Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Bálnahullás by Daniel Kraus

47 reviews

echoechokilo's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring reflective 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

One of my new all-time favorite books.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Misogyny, Suicide, and Grief

eklektikam's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Cancer, Suicide, and Terminal illness

moxiereads's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Cancer, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

loquaciousleon's review against another edition

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.

you will like this story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

biobeetle's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Cancer, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse and Alcohol

septi's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Suicide, Terminal illness, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cancer, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, and Vomit

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders and Pandemic/Epidemic

hauntedantiqueshop's review against another edition

dark sad medium-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

2.5

Ah yes, the classic story of dad has son, dad and son have bad relationship, dad kills himself, son gets swallowed by whale. Ya just hate to see it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Toxic relationship, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Animal death

Minor: Body horror, Terminal illness, Violence, Medical content, Suicide attempt, and Injury/Injury detail

The word sphincter was used an UNGODLY amount of times.

jessrad505's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Confinement, Gore, and Blood

Moderate: Suicide, Terminal illness, Vomit, Grief, and Death of parent

Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic

andreatypesbraille's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Alcohol

billyjepma's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

2.5

This took me on a ride, but not the one that either it or I expected. While the science behind the premise is in-depth and appropriately unsettling—the detailed anatomy and gore made this a tricky one to listen to while cooking dinner, tbh—and the actual problem-solving involved in Jay's attempts at survival is quite good, there's not enough here to sustain a novel. I'm not usually one to complain about "padding," but this book suffers from an excess of repetitive emotional beats and jarring flashbacks that feel tacked onto what could've and should've been a leaner novella.

It didn't take long for me to feel that padding, either. The flashbacks are haphazardly placed and often defuse the tension created by the gnarly survival narrative. They also lack the emotional depth required to enrich the story, which makes the flashbacks and dramatic scaffolding they're trying for feel tacked on at best. The symbolism and metaphors Krause draws aren't bad, but they're overwrought to the point of exhaustion. If the connections weren't repeatedly spelled out in exacting detail, I might've been more able and willing to get on board. But you don't get points for beating me over the head with a metaphor, regardless of how effective it might or might not be, especially when the goal of the metaphor is as frustrating as the tired trope of "maybe my abusive parent wasn't all bad, after all."

Let's talk about the abusive parent angle, too, because I have beef. My patience for a "redemption" arc is very thin when it comes to this brand of parent-child relationship, so this book had an uphill struggle right out of the gate. But when your protagonist's father is as cruel as Mitt, you've already lost me. Krause's attempts at making him sympathetic are admirable, and some of them even struck a nerve, but Mitt is too vile a character for me to want to care about. I don't even like Jay as a protagonist, either! He's more shallow than not, and, as much as I hate to say it, he comes off as whiny. It doesn't help that the audiobook's narrator plays up Jay's youth, emphasizing the more annoying aspects of the characterization. There's little depth in the characters, either; all their backstory and drama are so predictable and one-note that they end up feeling more performative than anything.

The book isn't all bad, and I really wanted to like it, too, which is why it became increasingly frustrating to realize that I just didn't. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Cancer, Gore, Suicide, Medical content, Grief, and Death of parent

Minor: Vomit and Pandemic/Epidemic