Quax. I loved the friendship between them which was like a proper bromance with banter, and a deep bond of love and loyalty. Quax was invented to work at the park but after watching Shark Week on TV, poor Quax has developed a phobia of sharks which makes him so human and endearing! When things start to go wrong, he knows he has a job to do in saving guests and trying to help evacuate but his crippling fear proves to be difficult for him to control. I loved the developing anxiety amongst the robots as things go wrong and I found their personalities fascinating, especially the robot who was going through a sexual reassessment. Quax is not the only one with a fear of the sharks. Nick is an action film star who wants to use a visit to cure his daughter Nami of the phobia she developed after witnessing a shark attack on a friend. Nami finds even being at the park overwhelming and scary and when things go wrong, Nick fears that he has got her into something that could kill her. Also at the park is the obnoxious famous shark hunter Jack with his personal film crew.   

This book has the vibe of Deep Blue Sea on steroids with the sharks getting inside the complex and hunting down their next meals but they aren't just eating machines here, as the author gives some of the sharks distinct personalities. The sharks are just doing what they do and the actions of several humans are worse than the sharks. I liked the non stop tension and action as the storm comes in, the sabotage begins and the sharks go on the rampage. I was never quite sure what was coming next and that is one of the reasons that I liked it. I liked the main cast in the book which let me easily root for my favourites as each disaster occured. I liked the use of the robots and the way that they were given their own qualities and emotions. There was a hint of romantic feelings between a few pairs in the story but that takes second place to the shark drama and is worked well into the story, focusing on emotions rather than sex.

I can't go too much into the plot or I'll spoil it all but there were some really nerve wracking shark encounters that would look great in a film or TV mini series! I can say that there was tension, action, humour and sad moments so this book had a bit of everything. If you love shark stories and creature features, you'll probably have a good time with this book. 

Read July 2018
5 stars.