Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Whalefall by Daniel Kraus

39 reviews

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

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

noctstate's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Animal death, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Suicide, Death of parent, Child abuse, Cancer, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Self harm

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: Grief, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

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

Minor: Vomit

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

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, Injury/Injury detail, and Death of parent

Moderate: Alcoholism, Cancer, Terminal illness, and Suicide

Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic and Vomit

frenchsnail's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, and Alcohol

seawarrior's review against another edition

4.0

Whalefall is a thrilling and tragic novel of a young man learning to let some of his anger toward his father wash away while attempting to survive insurmountable odds. I thought this story was well written, but the extremely brief chapters were sometimes jarring and made it difficult to feel drawn into the book until the terrifying journey inside the whale began. I appreciate Kraus' focus on scientific accuracy, which led an edge of realism to this tale. I would recommend this book to readers interested in body horror, and look forward to watching the upcoming feature film. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Grief, Terminal illness, Suicide, Child abuse, Confinement, Blood, Death of parent, Gore, and Vomit

majestictrilobite's review

adventurous dark emotional 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? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Medical content, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Terminal illness, Vomit, Bullying, Child abuse, and Death of parent

Moderate: Suicide

orcamagicka's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes

5.0

So fucking good. Shocked it has such a low rating on StoryGraph, but then again, most people probably aren’t as huge whale/marine bio nerds as I am haha. This book was pure poetry and I’d love to reread it in the future.

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Content Warnings

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

Minor: Homophobia and Vomit