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The Shape Of Water by Guillermo del Toro & Daniel Kraus

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BIBLIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION
Del Toro, G. & Kraus, D. (2018). The shape of water. New York, NY/USA. Feiwel & Friends.

PAGES
315

PURCHASING OPTIONS
Hardcover $24.29
NOOK $13.99
Audiobook $39.99

Kindle $13.99
Hardcover $16.58
Paperback $18.88
Audio CD $21.60

ANNOTATION
Elisa, a janitor in a science laboratory, finds herself in the midst of a legend. 

SUMMARY
Elisa is a young women. She is a janitor at a science laboratory. She is mute. Due to this, and it being 1962, she finds her opportunities in life extremely limited. However, she finds friends who face similar discrimination-whether it is because of their race or sexual orientation. 

 One day she witnesses the delivery of a mysterious creature to the lab. This creature, which is captured in the heart of the Amazon, is an amphibious man. Eventually, Elsie and the amphibious man learn to communicate, and even fall in love. Elsie, with the help of her friends, find a way to break the amphibious man out and hide him in her apartment. Then they take him to the water so he can return again, but Elsie decides to go with him, and finds that she is finally home at last. 

 MY REVIEW
This book was simply horrible. The writing style was choppy, very amateur, and underdeveloped. I could not stay interested because of this problem-not to mention all the others. The authors tried too hard to be abstract, otherworldly, and focused too much on getting shock value. The story had so much potential to be beautiful, memorable. It felt politically driven, and there is nothing more I cannot stand than politically driven artistic works-books, movies, paintings, choreography, or whatever it may be. I have a special disdain for contemporary works that are politically driven. They lack subtlety and proper artistic development.



This was another pathetic attempt at a retelling a story that has been told a hundred different times and in a hundred better ways. As for monster/human love stories-not my cup of tea. I'll admit that this alone gave me a bad impression from the beginning. The authors' intent of the story is honorable, I will admit, but their execution was seriously lacking and the way they chose to tell the story was flimsy at best. 

RATING
Quality: Plastic
Popularity: Rock

GENRE & SUB GENRES 
Fantasy
Romance
Fiction
Historical Fiction
Science Fiction

 APPEAL FACTORS
This book is a contemporary book that coincides with the movie, which came out at the same time as the book. The main theme of the book is love and tolerance of others. 

BOOKTALKING
The relationship between Elsie and the amphibious man

 The moral degradation of Strickland

 The theme of love and tolerance

 Fear leads us to make irrational decisions

 We fear what we do not, cannot, or choose not to understand

 DISCUSSION POINTS
In the end Elsie choses to go with the amphibious man and she finds she has gills. Do you think she was always an amphibious women or that she developed the gills in some other mysterious way?

 How are Elsie, Giles, and Zelda looked at and treated in 1962? Do you think those in our society today who are like there characters are treated any different? Why or why not?

 Is Strickland really a villian or is he a victim because of his suffering from PTSD? Why?

WHY THIS BOOK?
This book was assigned as a class group discussion. It was not a book I was personally interested in. 

THE AUTHOR
Guillermo del Toro
Daniel Kraus

REVIEWS

SIMILAR TITLES/AUTHORS
The Strain by Guillermo del Toro
Trollhunters by Guillermo del Toro
Don't Be Afraid of the Dark by Guillermo del Toro & Christopher Golden

AWARDS
New York Times Bestseller

 POINTS TO REMEMBER

  • Love & Tolerance
  • Mythology
  • Water Creatures


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