Whalefall: A Novel

Product Information

Unexpectedly emotional and wildly entertaining, Whalefall is the tense revamp of Jonah’s tale you didn’t know you needed." Jay is confident that he can find bones before he reaches the edge of the underwater canyon. His father taught him everything about oceanography and deep-sea diving, and Jay’s need to find something permanent of him, even if only a tooth, makes him take the dangerous gamble. As he’s mesmerized by a rare type of bioluminescent squid, something bumps into him. That something happens to be a sperm whale. Mitt also has two daughters, but his youngest is his son, and Jay gets to live through the vicarious and exacting tutelage of his father, almost constantly teaching, teaching, teaching - hammering into Jay all of this nautical wisdom with a single mindedness that suffocates his son, and with a sense of urgency that pushes Jay away.

Whalefall by Daniel Kraus The Review and Summary of Whalefall by Daniel Kraus

This book was a very interesting surprise. Not only is this book about a man swallowed by a whale, but it is also family dynamics, guilt, depression, illness, emotional/verbal abuse, a father-son relationship, and survival. The descriptions in the book are vivid and put me right in the water and stomach of the whale. As Jay's oxygen levels begin to decrease, the tension mounts. Will he find a way out? Will he survive? Brave, bold, epic, propulsive. Whalefall is a deeply moving thriller that holds a planet’s worth of hope in the pit of its stomach.” This was an incredibly powerful read for me. I became so emotionally connected with the story. Not necessarily because I could relate to anything Jay was going through, but again, just because of the way that Kraus spun the tale. Astoundingly great. Whalefall is, quite simply, a beautiful novel—a must-read story of the sea, the nature of awe, and the briny relationships between fathers and sons.” In the midst of his quiet reflections, the unimaginable happens. First the giant squid, then the whale.

The whale, who could be considered the monster, beast or baddie, of this story, was just a creature with a soul who incidentally had all of these circumstances thrust upon it. A moving character study disguised as a riveting, cinematic survival thriller...The pacing is relentless, the awe astounding, and the tension palpably constricting, even as Kraus takes time to provide necessary details both scientific and visceral."— Booklist, starred review This book WOWED me in so many ways! It's a book about a relationship between a father and son that is totally mismatched. He thought his father hated him at times. His father also was "a drunk" and couldn't hold a job down. He had once been a great diver. The only thing that they have in common is the love of the ocean.

Whalefall | Book by Daniel Kraus | Official Publisher Page Whalefall | Book by Daniel Kraus | Official Publisher Page

io9: The structure of this novel shifts in between father-son lessons and the present moment–how did you balance the tension in between those two modes? WHALEFALL is a remarkable book. I immersed myself in it and never felt the need to come up for air. As such, it gets my highest recommendation!All the details of being in a whale, the relationship, the hypoxia, all seemed so real. Good suspense too! Great characters and world building. This brought tears to my eyes several times.

Whalefall by Daniel Kraus | Goodreads

Let's start with Jay and his father. We're told early that Mitt, Jay's father, was a tough guy, always trying to teach Jay lessons for survival, that you just never knew when some small, trivial fact would one day save your life (cue foreshadowing moments one through one hundred). Kraus makes sure we never forget this fact, because he takes virtually every non-whale moment—and quite a few whale moments—to not just remind you, but to slap you around with it, to bludgeon you with it, to run you over, then reverse over you one more time, just to make sure that you never ever forget what Mitt did and said to Jay. This one's being pushed as "scientifically accurate" and I've seen comparisons to Andy Weir's The Martian. Is it accurate to science? Yeah, as far as that goes, sure. DANIEL KRAUS is a New York Times bestselling author. With Guillermo del Toro, he co-authored THE SHAPE OF WATER, based on the same idea the two created for the Oscar-winning film. Also with del Toro, Kraus co-authored TROLLHUNTERS, which was adapted into the Emmy-winning Netflix series. Kraus’s THE DEATH & LIFE OF ZEBULON FINCH was named one of Entertainment Weekly‘s Top 10 Books of the Year, and he has won two Odyssey Awards (for both ROTTERS and SCOWLER) and has been a Library Guild selection, YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults, Bram Stoker finalist, and more.I did appreciate the scientific research regarding marine biology and scuba diving. However, the first third of the book was a bit tough (slow) to get through. I learned more than I will ever want to know about scuba diving/equipment. Once he is swallowed by the whale is when things really start to get intense and interesting!!

Whalefall Relates a Primal Oceanic Fear Come True - Gizmodo Whalefall Relates a Primal Oceanic Fear Come True - Gizmodo

The rest of this suspenseful, claustrophobic tale speeds by as Jay discovers he has only an hour’s worth of air — not to mention how to figure out how to escape the whale itself.

While this was about so much more than just a diver and a whale, it just wasn’t enough to keep me interested. In an attempt to assuage the guilt Jay Gardiner was feeling for his relationship with his dad, Mitt, Jay embarks on a dive to retrieve his late father’s remains. His late dad committed suicide earlier in the year, launching himself overboard into the deep blue ocean off the coast of Monastery Beach. I didn't want angst and whining about how daddy was mean but I loved him anyway, I wanted to watch a dude get swallowed by a whale and then science his way out. If that is what you want, too, then do not read this book. Just go read The Martian again, or some other actual sci-fi thriller/horror.