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CW/mentions of suicide

I’ve been following Daniel Kraus on Twitter for awhile. At some point on Bookstagram, I won a copy of THE LIVING DEAD, the book he co-authored with George A. Romero, but just haven’t made the time to read it yet!

But I can remember some of his early mentions of WHALEFALL on Twitter. That he was writing a book about a kid who, while scuba diving, gets swallowed by a sperm whale. And that the book was written to be as close to scientifically accurate as possible.

I’m not sure I’ve ever heard a more enticing hook for a story than that, for real. I don’t pre-order as many books as I should (my shame is real), but I pre-ordered WHALEFALL as soon as I could.

And this book blew me away, completely. The kind of book you just don’t want to put down for the day, and one you can’t help but think about when you’re not reading it. WHALEFALL is easily one of my favorite reads of the year!

Jay Gardiner is the seventeen-year-old son of a local legend in the diving community. Mitt Gardiner’s shadow looms large over Jay’s life, and people don’t seem shy about making Jay feel like he’ll never measure up. His father is larger than life. He’s also a pretty terrible father, as we learn over the course of the book.

The story jumps around over different time periods, but at the start of the book what we know is this: at some point, Jay’s dad got really sick. Rather than continue to struggle and suffer, Mitt dies by suicide, going out for one last dive & never returning.

Jay & Mitt’s relationship was deeply fractured, and Jay wasn’t there for Mitt when he was sick. And though it’s completely understandable in the context of their relationship, Jay is carrying some guilt. Especially over how he is seen by his Mom & two sisters. There’s just a ton of messy feelings here, and somehow Jay gets the idea that he will go diving & salvage Mitt’s remains.

Although Jay has taken some time away from diving, he’s spent his whole life learning from one of the best. So into the choppy water he goes.

And soon after that, into the stomach of a sperm whale who was just trying to snack on a giant squid. Jay’s got an hour of air, his wits, and whatever he can find in the whale’s stomach to help him escape. There’s also the ever-looming threat that the whale will dive to a depth that will simply crush Jay.

The tension in this book is fucking unrivaled. I’m hugely susceptible to claustrophobic horror stuff, and WHALEFALL is about as claustrophobic as it gets. Like palms sweaty, mom’s spaghetti, etc…this one had my stomach roiling!

There’s such a propulsive quality to this book, not only in the writing and the story itself, but I think there’s maybe only one or two chapters that are longer than three pages. All the other chapters are between one and three pages, so you are CONSTANTLY telling yourself “just one more chapter” with this one.

This is also such an emotional read, as we see a lot of scenes of Jay growing up with a rather unstable & unsupportive home life.

I know getting an adaptation isn’t the be-all and end-all for every novel, but goddamn, WHALEFALL is so cinematic & could be a total masterpiece of a movie in the right hands. I hope it’ll happen!

I think this book also has incredibly wide appeal, because there’s just so much to it. There’s the survival/adventure horror elements, paired with some really painful family drama, and all just elegantly written. I’d recommend this to just about anyone who likes to read, honestly.

WHALEFALL is a fucking treasure…one of my favorite books of the year, and the kind of book I’ll be thinking about often.