Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Bálnahullás by Daniel Kraus

98 reviews

pvp_niki's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cancer, Emotional abuse, Gore, Suicide, Terminal illness, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing and Vomit

Minor: Alcohol and Pandemic/Epidemic

50shadesofrae's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

Started it Halloween morning skeptical about the science, finished it Halloween night sobbing on my couch. Loved it but also don’t know if I can recommend it to people I like. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Confinement, and Suicidal thoughts

bigleebowski's review against another edition

hopeful slow-paced

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

2.0

For a book that markets itself as being scientific and based in realism, I couldn’t help myself from laughing at the ridiculousness throughout. Also, the weird shifting from first person to third person and narration is very off-putting, amplified by the author’s obsession with reiteration and repeating phrases for emphasis—seriously, even Drake & Josh wouldn’t put so much emphasis…EMPHASIS. Not sure how Gillian Flynn and Stephan Graham Jones gave this such appraisal.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death

nikki_jcf's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Cancer, and Suicide

laurantor's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Gore, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cancer, Vomit, and Death of parent

Minor: Suicide

sonygaystation's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.5

I think this maybe just wasn’t for me? And I think it’s because I had different expectations for what the book was supposed to be. It was hard to follow what was going on at times because of the writing style and the fact that there’s a lot of assumption of understanding how SCUBA gear works. I did really enjoy the part with the orcas but that’s about the only part that really grabbed at my attention

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gore, Blood, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cancer, Suicide, and Grief

evanmather's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Gore, Blood, and Grief

Moderate: Alcoholism, Cancer, Death, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Terminal illness, Vomit, and Death of parent

annaxavila's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Gore, Suicide, and Death of parent

Moderate: Cancer, Emotional abuse, Terminal illness, and Blood

nerdygnome's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

"No one carries the best parts of themselves. The best parts are those held inside of others."

While unique in its own right, "Whalefall" feels a bit like the oceanic version of "The Martian" — a solo man, left to fend for himself under seemingly insurmountable survival odds. As you might then expect, "Whalefall" is atmospheric and tense. What you may not expect, though, is that along with this pervasive sense of adventure comes a good deal of quiet reflection. Readers are taken both deep into the ocean and deep into the protagonist's emotional growth. 

Jay, a young man estranged from his family, is making an epic attempt at reconciling with his relatives. He's on a deep-dive quest to locate the remains of his deceased father, who committed suicide by leaping into the sea. Jay is convinced that by doing so, his mother and sister will forgive him for staying away from his father's deathbed even when his father was begging to see him. Just when it seems he may have succeeded, Jay is accidentally eaten by a 60-ton sperm whale and must try to battle his way out of the whale and to the surface before his oxygen tank runs out. 

I enjoyed the clever, crisp writing that Kraus delivers. While I did sometimes feel that the graphic descriptions of his battles against whale flesh were long winded, it's safe to say I was suitably enchanted by the story throughout. Flashbacks to Jay's childhood experiences gave me a breather from his ardurous task of escaping the whale, and slowly revealed the complexities of his relationship with his dad. While it has the feel of an adventure story, at its core "Whalefall" is instead a beautiful testimony to the parent-child relationship (even, perhaps especially, when flawed), grief, reconciliation, and love.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Gore, Suicide, Terminal illness, Grief, and Death of parent

corix's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement and Blood

Minor: Animal death and Death of parent