I think this book maybe struggled with what it wanted to be. It felt like it was trying very hard to be literary, but at the same time was a thriller and pretty graphic, while also being sci-fi. The first half was tough to get through because I did not know what I was really reading there in terms of literary fiction or a thriller, and the second half I was gripped with being inside the whale, but then we reverted back to the literary style of writing towards the end instead of the thriller and it just made it sort of tough to digest. I think I would still recommend it to people to read, but I would want them to know ahead of time that it wasn't the easiest thing to fly through like you'd expect from what you think this genre will be.

What an amazing book! I could not put it down at all. The short chapters were awesome too. So atmospheric like you were experiencing it all. Heart pounding moments. I like the past & present storyline really puts you in the moment. Can't wait to read more from this author!

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Whalefall is a harrowing tale of a young man, Jay, going on one last dive to gain closure after his father's death by his own hand. Throughout the story, Jay encounters numerous perils, some of which come from the deepest depths of the ocean. Even though the central conflict would appear to be between Jay and the sperm whale that accidentally swallows him, this is a father-son narrative at its core. I thought the storytelling was excellently done, with the chapters often switching back and forth from the current predicament in the water to the traumas our main character endured when his father was still alive. The science of scuba diving and the biology of various ocean creatures seemed believable and accurate, in a layperson's point of view. I highly recommend this novel for those interested in action-packed scenes, but love a story of self discovery and forgiveness. The technical jargon may be difficult for some, but if you can fully immerse yourself in the narrative, you will not be disappointed. My only complaint was that the ending felt very blunt, but that could definitely be a stylistic/plot choice.

Wow. Seriously, wow! One of the most unforgettable books I've ever read!

Whalefall is a moving exploration of grief, of a complicated father & son relationship, and of a young man's struggle to find his way thru all the overwhelming emotions resulting from his father's death.

This is a book almost impossible to adequately sum up with words. Its a journey that can't be fully appreciated until the reader has traveled alongside Jay, has witnessed and shared his grief, guilt, and pain.

I thought Bent Heavens would forever remain my favorite Daniel Kraus book, but I was wrong. Whalefall is the new King of the Hill and one I can't imagine will ever be unseated.

This book will move you. It'll immerse you in Jay's story so fully you'll suffer alongside him. This book will leave you emotionally drained and lying awake in bed thinking about the heart wrenching topics covered in the story. It'll also be totally worth the lost sleep. This is a tale not to be missed.

Thank you to Netgalley and MTV Books for providing a copy for me to read and review.

I think I might be the only person on the planet who didn't LOVE this book. First of all, I haven't seen it billed as a YA book, but it absolutely is. The main character is a teen, and the entire book revolves around his teen angst.

So, here's what worked for me: The tension is PALPABLE. It's a quick read, and I finished it in less than 24 hours. A lot of that is because the tension and the "OMG What Will Happen" factor is intense.

Here's what didn't work for me: The book seems to glorify toxic masculinity and assert that the only way to achieve true self-awareness is to make incredibly foolish decisions and destroy your body in the process. The father is the picture of toxic masculinity, and while Jay starts the book out recognizing that toxicity and running from it, by the end of the book, he has glorified his father and sees him as a hero. He makes an incredibly dangerous choice based on a teen reaction to trauma, and the entire story heroizes him for surviving the fallout of that choice.

I can see why it's being billed as "The Martian" meets "127 Hours," because the survival against all odds aspects of the two stories are there. Likewise, the "trapped by nature and my own bad choices" vibe of "127 hours" is 100% spot on. I guess I just hoped it would be more "Martian," in which Mark truly is a hero who overcomes some wild shit that was totally out of his control, and less "127, " of which Ralston himself has said that he made poor decisions that lead to his predicament.

I can certainly see the appeal of this novel. The author does a fantastic job with all of the science behind the story. It is not just a make believe tall tale. He does a great job of also adding in a heartfelt family aspect to the story and not just your typical survival story. However, for some reason, I just could not connect with our main character. Maybe this is because this is not the typical genre I read. I do think the writing quality is very good, it's well researched, it's heartfelt. It was just not for me.

Thanks to NetGalley for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review. I really wanted to love this, but I just didn’t. I think I stuck with it because I’m a certified scuba diver and understood what Jay was dealing with when it came to his equipment. I feel people who have no idea about scuba or aquatic life, especially whale anatomy, may have difficulty following. With that being said, as I was reading I kept thinking “there’s just no way”. I had so many questions for the end. It just fell flat for me. On the plus side, short chapters and a quick read and I did learn some cool stuff while reading it.

While I found this story interesting, I couldn't get used to the style of writing and I didn't find the main character, Jay, likable at all. They way the story moved from past to present and back again pulled me out of the story and I found it hard to get engaged.

I’ll admit - I was first drawn in by that stunning cover. Then when I saw the description of 127 Hours meets The Martian, I was SOLD! Absolutely ready for this. Unfortunately - the execution didn’t work for me and I quickly felt bogged down in the father/son relationship and flashbacks. This one wasn’t for me. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance reading copy.

A young man named Jay has a complicated relationship with his gruff, deep sea diver father to the point that they are estranged at the time of his father's death. In an effort to assuage his guilt, and look good in the eyes of the community and his family, he sets out to retrieve his father's body from the bottom of the sea. What he doesn't bargain for is getting accidentally swallowed by a sperm whale in the process. In this deep-sea tale, Jay must survive a harrowing situation, and come to terms with the loss of a father that was larger than life.
This novel has short chapters, and reads like a movie script. The sea life encountered in the ocean is fascinating. I did lack connection with Jay, and really could never get a grip on why the community would be so judgmental of relationship problems between a father and son. I also really couldn't get a grip on the final episode that ended their relationship. And it was also a bit confusing with the "dialog" inside the whale. The whale and Jay's life circumstances were intertwined. Overall, if this were a movie, I think it could be exciting to watch - As a novel I would give it three stars.
~Thank you to NetGalley and Publisher

The publishers have done this book a disservice by comparing it to The Martian in the first line of the blurb. Whalefall lacks the key elements that made The Martian so special: prose that's as smooth as butter, a funny and dynamic hero you can't help but root for, and action right from the beginning. Whalefall is so slow in the beginning, despite the fact that it has short chapters. Jay's stream of consciousness about diving in the present isn't interesting, and it doesn't seem to be going anywhere. The flashbacks don't make you root for anyone in the book, and I mostly felt secondhand embarrassment reading it. This book was one of my most anticipated reads of the year, but it felt flat and didn't work for me at all.

Wow. I read almost this entire book in one sitting, and couldn't physically put it down. Beautifully written, poignant, suspenseful, and awe inspiring. This is definitely going down as an all time favorite. Bravo, Daniel Kraus - this book is a work of art that will stay with me forever.

Yay!!!!

Loved this.

Creepy eerie atmosphere. This book made me so scared. Similarly to how the movie the Meg freaked me out.

Also short chapters for the win!!!!!

I was so worried I wouldn’t like it because large oceans and space freak me out but that was why it worked so well for me!

Not since Peter Benchley wrote Jaws have we had a book featuring a behemoth of the seas that makes the reader suck in their breath and squirm like Daniel Kraus’s Whalefall. This is the perfect summer adventure book that will keep you out of the ocean.

Young Jay Gardiner has lived in the shadow of his father’s fame as a diver in the Monterey Area of the California coast. Mitt Gardiner, although a diver of renown, is a failure in all other aspects of his life. He’s worked scraping the bottoms of rich men’s yachts, cleaning pier pilings, and even dived for golf balls in the sodden water features of the area’s upscale country clubs. Unfortunately, no job has lasted long due to his surly and confrontational nature. Even at a young age Jay can never please his father and after a final bout at the age of 15 moves from the family home in disgust and defeat.

When Mitt commits suicide by drowning, Jay puts on his diving gear and goes to retrieve his father’s bones as a way to redeem himself in the eyes of the community and family. It is here the story begins. At the famous trench off the shore of Monterey there’s a deep oceanic canyon. Through bad luck, bad planning and bad Karma Jay finds himself in the middle of death struggle between a giant squid and a Sperm whale – a Kraken and a Behemoth. He’s sucked into the whale with less than an hour of oxygen left in his tank. I had to white knuckle through this tale.

Author Daniel Kraus is able to take the reader into the belly of the beast for a wild adventure that never slows down.

I know this is a highly anticipated release, so I hope I’m in the minority…I was so excited to read it, and I’m sad to report that I didn’t like it.

First, let’s start with what I liked:
Short chapters for the win. Always.

However, I lost interest from the start. The pivot from past to present prevented me from getting invested. I was hoping for an action packed experience, and in 300+ pages there wasn’t much action to speak of.

While this was about so much more than just a diver and a whale, it just wasn’t enough for me.

Thanks, NetGalley for an advanced copy of this title!

Holy crap, this was a thrill ride. Taught, tense, and full of what the hell happens now? But really, at its core, it's a story about fathers and sons, and how regardless of how hard we try, of what our intentions are, we don't know how it's going to turn out, and how what we do will change people. Or sometimes, maybe we don't know how we're changed.

What a phenomenal book. So far this is my best book of 2023. Seriously go buy a signed copy immediately because this is one that'll stick with you.

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.

While on the dive, Jay is confronted by a giant squid who Jay later determines to be a sperm whale’s latest meal. As Jay attempts to remove himself from the chaos, part of his gear gets caught in the squid’s tentacles. Struggling to get free was fruitless. In a flash, Jay is swallowed whole and finds himself in the belly of the whale beast with only less than an hour left of oxygen to escape his living hell.

Whalefall wasn’t what I was expecting. I struggled with the flashbacks to Jay’s past. But perhaps those flashbacks’ purpose was to provide some context into Jay’s history. And in the scheme of things, Jay was facing possible death, so his life was flashing before his eyes. However, to me, it didn’t do much for the novel except to muddle the eaten alive narrative.

I didn’t particularly like any of the characters. Somehow they all bore the same vanilla personality. It’s possible that the family conflicts overshadowed the character development, making all the characters one in the same. Or, I may have been more interested in the escape process, instead.

Overall, Whalefall was a decent read. But I would have loved it more had it not been for the family flashbacks. Three stars.

I received a DRC from Atria through NetGalley. The review herein is completely my own and contains my honest thoughts and opinions.

I really liked the premise of this book, I love a good underwater horror but this was just a little bit lackluster. It wasn’t terrible by any means, but it just missed the mark for me. I loved all the scenes inside the whale, even though you do need to suspend your disbelief for some of it. However, the flashbacks just kept taking me out of the story, and I couldn’t connect with the main character or any of the side characters so I found that I just didn’t really care if Jay lived or died. I did like the amount of biological details included, the author definitely did his research and I loved the facts that were included about the whales and the giant squid. In the same way that the flashbacks took me out of the story due to their abruptness, the writing was also a bit choppy. However that all could’ve just been a stylistic choice, it just didn’t impact me in the way it was probably meant to. I do seem to be in the minority right now though, this has a lot of 5 stars so I think if this sounds interesting to you, definitely give it a shot!