The ocean offers an ideal setting for a horror novel or film. It’s unknown, it’s unexplored and it’s an uncontrolled environment that when filled with man-eating predators the situation becomes scarier than any slasher movie I have ever seen. Unfortunately, the killer shark genre has a lot more misses than hits; we can thank movies like Megalodon, Shark Attack 3: Megalodon and, yes, even Jaws: the Revenge with Mario Van Peebles. But that was until author Steve Alten brought Jurassic Park to the deep blue. Unlike the dinosaurs of Michael Crichton series, man did not bring these oversized fish back from extinction; they have survived undetected for millions of years in the unexplored trenches of the ocean, minding their own business until man finally unearthed them…

Meg: Hell’s Aquarium is the forth novel of the Meg series about prehistoric Megalodons — 100,000-pound killer sharks — who are now forced to share the planet with man. Generations of these predators have spawned from the first Meg book, and now the original Meg’s daughter, Angel, is housed at the Tanaka Institute with her litter of pups. When the not-so-happy family starts to outgrow their new home Jonas Taylor must sell off two of Angel’s runts, Mary-Kate and Ashley, to the oil rich government of Dubai and their new state-of-the-art super aquarium. Jonas’ son David is soon duped into leading an expedition to capture more creatures to add to Dubai’s aquarium and discovers that the killer Megs are not the only prehistoric predators that have survived for millions of years.

Hell’s Aquarium is a far cry from the cheesefest killer shark movies we have been accustomed to. Alten manages to deliver a believable fast paced story that doesn’t insult our intelligence; no genetically altered super sharks or dense teens “accidentally” falling overboard to be picked off one-by-one. The book does get a bit technical at times, but it doesn’t put a dent into the action stride and never takes away from the mysterious hidden world that Jonas and his crew discover. Hell’s Aquarium is Jaws meets Land of the Lost without the Sleestaks. It is the perfect summer read for everyone and will definitely satisfy the biggest of giant monster fans.