A review by sargasso_c
Whalefall by Daniel Kraus

Did not finish book. Stopped at 74%.

The book had reams of unnecessary repetition, setting itself primarily in Jay’s mind and memories rather than the vastly more interesting whale’s stomach. It focused so much on a bleak father-son relationship that I couldn’t much relate to.

At the point I stopped reading, the author seemed to be leading towards an “actually there were some okay times, the main character just blocked those memories out ” redemption arc which, in my opinion, is lazy writing and unrealistic. Abusive/mean parents can be multi-faceted, but don’t deserve a free pass because they chose to smile at their kid once in a while.

What I wanted to read was a The Martian-esque tale of survival and escape. What is here is a several-hundred page Better Help session where Jay is both therapist and client.