Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

Whalefall by Daniel Kraus

43 reviews

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Minor: Vomit, Alcohol, and Pandemic/Epidemic

meganpbell's review against another edition

adventurous emotional informative 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

4.0

A teen finds himself in the belly of a whale when diving for his estranged father’s remains in this intense science thriller and extended meditation on fathers, sons, and the life-saving legacy that lives on in us long after those we’ve lost. As someone who lost an estranged parent as a teen, it was hard for this book to gain my trust—and it did in the bigger picture, but not in the finer details. Still, a thrilling and moving read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Terminal illness, Blood, Medical content, Grief, and Alcohol

limina's review against another edition

challenging sad 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

3.5

This book feels pretty ridiculous, I know. But it also has a semi-heartfelt story to it as well. It's claustrophobic, and at times heart-pounding. It's being made into a movie, I'll be interested to make the comparison.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Suicide, Terminal illness, Death of parent, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Vomit

theinkwyrm's review

challenging dark emotional reflective 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

4.0

I think there are two different kinds of people who would particularly enjoy this book: those with complex (and generally negative) relationships with their parents and those who are fascinated with the ocean and scuba diving. I am the latter, which is probably why this book isn’t a 5-star read for me. While I was intellectually fascinated by this tale of survival against all odds (literally, there is a basically zero percent chance that this could actually happen) that happens to take place in an extreme environment, I didn’t emotionally connect with Jay and his terrible relationship with his father and therefore couldn’t really immerse myself completely in the story (particularly the bits near the end which got quite choppy). I did the think having the flashbacks cut into the present timeline was particularly well-done. It’s weird because the flashbacks are so different pacing and tone-wise that this simultaneously feels like everything is happening really fast (the whole book takes place in the span of about an hour and a half) and literally so slow, but not in an unpleasant way? I don’t know, I feel like this probably isn’t for everyone, but I enjoyed it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Suicide, Terminal illness, Blood, and Death of parent

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

gorbon's review against another edition

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Grief, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Cancer, Suicide, and Terminal illness

Minor: Vomit and Pandemic/Epidemic