Whalefall: A Novel

Product Information

Jay Gardner is a teenager who has been raised by a difficult father. Fiction frequently describes such a man as a ne’er do well, an alcoholic, or abusive. Mitt Gardner is separated from these other men by a devotion to the sea, and most specifically, by an allegiance to the craft of diving. Imagine Pat Conroy’s Bull Meecham from The Great Santini, but he is a diver, through and through. But as problematic as Mitt’s eccentricities are to the family, he is never overtly abusive and his love for his son and family is apparent. And here we are, in August, and I believe I've just finished the most disappointing novel of the year. While this can work as a Biblical allegory, it’s also much more than that. This is a wholly unique reading experience.

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

However, I lost interest from the start. The pivot from past to present so often really made the story choppy and hard to follow. I didn’t care about Jay or Mitt, or any other character really. It felt more like family drama than horror. Whalefall is a mind-blowing, take-your-breath-away adventure, but it’s also a tender and moving story of the relationship between a father and son. Daniel Kraus is a writer I greatly admire. He can do anything, and does.” The examination of family dynamics and the long-term effects of parental connections is central to the story. Jay’s internal monologue reveals his struggle to make sense of the conflict between the father he knew and the father he believed he ought to have. As Jay confronts the residual agony of his past and looks for a feeling of closure that escaped him during Mitt’s existence, this internal conflict serves as the emotional center of the book.

Table of Contents

The father-son relationship between Jay and Mitt is the novel’s tragic center of gravity. Jay’s life is heavily influenced by Mitt Gardiner, who stands in for more than simply a father figure; he also symbolizes unmet hopes, unmet expectations, and unsolved issues. A compelling depiction of the intricate emotional web that binds familial connections is painted by Jay’s struggle to reconcile his recollections of his father with his own feelings. 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. Really found the main character to be stupid and insufferable. And 40% in and he has just been eaten by the whale. But also it took forever for him to be eaten. I bet 7% of this book is just him being like: Given the concept, the name, and the Jaws-like cover (wonderful), i was so geared for the literary equivalent of a Jason Statham movie. A reading experience like The Meg, a long-before-the-film chazza shop copy of which is one of my most cherished possessions. 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 by Daniel Kraus - Fantastic Fiction Whalefall by Daniel Kraus - Fantastic Fiction

This hard sci-fi thriller is full of cinematic and wild suspense and would be great for fans of Andy Weir."— Library Journal, starred review COMPARISONS are a reviewer’s best friend. Not sure how to fully describe the impact of a novel? Simply find other titles that contain elements of the story in question and use them to help do the work.

Whalefall is a scientifically accurate thriller about a scuba diver who’s been swallowed by an eighty-foot, sixty-ton sperm whale and has only one hour to escape before his oxygen runs out.” I read the first part of this book, really digging it, and we come to the central conflict of this scientifically accurate thriller.