I feel I'm in the minority here:

This book was not for me. I disliked the writing style. The storyline didn't flow in a way that I felt moved naturally and it couldn't keep my attention. The main character lacked substance and intelligence.

It should not take a person almost 20 days to read this book, but I wanted nothing to do with it. I was committed to finding out what happens but even when it did, it was so uneventful and anti-climactic that I had to go back and re-read to remind myself how it all ended.

What an unusual book -- it is almost stream of consciousness writing as it bounces all over with no transitions. I found this style of writing jarring and uncomfortable read so have put the book aside for when I have two weeks to read this type of novel. The primary character is intriguing so I want to find out what happens to her.

Whale Fall is a short, poetic book about a young woman and her desire for a life outside of her remote Welsh Island. Manod, 18, lives with her father and sister on an island that is battered by the weather. Only about 50 individuals are hearty enough to rough the conditions and the population declines yearly. Islanders are secluded from news of the world (the time frame is just before WWII) and clothing is decades out of style.

A whale washes up on shore one day and the island folk gather to observe and deal with it in their unique way. Not long after, two ethnographers show up to study the lives of the islanders. Manod, who speaks English, works with the scientists translating the islanders’ Welsh. She is fascinated by the glimpse of life offered her through these two individuals and works out a plan to leave the island for the larger world outside.

It’s hard to believe that this is a debut novel. It’s an accomplished work of beautiful prose. It perfectly fits the category of literary fiction, where character development is prioritized over plot. Recommended.

Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf publishing for access to this e-ARC in exchange for my opinions.

What a beautiful totally-original novel! I finished it hours ago and haven't stopped thinking about it. The "fall" of this magnificent whale on the shore of an island with a dwindling population and whose customs and traditions are questioned and studied by two researchers that land on the island. The small book holds a tension throughout where I was waiting for something to happen all while this whale is rotting on the shore. The whale as a metaphor for the community and the eroding of the culture of the island's inhabitants hits you in the face in a rich, nuanced way. The structure of the book is comprised of short chapters which created additional pressure moving forward the events more quickly. It's a book you'll read in one sitting and you'll be glad you did. This is a powerful, haunting, thoughtful, and totally original debut.

This is a beautiful and devastating novel about innocence and exploitation and opportunity and manipulation. Manod lives with her father and younger sister on a tiny, Welsh-speaking island. Her fate seems to be to marry one of the village boys, but she doesn't want to follow island traditions, and seeks--without knowing how--to have a wider life. When English-speaking researchers come to the island and hire her to translate for them, she begins to see ways of leaving and places to go. The reader knows what will happen--they way the researchers falsify images and documents and falsify the meaning of their relationships with Manod--but we can only read and envision it as it occurs, and feel relief when Manod determines to be in control her own life.

Manod has spent her whole life on the little Welsh island that generations of her family has lived before her. A dead whale on the shore brings strange feelings for Manod, a sense of the dangers that come from outside the insular bubble of her island. I loved the writing of this book. The way the prose flowed through events and feelings.

A couple of English ethnographers arrive and turn things upside down for Manod. While she is first cautious of them, she is quickly enthralled by them both. There is a great sense of meaning these two ultimately bring Manod, especially Joan. It helps her question her life on the island, her sexuality and opens her up a little bit.

I thought this was so well done. I was actually shocked at how short this was, kind of wishing we got more. This was a really beautiful and meaningful read, and I loved how protective Manod was of her culture and her island.

This debut novel, which comes out in May of 2024, is haunting, poignant, and ultimately heart-rending.

Set in the final months of 1938, on a fictional Welsh island of fewer than 50 residents, Manod is an 18-year-old girl facing a bleak and unsure future. Her mother's dead, leaving her to fill the role for her lobster-fisherman father, and her younger sister.

At the beginning of the book, a whale washes up onto the beach and there's some concern it's an omen (good or bad?). And then shortly afterward, two English ethnographers arrive to do a case study of the islanders and their farming-fishing way of life. Because Manod speaks English well, she works with them and sees in them a possible future and escape from the island.

The novel is written in a series of vignettes, journal entries from the English pair, and transcriptions of folktales and songs from the islanders.

It's a quiet book, but in its quietness lies its strength. You feel drawn into their lives, their struggles, their thwarted dreams, the fear of the impending war, and the bleakness of their alternatives. This one is definitely worth the brief time it takes to read.

I was so surprised that this was a debut! Her prose was lovely and it completely transported me to the seemingly dreary island. Definitely add this to your list for the spring!

My favorite genre of book is "books about nothing, but somehow everything" and this debut novel fits that description perfectly.

A whale washes up on the shore of a sparsely populated Welsh Island. Some social researchers come to study and write about the island. Our protagonist, 18 year old Manod, works for the researchers, then they leave. That's it, that is the whole story. Except...

The story is really about coming of age in a small life and what happens when the big world encroaches on that space. Are the perceptions of the sheltered island residents, or the worldly researches, the truth? Are the ways the researchers bend the island life to suit their needs selfish, or a sign of the need for change? Is everything Manod needs here, or out in the world? What is the harm in outdated clothing and old fashioned ways when war is yet again on the horizon? The beautifully written (though sometimes disjointed, maybe just a pre-final-edits phenomena) prose quietly and descriptively asks all these questions of the reader and Manon. For a book that is not plot, or even really character driven, the narrative says so much between the lines.

The writing of time and place is breathtaking. O'Connor captures the island life perfectly. The reader, while privy to the historical context and what is happening elsewhere, experiences life on the island intimately. With the ever-looming whale carcass as a clever metaphor for the erosion of Manod's view of life on the island, without too much exposition, we all get to see Manod outgrow her life and yearn for more. If you want to be transported to a time and place far away, this book will sweep you right away.

For a short debut novel Whale Fall delivers the full literary experience.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Set in 1938. A dead whale washes up on a remote welsh Island. Manod lives there with with her father and little sister, who she cares for. Manod dreams of life beyond the island but can’t bring herself to leave. Two Engish ethnographers come to the island to study their way of life. Manod takes a liking to them as she works as their assistant.

I really enjoyed Whale Fall. I loved Manod and really loved her story. This is a really quick and entertaining read and I will definitely be reading more from O’Connor.

When a whale washes ashore on an isolated and sparsely populated island in Wales, the community becomes focused on this event. When researchers arrive,
18 year old Manod steps in to assist with translating and she sees a world beyond her little island. This debut was absolutely captivating and beautifully lyrical.

The climate of Manod’s village will stick with me, especially the push and pull of the island's inhabitants wanting change yet craving simplicity and normalcy as they know it… I loved this book. It really is a relatively simple story with a wealth of depth and meaning just beneath the surface.

A whale washes ashore on an isolated Welsh island. A couple from Oxford arrive to research an ethnography of the few remaining residents (those who haven't moved to the mainland yet to find better prospects than continuing to battle the natural world in an attempt to make lives from fishing and catching lobster). Manod, an eighteen year old woman on the island with good English skills, works for the researchers as a translator until they leave.

And that's it, that's the story.

This is a very literary novel that is far from plot-driven. Crafted sentences are sometimes incomplete, comprising paragraphs that may or may not have anything to do with the ones preceding or following them. It did successfully have me feeling transported to the island, feeling the sea spray on my skin and smelling the day's catch. And I liked how the researchers were writing a book about a way of life that only existed in their minds, using their subjects more than studying them (if this were a plot-driven novel, I would insist on seeing them get their comeuppance!)

But the style of the book just didn't 100% work for me. It didn't develop any characters enough to allow me to feel invested in them. I have no idea what the purpose of all the whale bits of the story were for (because there was a whole lot about the whale.) Was it metaphor? If so, for what? And why would you NOT want people to come haul away the months-old giant rotting carcass on your beach?

So in all, this was a 3.5 star mixed bag for me. Kind of sadly beautiful, but not super engaging. I usually really enjoy literary novels, but maybe my tastes in reading are changing now that I am consuming way more books than I ever have before?

Thank you to Pantheon and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. My Goodreads review is live now, while my blog post with the review is scheduled for May 7, 2024.

In Whale Fall, we follow the central character, an 18-year-old motherless daughter, during a season on a remote Welsh island when a whale carcass washes ashore. Newcomers arrive on the island to study the few remaining villagers who live a harsh life on the cold, remote, rocky island to study the inhabitants. The book held my attention, and was interesting, but felt unfinished.

thank you for this arc!

i really wanted to love this, folklore and just the vibes overall. alas, i felt a little underwhelmed by this title. it was not bad by any ,means. perhaps, i am the problem.

Spare, brief, plangent, O’Connor’s novel offers a supposedly more authentic version of what she critiques - an attempt at representing the lives and values of island dwellers off the coast of Wales. The community is shrinking, dying, and with World War II on the horizon, probably doomed. Yet the narrator offers strength, affection and hope. The important content is the evocation of place and custom, and its betrayal by the incoming academics. It’s affecting work but not especially original.

Whale Fall, the debut novel by Elizabeth O'Connor is a beautifully written, coming-of-age story set in the late 1930's. 18-year-old Manod and her family are inhabitants of a remote, sparsely populated Welsh island just as a large whale has washed ashore. Deeply connected to the history and folklore of their people and island, the whale becomes a focus for the adults and children alike. Despite the realities of her island life and the desires of others for her to marry, Manod is committed to her independence-- until the arrival of two ethnographers offer her a life of new possibilities. Drawn to the temptation, Manod faces the differences of her worlds, and the reality that she cannot have both.

I was quickly drawn to O'Connors simple, romantic and descriptive writing. The inclusion of conversation and song in Welsh beautifully illustrated the culture. The ethnographer's interpretation challenges us to wonder if the difficult island-life has caused the inhabitants to not recognize the beauty around them or if the visitors have romanticized the lives of the island people. In the end, Whale Fall left me with a feeling a heartbreak and fierce independence...and hopeful for what comes next.
 
Thank you to Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor along with Net Galley for allowing me to review an ARC Whale Fall by Elizabeth O'Connor.

Whale Fall is a beautifully written book, depicting life on a small, remote Welsh island. The story is coming of age, family saga, loss, and intrusion by outsiders. (The view of the island by the mainlanders was comical , yet sad.) All of this told with the subtle looming of World War II.

This is a slim book, but full of interesting topics, and would be a great book for discussion groups.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Elizabeth O’Connor’s achingly beautiful debut novel, “Whale Fall”, is a mesmerizing effort. On one level it is a straight-forward story of a motherless teen-ager growing up on a desolate Welsh island in the run-up to the horror that will be called the Second World War. Manod is a loyal, driven, and wise young lady, devoted to her younger sister, her father, her island. Life is harsh, yet beautiful, in a way that only isolated Northern islands can be. O’Connor’s writing is mesmerizing, poignant, poetic.

As time moves forward, life goes on. Some people leave either by moving to the mainland in search for a better life, or through death by illness, danger, or despair. Other things wash up upon the shore: a dead whale, English researchers, letters, news of war. There is reason for concern when such things appear. There are folk tales that have been told through the ages that continue to be repeated and sung. Spirits watch and wait.

Through it all, we root for Manod. She is the best of us. Ms. O’Connor is a powerful talent to watch closely moving forward.

Thanks to Pantheon Books and NetGalley for the eARC.

The writing of this novel was so melodic and pleasant. The voice of Manod sang so clearly off the page, and I adored her and the way she saw the world. Each character was so interesting and I was enthralled whenever we as the audience learned more about the island and its inhabitants. I thoroughly enjoyed the story, but the writing style stuck out so strongly to me. I will be waiting for more books from this author.