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Outstanding
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Booklist Brendan Driscoll
All of these elements--military history, mystery, action tale, ethnography--combine to make this book very hard to put down. [15 May 2004, p.1595]
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Outstanding
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Chicago Sun-Times Sam Jemielity
As a writer, Kurson possesses a rare gift of inhabiting his characters, letting the readers see, feel, hear, touch and smell what they do. As you read Kurson's account of divers corkscrewing their bodies through tiny spaces in the U-boat, you can almost hear the metronomic beat as they inhale and exhale through their regulators.
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Outstanding
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Publishers Weekly
If the publishers are dreaming of another "Perfect Storm," they may get their wish.
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Outstanding
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The New York Times Janet Maslin
In terms of finding the right material, writers of adventure nonfiction just don't get any luckier than this. Shadow Divers would work on those ingredients alone. But it also happens to be written with great you-are-there intensity and dynamic verve.
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Outstanding
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The New Yorker
Once underwater, Kurson's adrenalized prose sweeps you along in a tale of average-guy adventure.
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Outstanding
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USA Today Deirdre Donahue
Perhaps the most startling elements of Shadow Divers are anecdotes about the dangers of diving. In one story, Kurson writes of a father and son, both experienced divers, who die after the son becomes disoriented and shoots to the surface without decompressing. His father follows him.
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Outstanding
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Wall Street Journal Robert J. Hughes
Mr. Kurson's prose is tactile, direct, commanding -- free of the purple tendencies some writers assume when they venture into the vasty deep or attempt to give extra weight to their characters.
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Outstanding
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Washington Post Robert J. McCartney
A masterful work of reporting and writing, about an intriguing historical mystery solved by divers who go where only a select few would think to follow.
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Favorable
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The Onion A.V. Club Donna Bowman
[Kurson]'s got hold of great raw materials: death-defying feats, historical mysteries, even the laying to rest of unquiet corpses. Unfortunately, he can't help gilding the lily. Every interest is an obsession, every danger a test of manhood, every friend a soulmate, every goal a hero's quest.
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Favorable
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The New York Times Book Review Mark Bowden
It's a good story, marred only by moments of jejune men's-magazine sagacity: ''A shipwreck gave a man limitless opportunity to know himself if only he cared to find out.''
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Favorable
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Kirkus Reviews
Buffs of either category of adventure will find this a pleasure.
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Favorable
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Library Journal Edwin B. Burgess
Absorbing... Highly recommended for World War II, naval, and sport diving collections. [15 Apr 2004, p.100]
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Favorable
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Chicago Tribune Brenda Fowler
I was a little disappointed that Kurson, a former features writer for the Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago magazine, did not pry as hard into the men's justification for entering this war grave in the first place.
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Mixed
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Entertainment Weekly Jennifer Reese
What's missing here is a strong, rounded portrait of the principal divers, whose stories seem curiously flat, cautious, and bland.
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