Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

Whalefall by Daniel Kraus

29 reviews

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, Suicidal thoughts, and Confinement

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

Moderate: Cancer, Death of parent, and Vomit

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

Moderate: Suicide, Cancer, and Grief

angelacoz's review against another edition

adventurous challenging tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death of parent, Gore, Suicide, Vomit, Confinement, and Injury/Injury detail

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

atalea's review against another edition

dark reflective tense fast-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? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, and Confinement

Moderate: Animal death, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Animal cruelty, Blood, Alcoholism, Cancer, Suicide, Abandonment, Death, and Bullying

Minor: Homophobia, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, and Misogyny

cassie7e's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.5

A meditative, interminable metaphor for grief and complicated father-son relationships. (Blurb claims "scientifically accurate" - I forgive all my thoughts of "how is he not dead yet" on the basis of being metaphor.) 

Warnings:
- Emphasis on "interminable" - if you're looking for a plot heavy thriller, this is not for you. Even for me it dragged on.
- Nonlinear timeline, mimics memories bubbling up. I love this style but it's polarizing.
- Many graphic descriptions of injury and slogging through slow confused obstinate thoughts.

The acknowledgement of covid in 2021-onward parts of the timeline was startling (how long until it isn't anymore?) but it's merely part of the setting, not part of the story at least.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Animal death, Body horror, Grief, and Gore

Moderate: Cursing, Death, Suicide, Cancer, Confinement, Terminal illness, Death of parent, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Vomit, Alcohol, and Pandemic/Epidemic

skilb's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Animal death, Vomit, Violence, Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Grief, Suicide, Child abuse, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, and Death

theseaghost's review against another edition

adventurous emotional informative fast-paced

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

2.0

I was excited for this because I’d heard good things and have a tattoo of a sperm whale on my arm. But it was a series of wildly improbable events with paper thin characters and a cloying attention at sentimentality that falls entirely flat. I think this might have been better served as straight up young adult or teen fiction or maybe a graphic novel or something. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Cancer, Alcoholism, Animal death, Confinement, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Suicide

aparker89's review

challenging emotional informative reflective tense fast-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

3.75

What a trip! This book was nearly impossible to put down- I just had to know if Jay was going to escape his prison inside the whale! This story takes us deep into the psyche of death, grief and longing. 
While it seems a little ridiculously with the whole Jonah being swallowed by a whale, this author works hard to ensure scientific accuracy without bogging us down with too much information! 
I really enjoyed this story. It is captivating, riveting and pulls at your heart strings!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Blood, Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Animal death, Confinement, Death of parent, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Pandemic/Epidemic, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Suicide