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Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Bálnahullás by Daniel Kraus

81 reviews

juph's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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melted_books's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

5.0

Epic. I couldn't put this book down. The vivid detail, horrifying premise, and grief-stricken protagonist made this a very compelling read for me. For as long as I can remember, I've been afraid of large creatures lurking in the deep sea. This book tapped into that fear, and it totally worked for me. 
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melitta's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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tasnim_2000's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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tasnim_2000's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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silodear's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

This is one of the worst books I’ve read in a long time. The writing is painful, the story is comically terrible - at times I felt like I was watching the campiest horror movie. Yet, it was compelling enough that I (hate?)read this entire book in 24 hours and it’s existence doesn’t harm anyone, so I feel two stars were earned. 

Working through your parental trauma in the belly of a whale is some next level strangeness. And I have to say, it wasn’t executed well. The gore in this book was horrifying, and that’s saying a lot given I very recently read Hell Followed with Us.  All in all, a strange way to spend several hours of covid isolation. I audibly whispered “what the fuck?” too many times to count.
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grimdark_dad's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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eggplantia5's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Visceral, vivid imagery. I can understand why it got optioned to be a movie so quickly. Very fast read with emotional content. The concept draws you in, and you're waiting for the big event to happen and once it does, the tension ramps up.
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courtwj's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful reflective tense medium-paced

3.75

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sarahbythebook's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

3.5

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review. 

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. 




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