Hello Gemmies! I have a new book review to share with you today. June is here, and along with the warmer weather, is what I like to call Sea Monster Reading season. There is nothing better than sitting on the beach reading a great sea monster tale. I absolutely love sharks so of course I started this sea monster season with The Meg Series by Steve Alten. This review is for Meg: Hell's Aquarium the fourth book in the Meg Series.
Meg: Hell's Aquarium takes place about ten years after the events in Meg: Primal Waters. Trigger warning this book is full of questionable comments about Middle Eastern people. There was also a distasteful comment about African Americans and rap right at the start of the book that almost had me slamming the book shut. I understand this book was written eleven years ago (2009) but the comments are pretty tone deaf and hard to take at times. There is also the problematic continued portrayal of women as either devious sex kittens or raging bitches. I had hoped that would have improved as the series progressed but sadly it has not. Now, with all of that being said, this is my guilty pleasure series and I'm here for the sharks and carnage. Meg: Hell's Aquarium has tons more science facts and shark action and is a vast improvement over Meg: Primal Waters. We have numerous Meg's including The Angel of Death, and a plethora of prehistoric sea creatures like helicoprion, mosasaur, dunkleosteus, kronosaurus and more!
We are reunited with our much older main characters, Jonas, Terry, and Mac. Jonas and Terry's children, now adults also play a larger role as the story unfolds. I can see The Taylor's son...David and his bi-polar new BFF...Monty, being set up as the next generation "Jonas and Mac dynamic duo". After all Jonas is in his 70's at this point, how many more sea monster fighting adventures can he have?
The sea creature fights and ending are very satisfying. I will continue on with the series even with the problematic portrayal of women and people of color, because i'm too far in to stop now. I hope the next book has less of these issues and even more shark and prehistoric sea creature mayhem. If you are a fan of this series, like prehistoric biological chaos and carnage, science fiction horror, and deep sea adventures give this book a try. Published by Variance Publishing LLC, Meg: Hell's Aquarium is available for purchase from all major booksellers. I give Meg: Hell's Aquarium 3 out of 5 gems. Happy Reading!
