How it Feels to be Attacked by a Shark

by michelle-hamer

Book by Hamer, Michelle

Genres: Nonfiction, Reference

224 pages, Paperback

First published October 5, 2005

Reviews

[Nicky · Rating 2 out of 5]

Despite the dramatic cover, the stories in this really fall flat. They all have exactly the same tone, and a lot of them make me very, very sceptical. There's just something totally unreal about them.

Plus, the choice of some of these seemed very out of place. "How it feels to be a transgendered person" alongside "how it feels to be struck by lightning/in a cyclone/in a bush fire".

[Omar El-Rifai]

I thought it was a great book. Not only does it contain many interesting stories. It also inspires everyone that no matter what you're going through, you will be able to find a solution. I liked a lot of the stories including How it feels to be attacked by a Great White and How it feels to battle Cancer because they did everything they can to fight for themselves and tried to find a solution. This book is also a good book because there are a lot of situations where one could be in and this book may help them find a solution to the problem. Overall, I think its a great book and I'd recommend this book to anyone.

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes the craziest life or death situations happen to normal every day people. From being abducted by aliens to being attacked by a shark this book is full of crazy events. The book includes crazy things like stories if being run over by a tractor to being attacked by a dog. You also experience some of the emotional sorties battling cancer and the happiness of having quintuplets. This book is full of crazy and amazing stories and I definetly recommend reading it!

[Nick Briggs · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book contained many adrenaline rushing experiences for the reader and from the victim of the accident they had. I enjoyed the book and gave it 4 stars becuase the stories really pulled me in as a reader. Instead by the end I was starting to loose interest in but it was very good.

[Zachary Ostroff · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was an interesting one, I thought overall it was pretty good and was cool to see people recall experiences that probably will never happen. There were some significant problems with it though. Some of the stories were really interesting, however other's I felt were not as interesting and dragged on for a while. Other than that this was a decent book and I would recommend it to someone who likes books about crazy real-life experiences.

[Matt Franks · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this book was a change from most story based books. This book got my attention with its very descriptive short stories of people's shark attacks. This book would be a good read to anyone who is interested in sharks and peoples stories and encounters with them.

[Janette · Rating 2 out of 5]

I got this thinking it would be really interesting, but it was mostly dull. When I got to the entries on "How it feels to be abducted by aliens" and "How it feels to channel animals"--including that contributor's claim that the lamb she was eating "came to her" and so she can no longer eat meat, it was so utterly ridiculous that it wasn't even worth laughing about. Each segment is very brief with absolutely no followup or additional information on the folks involved. It's also very specific to the individuals involved, so is essentially useless for anyone else.

So if you're bored and just need anything to read, I suppose this would fit the bill. But I've read much better books that are similar (e.g., "The Survivors Club" by Ben Sherwood) and that provide actually useful information. I would recommend picking up one of those before I would recommend this book to anyone else.

[Gabe Prepetit · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was very interesting to read. It was just like what the cover described it as, it was a collection of stories from survivors of weird/ life threatening situations. The stories all had the same tone, but they were very different in what had happened in each of them. For example there was a story about a family that was "brainwashed" into living in a different society to a man that almost died in an avalanche. I enjoyed reading through most of the stories, but at times it can be redundant.

[Jason A · Rating 5 out of 5]

This piece of nonfiction was filled with action and included completely true stories. They all give you a new respect for mother nature and the force of fate. Not to mention that all of the true stories in this book were near death experiences. This work of literature by Michelle Hamer gives a new perspective on life and to appreciate what we have while it's there. Five stars.

[Avery Barnes · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a bunch of short stories that people write and how it felt with certain things. It was a very compelling story and showed me what it feels like with what those people have happen to them. I was very into the book and it was hard to put down. I highly recommend it!

[Whitney · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wanted to enjoy this book, but as exciting as each story would lead you to believe it was going to be, was told in such a dull, and frankly often unintelligent way. It seemed like no deeper questions were asked to really shape each story.

Each account was vague and had a similarly cliche sentiment at the end. In theory this is all well and good, but it leaves readers with no real takeaway. It also seems like there was little fact checking. I’m looking at you, “How it feels to be abducted by aliens.”

[Skye · Rating 4 out of 5]

The tonal whiplash was absolutely incredible, an emotional rollercoaster, I can't imagine the decision process behind why some of these stories were included over others and why some stories were placed next to others. I wish there were more details about certain aspects of some of the stories, for instance, the recoveries of several people with severe injuries should have had more than a couple of lines, as this to me would be essential to their story of survival.

[Rubi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really interesting real life stories about people who faced death and survived! Some of them are inspiring, the people being brave, others were bizarre or sad, but they were all interesting. When I bought it, I didn't realize they were all set in Australia....so some if the places and phrases were different but that doesn't take anything away from the book, obviously lol

[Renee · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's a collection of interesting stories. The way it is written gets kinda irritating after a few stories since it's the same style although it is written as first person. There are gripping ones in here but also rather dull ones.

[Jo Matey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Compelling and curious accounts of near total disaster written in first person by range of survivors. Some stories are told more clearly but most have truly horrific tales to convey.

[MKF · Rating 1 out of 5]

The edition that I read says that this book is about amazing life-or-death situations. But based on the stories included how is winning the lottery, being abducted by aliens, being an animal psychic, or even being a triplet a life-or-death situation?

[Dione Sage · Rating 2 out of 5]

How It Feels to Be Attacked by a Shark: And Other Amazing Life-Or-Death Situations by Michelle Hamer is not a book that is supposed to be awe inspiring to the readers, which is of course my personal opinion. I think this book is just a book with many different but basic stories of other people’s encounters in life and death situations. It is as if you are basically sitting in a room hearing a story about a shark attack from someone who knows the cousin of the guy that got attacked. I say that because you can never get the full effect of the story when they are told in a more basic way (even though these stories are supposed to be like a personal account told by the people that lived through the experiences). Most of the survivors all thank God for them coming through their ordeals and that is about the most intimate the stories get. I did find the stories interesting and am thankful that nothing like the situations these people faced has ever happened to me. However I did not buy this book to be in the hopes of being moved but in truth as a selfish and less noble reason, I bought it for two reasons. The first reason was ultimately because it was on sale and the second was because I thought it would be a good book to put in the shelf under the coffee table for guests to look at. So with that in mind please do not take my review for anything more than what it is. The book is not one of the genres I would particularly get to fit my own literary needs or likes but still I don’t think it’s a bad book.

[Markii · Rating 3 out of 5]

So far the other reviewers are right- the stories sound similarly dull but I find them sounding authentic. The diverse stories have inspired me to write my own "how it feels to..." stories of a couple of my own life-changing events- and what I've always noticed when i remember these events is that my retelling of the experiences could also be perceived as dull, matter-of-fact thoughts throughout the progress of the situations (off the top of my head I'd like to write about : surviving a 95 mph rollover car crash; and losing my belief in a religion I spent 25 years of my life devoted to). On that note, I do find it odd that so many of these survival stories find themselves to be the lucky recipients of the grace of god, but that is probably quite normal for the human experience (but all of these stories come from secular Australia!...).

Conclusion: So far this is an interesting tome of articles that could easily be found in the monthly Readers Digest magazine, offering brief anecdotal insights into traumatizing human experiences. The "dullness" to me just shows how we are naturally strong, apt and courageous w/out having to overthink survival when we need it most.

[Laura Baugh · Rating 3 out of 5]

As others have commented, the editor's hand was a bit heavy in this collection, so that most of the stories have the same tone and voice. I didn't find the writing as flat as others, but I wasn't drawn in as I should have been by such dramatic stories.

Most frustratingly, many of the stories did not focus at all on how it felt to be in that situation, but simply narrated events, leaving the human reactions to the supposition of the reader. As the title promises us insight into emotions and feelings, this is more than a bit disappointing. Also, I felt some of the stories were included for sake of completion because the editor couldn't find another -- the "mauled by a Rottweiler" story, for example, featured a woman bitten by a dog in a truck bed, hardly a "mauling" except in ratings-crazed media.

Overall, interesting read but not fascinating and I won't seek out more of the same.

[Judith · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a weird book and you'd expect it to be very entertaining and informative. The problem is that there are about 40 different short chapters on how it feels to be. . . ." shot in the head" "mauled by a rottweiler" "500 pounds", but they all sound like they were written by the same person. They all take place in Australia and the voice is the same flat affect in each story, and none of the speakers is identified by name, so the reader starts to wonder if it was all made up. And if they were all made up, why didn't the author try to use more imaginative terms or a different voice for each story? If they weren't made up, does this mean that people react the same way whether they're attacked by a shark or win the lottery?

[Fickle Ghost · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had a lot of potential, but unfortunately, it fell flat. There were a few stories that kept me on edge, but for the most part, the tales were all written in a very dull, mono-toned, and repetitive manner. The stories felt rushed, and they all seemed to be written by the same person. Though I can't put my finger on it, something was missing from almost every single story (now that I think about it, it was probably passion).

It's a shame, because this book could have been really wonderful and powerful. Instead, it was just blah.

[Lindsay Deacon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow. This author managed to take a handful of interesting and intriguing stories, and make them sound dull and monotone. Each story was supposedly written by the actual victim, but they all sounded exactly the same and were equally flat. The events were rushed through in a sentence or two, with most of the stories relating to how lucky or blessed they were. I think this book would totally appeal to an elementary student, and that's about it.

[Teresa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe it is just me, but despite what could have been a gripping (no pun intended) insight into various near death experiences, it was actually a little banal and tedious. The writing style seemed to knock any drama out of the life-changing experiences which is quite a feat really. I'd consider this to be stocking-filler-popcorn-reading rather than anything more.

[Luke Aspero]

My review of the book was amazing this book really told the read the intensity of survival of each persons dramatic situation. I still wonder how these people made it out alive. this book will keep the reader on the edge of their seats. I recommend this book to anyone that likes survival stories because this book has alot

[Xanthi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some of these chapters were more interesting than others and some were better written than others. I guess that is to be expected when you put together a book that is told verbatim by people from various walks of life. I did like the strong Australian content.

[Christian Fonceca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow really interesting story about people facing death face to face and surviving. Be fore I read this book I thought that the human body is week, but now I realize that the body can survive more then I realized.

[Christi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this kind of stuff. It was interesting to read about other people's perceptions of different life or death situations.

[Josh Cochran · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting stories for the curious

[Janice Padron]

awesome book