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!

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an Arc copy of Whalefall.

When his father commits suicide, Jay suits up in his scuba gear to find his fathers bones at the bottom of the ocean. He then unexpectedly gets swallowed by a sperm whale. And Jay has to fight for his life from its belly.

This book was incredible. I want to say one of the best I've ever read. The storyline was unique. The writing was beautiful. What a journey. 100/10.

First let me say, I was instantly drawn to the book based on the cover! The use of color, light, realistic illustrations, and size scale made me want to grab this book and devour it.

Reading Whalefall was an unexpectedly incredible opportunity to learn all about diving and the anatomy of a sperm whale while simultaneously grasping the grieving emotions of the main character through his flashbacks. I felt very close to Jay as I read about his upbringing, shortcomings, and how his tumultuous relationship with his father has shaped his life.

As an ocean lover, I was enamored with the descriptions of the sea creatures (eeeep, the giant squid!), but was not expecting the graphic details and gruesome rehashings.

This book gave me quite a suspenseful adventure while also providing introspective reflections about family relationships. Aaaand a new fear of sea creatures & carcasses!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Atria Books for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Jay Gardiner attempts the impossible, finding his fathers remain at the bottom of the ocean. While searching beneath the waves, he gets swallowed by a sperm whale. Stuck inside the first stomach, Jay has less than an hour to find a way out.

This book has unlocked a new fear. While reading this book on the beach helps to elevate the thrill level, it will keep you from wanting to go for a dip after. Going between the present moment and the past keeps the suspense of the story alive till the very last page. A book perfect for the summer scaries.

Content warnings: Death of a parent, death by suicide, graphic descriptions of cancer, emetophobia, thalassophobia, claustrophobia, gore, body horror, dismemberment, drowning, sensory and auditory hallucinations

Take the claustrophobia and introspection of the film 127 Hours and now make it about a young man swallowed inside a sperm whale, and you’ve got Whalefall. Meticulously researched with regards to both whale anatomy and oceanic creatures in general, this book will delight those who love character studies and who live in and in fear of the ocean’s depths and fauna.

The exploration of grief Jay experiences through flashbacks as he fights for his own survival from within the whale comes in perfect pace. The sense of isolation, with nothing but flesh and the loudness of the emotional trials that got Jay to his daring dive, is simply incredible. The boy hasn’t lived an easy life and, in some ways, his getting swallowed isn’t the hardest things that’s happened. There’s a lot of focus on bodies and biology, so if that grosses you out, you might want to skip this one. It’s a lot to read, but the ticking time bomb of the oxygen left in his tank kept me on my toes and invested in Jay’s survival.

There’s not much more I can say without suggesting you experience this magnificent whale of a tale for yourself once it hits shelves next month.

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone novel. I got a copy of this on ebook through NetGalley to review.

Thoughts: This was a quick and unique read, but I wasn't a huge fan of it. I liked the beginning of it and the way we jump from past to present. I thought the visceral gory descriptions inside the whale got a to be a bit much and just too long.

The story follows Jay, a very smart seventeen year-old with a bright future who has huge daddy issues. Jay makes a strange decision to do a dangerous deep sea dive in order to recover his father's bones. His father committed suicide in the end stages of cancer and Jay has decided that if he can bring his father's bones home people will finally respect him. Jay's dad was pretty much an ass to Jay growing up but was hugely respected by the town for various seafaring heroics.

When Jay moved out and didn't come back when his father was in the end stage of cancer, the rest of Jay's family and the town decided Jay was awful and is determined to take it out on Jay daily. Jay thinks this dive is the answer. Jay gets into trouble when he sees a giant squid and then gets swallowed by a sperm whale during his ill-thought-out dive. Now Jay has to reevaluate his whole life up to this point and take advice from the whale (who talks in his father's voice) in order to attempt to survive the ordeal.

There were some things I liked about this. You learn a lot about diving and I liked the format that jumped from the present to the past. Basically, when Jay is in the whale he has a lot of time to think and certain things that happen make him have flashbacks to moments with his dad and family. The whale starts to speak to him in the voice of his father and he starts to come to peace with the relationship him and his father had.

There was also a lot I didn't like about this book. There is way too much page space given to Jay grimly crawling through the stomach, tissue, etc of the whale and all the gory and gruesome descriptions that go along with doing that. Really, I get it, it's gross...I have a pretty good imagination and I didn't need to hear those details rehashed over and over again. Also, Jay revisits a lot of the same tortuous thoughts over and over again and it gets wordy and repetitive. By the end of the book I was skimming through these long paragraphs just to see if something would actually happen at some point.

I wasn't a huge fan of Kraus's writing style in general it was just too wordy for me. I felt like this could have been a much shorter story and had the same impact. I also had a lot of issues relating to Jay and his half-baked decisions given how incredibly successful and intelligent he was supposed to be. I think the moral was that common sense doesn't apply to family relationships but well, I disagree. There is also a kind of theme of humanity destroying the earth which felt forced. In the end this felt like a neat idea that was drawn out too long and written in a very sensationalized way.

My Summary (3/5): Overall I wasn't a huge fan of this book. I did like some elements of it; learning about diving was fun and the format of jumping from the present to a slowly revealed past was well done. I just felt like the whole thing was too wordy and repetitive. The reader is beat over the head again and again about descriptions of the interior of the whale and we get to hear Jay's tortured thoughts about his father again and again as well. I would hope most of us can work through our family issues without getting swallowed by a whale, but I guess that is what it took for Jay to figure things out. Not a fan of the writing style in general, it just wasn't for me

I had high hopes when I started this book based on its description. To be honest, at the beginning, it was not meeting my expectations and I was unsure if I was even going to finish it. It felt very young adult to me and full of teen angst about Jay and his relationship with his now deceased father. I literally trudged through the first several chapters asking do I finish? do I not? BUT once Jay started diving and then was in the sperm whale, it got better. More exciting. More thought-provoking. Less angsty and more reflective. It was a slow start but eventually it became a more adrenaline ride. Overall, I liked it.

POSSIBLE SPOILER:

However, one overarching issue I had with it was the premise that Jay went to find his father's bones near where he died. Even reading about his time in the whale, the logic of finding this father's bones was seriously flawed. The currents, creatures and visibility wouldn't has allowed that to happen and I struggled to get past that.

Went into this completely blind and didn't realize it was such an intense family drama about Dad vs. son. Also extremely suspenseful and makes me never want to get in the ocean again!

If you’re claustrophobic, this book may not be for you. Kraus writes this novel in such vivid detail, it’s easy to imagine yourself in the protagonist’s place. The author weaves the story of a man coming to terms with the death of his estranged father with an adventure of Biblical proportions. This book has nice short chapters that keep you wanting more. Highly recommend

I really enjoyed reading this one. I thought the timeline was so interesting, the way it was back and forth but the past was all over the place. It really worked. I loved reading about the father son relationship. I know nothing of the ocean or diving other than that it is terrifying so knowing this was a scientifically accurate story was so cool to read. I liked the parts when he was stuck in the whale as well but I felt like this book was so much more than that.

I wish I liked this. Everyone else seems to, and I was so excited for it. But I just didn’t. I didn’t like Jay at all; I found him pretty unbearable. It was hard to relate to his pain because he was so difficult. I have never been a teenage boy, so maybe that’s the issue. But I just couldn’t get into his head space.

The first quarter was tough because I know nothing about diving and it was very detailed about diving. The last 75% was kind of gross. I understand why, but I’m not really excited to learn about dying squid or orca eating whales or exploding whales.

I guess I thought this was something very different than it was. I did learn about submarine canyons, though, which are cool.

Good, quick and enjoyable read. Involving and creative story. Unrealistic situations and ending. Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity.

I went into this book completely blind and I am so so grateful I did because I appreciated every second of it.

Do you have daddy issues with no closure? Well, welcome to the cry fest you never knew you needed. So much emotion and pain in one book, from mental to physical.

Whalefall does a great job at giving you everything you need. I felt like I was inside the whale with Jay, trying to survive. I loved that you got flashbacks and got to see a real relationship between him and his father, there was no lack of detail. The charter development was *chef kiss* and the horror aspect was a type I’ve never read before. I loved every minute. I will 100% be purchasing this book to have it on my bookshelf.

Wow, this book will stay with me for awhile. I was captured by the writing style and how the timelines flowed together. While very technical at times, I was completely transported.

I did not know what to expect when starting this book. I suffer from thalassophobia, so I knew reading this book would not be easy for me, but that made it fun. I was a little scared when I saw the MTV label on the cover. I assumed it would be like the MTV shows and lack depth. I am so happy I was wrong.

There were scenes that I did feel the open sea. The writing was descriptive enough that I trusted everything I was told. Then I felt claustrophobic for many pages.

One warning, if you tell yourself, “Just one more chapter,” know that you are lying to yourself. I was pulled in and my one chapter always ended up being three to four more.

I give this book five stars because it gave me more than I expected. I felt emotions for the characters. I cheered and was worried for the main character. Mostly, I couldn’t stop thinking about this book. When I put it down, I googled Sperm whales, or was just thinking about what would be happening. This book grabbed me and didn’t let go, even when I finished.

I don't even know how to put this into words. I liked the ending of the book, the beginning and middle were a bit confusing. I wish the first part had went by a bit quicker. Overall it was an interesting story, definitely different than my normal reads. When I saw it in my email I debated if I should even accept, but the summary was so intriguing I stuck it out. I will say there were a few times I probably would have abandoned the book had it not been for a review.