Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Whalefall by Daniel Kraus

26 reviews

maaartha's review

adventurous emotional reflective sad tense fast-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic, Vomit, Death of parent, Suicide, Terminal illness, Cancer, Blood, Body horror, Death, Confinement, and Gore

rainstar's review

adventurous emotional tense

• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Cancer, Confinement, Body horror, Animal death, and Blood

arborapollonis's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Picked this up at the bookstore a few weeks back, not thinking too much of it but still being intrigued by its premise, blurb, and format. Truly one of the best decisions I've made. Kraus tells the harrowing tale of a boy trying to survive inside of a whale, while also trying to come to terms with the role his father played in his life. It's dark, it's gross, the tension is maintained expertly, but there's also this pervasive tenderness throughout the story. For family, for the ocean, for the planet. Despite feeling iffy about it at first, I ended up also really liking the religious references throughout. A little bit of a coincidence plot, which I'm personally not a big fan of, but it was handled much better than in other books I've read. Definitely worth the time!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Vomit and Suicide

iam's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

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

2.25

To be completely fair to the book, I was fully aware that this wouldn't be entirely up to my speed. But I am committed to finding more SciFi/deep sea horror books, so I gave it a chance.

The SciFi part felt misleading to me. I guess it is a much broader term than I like to think, but for me it implied a futuristic setting, or speculating about sciences, but this was... none of that. Maybe some people count the "getting swallowed by a whale" scenario as speculative and scientific, but.... nah, not to me in this case. If it had been more focussed on the horror or science of it, maybe, but that's not what this way.

I cannot entirely speak to the realism and scientific accurary of the book, about sperm whale and other oceanic animal behaviour and anatomy.

That said, the main focus of the book was not the science or horror of getting swallowed by a whale. Instead it's about family relationships, maybe the dysfunctional dynamic between the protagonist, teenager Jay, and his father. I expected that, so I was ready for the constant and numerous flashbacks. I found them a bit disjointed, but they frequently fed perfectly into the happenings of the current "present tense" timeline, which I appreciated.

What I didn't entirely appreciate or expect was the almost spiritual elements. While inside the whale, Jay hears and talks to a voice, which is seemingly his father and the whale in one being. It was bizarre, though I sort of compmarentalized it as that phenomenon when someone in a life or death situation hears an outside voice telling them how to act. In a way that makes sense to me, too, as that is exactly what happens, with Jay remembering past conversations and experiences with his family that help him deal with the situations he's in.

However, some of the things just seemed a bit too convenient, or bizarre. Like the whale just HAPPENING to have swallowed exactly the things that Jay needs to survive. Or Jay being able to tell the whale to call for help when it gets attacked by Orcas, and there being a whole massive showdown between a pod of orcas and a bunch of sperm whales??? I may be completely wrong, but idk, that just broke my suspension of disbelief.

To keep it short: overall I this was a rounded story with a quite satisfying ending. However, I wasn't a fan of the execution or themes, but I knew that going in. It could have been a solid three star read for me, but the part towards the end that tries to absolve the abusive father of any guilt and says it's actually also the son's fault that he was abused, knocked that down for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Vomit, Body horror, Grief, and Cancer

Moderate: Alcohol, Self harm, and Suicide

cluelessavian's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Alcoholism and Child abuse

Minor: Car accident

Father against "Fragile Masculinity," Acid Burns

wrenhavenriver's review

challenging dark hopeful inspiring sad tense fast-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, and Blood

Moderate: Gore, Animal death, and Child abuse

rejectscanon's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective tense fast-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

Ruined me in the best way. Got a copy from the library and regretted it exactly 43 pages in because I wanted to highlight a line, but couldn’t. Cried a lot, and would read this book again in a heartbeat. Highly recommend, but be mindful of possible triggers. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Suicide, Cancer, Body horror, Death of parent, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Pandemic/Epidemic, Alcoholism, and Vomit

rachelfayreads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional tense fast-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Body horror, Suicide, and Animal death

inirac's review

adventurous challenging emotional informative tense medium-paced

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

4.25

While I enjoyed this book I strongly recommended checking out the content warnings. I know nothing about diving or whales, but I have been in the area the characters discuss! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Cancer, Body horror, Blood, Grief, Terminal illness, Gore, Death, Death of parent, Medical trauma, Confinement, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Domestic abuse, and Panic attacks/disorders

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