I was surprised by the whole story, specially considering I bought the book because it has a tiger on the cover (my bad). It starts slowly (and maybe a little boring) but as soon as they get on that ship, I couldn't put the book down. I found it extremely intriguing since in my wildest dreams I couldn't make up where the story was going and the whole idea is so far-fetched, I couldn't help but read it ferociously to reach the end. Richard Parker will definitely stay with me. What a great read.