Reviews with content warning for Suicide - Bálnahullás

It was just okay. The writing was clunky and unevenly paced. The character himself was boring and unbelievable. I will say the descriptive imagery was excellent. It was action packed and suspenseful but overall just felt meh. The main character has extreme daddy issues.

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pennyforyourthoughts's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional informative mysterious reflective sad 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

4.5

I picked up this book for some of the stupidest reasons (the cover colors match an ocean video game I have played) and ended up thoroughly enjoyed my time. This book deals with some larger themes will also introducing mostly scientifically, accurate concepts and understanding of the world around us. This book is as much about the main character’s father as the main character and maybe even more so. It’s about grief and guilt and what happens when you can’t move on.
I will say that I felt the description and cover gave a lot away though the emotional impacts were not spoiled for me. Some things were a little too perfect for the situation, but it wasn’t to an extreme. There are some great one liners that I definitely want to go back to along with a very unique chapter set up that worked for this book. An overall great and interesting read.

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dflemmons's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional tense fast-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

This book completely exceeded my expectations. I thought I would just be getting an exciting, albeit unrealistic, story of a man being swallowed by a whale. Instead, this is a moving exploration of love, grief, family, and nature. Impressively written, hauntingly beautiful, and totally unique.

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crayoline's review against another edition

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emotional tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.0

I did not enjoy this book even a little bit. I went into it without really knowing anything about it, so unlike other reviewers, I did not have the expectation of a thriller where a guy sciences himself out of a predicament. I was open to it being allegory or have deeper meaning or whatever. But man. The sentences—cringe. The dialogue—cheese. The writing style—melodramatic. The audiobook narration—whiny. The sentences—fragmented.

This read like an undergrad creative writing assignment about setting atmosphere. It was as if the author pulled out a thesaurus to force alliteration wherever possible and use as many words as possible to reinforce that the inside of a stomach is gross. And he really thought he was doing something by highlighting the passage of time in PSI instead of minutes.

The main character was whiny which made me really not care about the story. The reflections lacked depth, the revelations were trivial. It’s lit for men written by a man, and it’s not my thing.

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eklektikam's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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loquaciousleon's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional inspiring medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

If you liked

'Life of Pi' and/or 'Dark Life'.
Are intrigued by the premise/summary.
Okay with storytelling that closely follows a graphic 3rd person narrative; walking through actions quite a bit.