<b>Wow. Just wow.</b>

This book is truly wonderful. The prose is so beautiful. The way the memories are woven into both lessons of survival, and a way of finally understanding his father, made me teary at times.

The actual horror of it all, the situation that there's no way out of, the desperation, all of it combined to create a truly tense, and at times bleak, story. I was so engaged with Jay's plight. It made for a quick read as well.

By the end, I was openly crying. This journey was so engrossing and wonderful. I do believe this is my favorite book this year.

Wow! This is a phenomenal book! It follows the journey of Jay Gardinier in a nearly impossible diving quest to find the remains of his father in the Pacific, somewhere near Monastery Beach. Daniel Kraus has brilliantly combined the harrowing story of the quest, with Jay's memories of his turbulent relationship with his father as they swirl through his mind while deep within the whale. It is a thrill ride tale of the struggle to survive, set in the depths of the ocean. The author's well researched descriptions of life beneath the ocean are just so vividly realistic, I felt transported. It is also a tale of family relationships, forgotten memories, and coming to terms with loss. Ultimately, this is a mystical, magical tale of the man, the whale, and the sea that captivated me and has become one of my all-time favorite books! I absolutely loved it! Thank you to the author, the publisher, and Netgalley for my complimentary copy. The opinions of this review are my own.

Whalefall by Daniel Kraus is a claustrophobic tale of a seventeen year old son searching the ocean for his father’s remains and ends up getting swallowed by a whale. If that isn’t enough to intrigue, I don’t know what would be because I was fascinated by the premise.

Jay’s dad, a man in love with the sea, kills himself in the ocean after getting a terminal cancer diagnosis. When his body is never recovered, Jay is determined to find some part of him that is left by diving in the last spot his father was seen. When he is swallowed by a sperm whale, he enters a race with time because he only has so much oxygen left.

This book moves at a breakneck pace once you get into the story. This book is told in pretty much equal parts day of the dive and flashbacks so you spend a lot of time learning about Jay’s past and this book becomes more than just an escape story. The writing style is definitely a style choice and I know it won’t work for everyone. There is a lot for the story that is told inbetween the lines.

The official synopsis compares this book to The Martian meets 127 Hours and I feel like that’s a very appropriate comparison. It has the scientific elements of The Martian and the intense claustrophobia of 127 Hours. I can easily see this book sneaking into a lot of reader’s favorite books of the year lists. The chapters are so short, sometimes not even a page long so it feels like you just cannot put this book down. I also think it’s a good length. It doesn’t overstay and get monotonous. I have seen a few complaints about the main character being young and I feel like him being young makes it seem more realistic because he gets himself into a situation that a more mature character wouldn’t.

I really enjoyed this book. The pacing and the seemingly pretty accurate scientific details kept me invested. There is a good amount of gore so be prepared for that going in. I think as long as the writing style connects with the reader, this is something a lot of people are going to love.

I have been really, really behind on reviews, so I was shocked and pleasantly surprised to receive an ARC of Whalefall by Daniel Kraus, one of my most anticipated books of 2023. Thank you so much to the author, @atriabooks, @mtvbooks, and @netgalley for giving me access to this ebook!

Whalefall is tense, engaging, emotional, and unlike anything else I’ve ever read. I could not put it down.

As the story begins, seventeen-year-old Jay is embarking on his first dive since his father’s battle with mesothelioma and eventual suicide a year earlier. His goal is to locate his father’s remains and bring them home. As the dive progresses, Jay is drawn deeper into the water until he eventually becomes entangled with a giant squid as it’s being consumed by a sperm whale. So begins Jay’s fight for his life.

The novel alternates between flashbacks (denoted by years) showing Jay’s relationship with his family and the day of Jay’s dive (PSI remaining in his oxygen tank). Most of the flashbacks center on Jay’s relationship with his dad, local dive celebrity Mitt Gardiner. Mitt’s first love was the sea, to which it seemed his son could never measure up. In the present day, Jay is drawn deeper into the whale and must rely on everything he knows in order to survive.

The synopsis and the comps for Whalefall initially drew me in, as The Martian is one of my all-time favorite books. It’s clear that this connection is drawn from the extreme situation in which Jay Gardiner finds himself, along with the science with which Kraus infuses his story; however, I found the tone of Whalefall to be much grimmer. In addition to being a survival story, the novel is an in-depth exploration of the troubled relationship between Jay and his father through the lens of Jay’s grief.

Kraus’s descriptions are precise, detailed, and beautiful. He brings the ocean and Jay’s dive to life. While I tend to get bogged down in very descriptive writing, that wasn’t the case in this novel as the sentence structures are often quite brief and the chapters themselves are also short. This, along with the dire nature of Jay’s situation, drew me through the novel in just a couple of days.

This Was a Net Galley Read
I was considering who this might most appeal to...
1) People who liked The Martian but wanted it earth based without all the Sci-fi elements
2) Scuba Divers will love the technical (but like Martian easy to understand) Diver tech
3) fans of Oceanic sea life
4) fans of Steinbeck's Cannery row might get a kick out of it
5) People who like digestible survival Thrillers and Family Drama
6) people who need a book with really short chapters for a busy life.

Whalefall reads pretty quick due to its very short chapters and is the story of a young man trying to redeem himself after the death of his father.
Jay Gardiner is reviled by the town after the death of his local hero father for the act of abandoning him during his slow painful move towards death due to cancer and his eventual suicide at sea.
Jay wants to redeem himself by retrieving his remains.
What follows is a story in two parts; the past and present as Jay recalls the embattled relationship with his hard as nails father while searching for his remains off the Monterey Coast.
It not as simple as just diving for some bones though as Jay gets in the middle of a life and death struggle between a feeding whale and the Giant Squid hes pursuing.
Now Jay is battling for his own life.
Can the Lessons his dad taught him help Jay survive? Will Jay Come to peace with his fathers Memory?

This is a great easy to read palette cleanser, easy quick chapters make it a great carry along book for short bursts of reading when you're busy.
Its Nothing revolutionary but it is entertaining and worth a look.

This book really surprised me. If you've read the synopsis, you know it's about a diver who gets swallowed by a whale and his story of survival. However, that's only half the story - this book is about so much more. The details and relationships are so well written and interesting, and keeps you engaged in the story and backstory.. It is very fast paced and has short chapters that makes it fly by. It's a great book, I highly recommend you read it.

This is everything I look for in a book. Action, adventure, mystery, suspense, so much scientific terminology and what seemed to be pretty accurate information/story telling.

My dad knows a lot about things to do with the ocean and diving terminology. Everything I had read to him or asked about seemed to be accurate— and I love that! It wasn’t just story telling, it was scientific. I was about to gain an understanding of diving and whales.

The story did a lot of flipping between the present and the past to allow the reader to understand what Jay went through, with how he was treated by his dad, Mitt. It was good but it’s started to get in the way of the situation Jay was in.

Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this ebook. I will be purchasing a physical copy of this book.

Whalefall is an adventure like I've never read. Jay is diving the Monastery Beach hoping to locate the remains of his father. He's determined to give his family, and himself, the closure needed to finally bury his father. But when a giant sperm whale swallows him first, it's a race against time for survival. Told in alternating timelines Whalefall drops you into the current adrenaline packed survival fight and the hardships Jay and his father had. It's a story of family, and of course, adventure. The chapters were short and kept you racing on to see what happens. Whalefall does have a unique twist on things that I didn't see coming, but it worked for the story. A big thanks to Netgalley and MTV Books for an early digital copy!

Nope. I didn't like this book at all. The premise is super intriguing, but the story and execution of the plot completely lost me. I liked the format of switching back and forth between the present and memories, but that's about the only thing I somewhat liked. I find it hard to believe that this novel is based on science. I found the writing to be confusing and the book to be way more gory than I expected.

The premise to this novel sounded really fun and fast-paced, but I really didn't care for the writing style at all.

I really enjoyed the technical information about diving and biology. It was interesting and not so dense it becomes boring. The survival element made the pace of the book quick, and I wanted to know what was going to happen. But there were also deeper themes of grief and acceptance.

Well this book was different I will say I’ve been reading up on deep water diving especially with what’s happening in the news lately and this was a fun concept

I won’t spoil the ending but I really liked this book I would definitely recommend it to others

This one was an extremely interesting concept, and I wanted to love it. As someone who is afraid of water and has no idea what any technical terms of Scuba would be and is incapable of visualizing what the main character went through, I struggled through it. However, I wanted to see what happened and I wanted to make sure he made it, so I persisted. Would be a great read for water/Scuba enthusiasts! Thanks to Netgalley for the copy.

Thank you NetGalley and Atria, MTV Books for the copy of Whale fall by Daniel Krause. After a slow start parts of this book were fascinating. I didn’t really understand the writing style, but I really liked it when what was happening in the present was echoed by something in the past. The story was a little too graphic for me, but it was also a great meditation on a father-son relationship. If you're ready for a harrowing and claustrophobic book with flashes of depth, this book is for you.

Wow wow wow! This book was fascinating and terrifying and emotional all at once. I was constantly googling squids and whales and diving facts. Author Daniel Kraus expertly wove facts in with the fiction of the story and I was so engrossed. There was a slight lull at about 60% through but it didn't last long. I was honestly so captivated and interested I will absolutely not be forgetting this book any time soon.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for granting me an early copy of this fantastic book!

I expected more of a thrilling tale of harrowing escape. I got a psychedelic trip with a sentient whale and a young man capable is withstanding insane amounts of physical pain.

Whalefall is less about Jay’s struggles inside an aged sperm whale and more about his horrible relationship with his father, now totally lost to him due to suicide.

Was this the book I was expecting? No. But I did still enjoy it.

The oceanic science and research into whales is clearly well done. It’s easy to get a bit lost in the technicalities of diving equipment and marine life that sets the backdrop to Jay’s misadventure. Since the ocean freaks me out, I was expecting the thriller aspect to be a bit stronger, but the constant back and forth in time and the self-reflection broke that up in the first half. The second half flew by.

There were a few things that threw me off totally enjoying this book:
1. At some point, the human mind will shut down from pain and a person will pass out. The amount of injuries Jay sustains makes me think he would have been well past that point, making survival unlikely.
2. The sentient whale/dad was confusing and seemed like a step away from the careful research that went into whale biology. Not bad, just weird.
3. This boy needs therapy, and the experience in the whale does not take away from the horrid childhood Jay. I don’t like that the ending makes it seem like all is understood. And shame on his mom and sisters for pressuring and blaming him through the whole thing.

A truly incredible story and a phenomenal journey. The writing is excellent, almost fever dream like. The entire story kept me engaged the whole time. I never experienced any boredom in this story. It will most likely be one of my most favorites this year!

I am definitely keeping Daniel Kraus on my radar for future stories of his.

Thank you #NetGalley for #Whatfall by Daniel Kraus

When I picked up Whalefall, I did not realize the main character was a seventeen year old boy, and this was a fact I had to ignore every time something bad happened to him in that whale, which was basically all the time considering this is a survival story. It also took 35% of the book for him to get trapped in the whale, which felt long, but in hindsight probably a good thing because by around 70% I was over him being trapped and just wanted him out. There was also a lot less whale than I expected there to be, with flashbacks all throughout the book about Jay and his dad. I did appreciate this, though, because I’m not sure I could have handled any more of Jay in the whale.

I was drawn to this book as it was compared to The Martian, one of my favorites, and Kraus did a great job with the science and I did find those parts interesting. However, I don’t think I was quite the target audience here. It fell a little short of my expectations when compared to that.

Boy was I at war with this book. I originally heard about this book on Twitter from someone who had read an early copy and proclaimed that this book was life-altering and a read that had haunted her for days after finishing. Say less! I was overjoyed when I saw it pop up on Netgalley so first of all, thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me the honor of reading this book early.

The book follows Jay Gardiner who is distraught about having lost his father, a well-known diver and ocean lover, to suicide a year earlier. He decides to dive in the area of where his father died at in an attempt to find some part of his remains. During this dive, he inadvertently gets swallowed by a sperm whale and is stuck inside the belly of the beast with only 1 hour of air before he runs out.

I'm not sure what I was expecting... Early reviews had said this book was scary, masterfully written, scientifically accurate, and extremely emotional. I would definitely like to echo all of those things. I'd like to start first with how masterfully written this book was; so much so, that I almost didn't read it. The story is told in very short chapters that alternate parts: Current Jay and Past Jay (in the form of many memories and stories from throughout his entire life). If it weren't for the short chapters, my stamina as a reader would have been shot. I'm an English teacher, so I love an author who is so skilled with writing figuratively that I am constantly finding new metaphors or similes to explain something. Kraus took this to a whole new level, Towards the beginning, every sentence was exquisite prose, each word metaphorical and methodically planned out. I found myself having to reread sentences just to be like "Wow...". The writing was unlike anything I had ever read before.

I learned so much about Whales during this read. Some stuff I found myself googling to see if whatever it was was real, and so much of it was scientifically accurate! This book gave me a lot of anxiety while reading it (in a good way!). Each chapter either started with a year (Jay's past) or the PSI level (Current Jay and how much air he has left in his tank), and seeing the amount of air he has left go down made me so anxious but also pushed me forward to finish reading.

I rated this a 4.5, but I am bumping it up on here for one reason. I only reserve 5 star reads for books that affect me personally, make me feel angry, cry, or laugh out loud. I'm bumping it because while I didn't have any emotional connection with the major themes in this book (ie: Suicide, loss, etc.), I no doubt believe that this book would be a five star read for someone who has closer ties to those themes than I do. I can see how healing and powerful this book will be for the people who need it most. Overall, you can say I liked this one A LOT.

Wow - I am not sure if I can articulate how good this book was for me. I went into this book blind and this quite possibly became my favorite book of all time. It was by far the most suspenseful book I have ever read. I loved how the author moved between timelines and situations with ease, short chapters, and perfect pacing. Once I started it I only put it down momentarily. Personally, I need to read more Kraus!