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Whalefall : a novel
2023
Where is it?
Fiction/Biography Profile
Characters
Jay Gardiner (Male), Caught in the squid¿s tentacles and drawn into the whale¿s mouth; where he is pulled into the first of its four stomachs; realizes he only has one hour before his oxygen tanks run out
Genre
Fiction
Suspense
Thriller
Topics
Scuba divers
Scuba diving
Survival
Whales
Oceans
Setting
Pacific Ocean -
Large Cover Image
Trade Reviews
Library Journal Review
Kraus, coauthor of The Shape of Water with Guillermo del Toro, presents a nerve-wracking tale of survival in Monterey, CA. Jay is a young scuba diver who has a contentious history with his father, a local legend and maritime master. Feeling crushed under the weight of expectation and disappointment, Jay performs one last dive to prove himself. When he's swallowed by a sperm whale, with only one hour before his scuba tanks runs out of oxygen, he'll have to draw upon everything he's ever learned from his father and the ocean to get free. The novel conveys a great respect for nature, especially for whales and the ethereal beauty and ferocious dangers of the ocean. The scientific and biological accuracy enhances the disturbing realism of what it would actually be like to be swallowed by a whale. Jay's plight is viscerally intense and claustrophobic, even as he grapples with real and raw emotions that stem from remorse and a need for reconciliation. VERDICT This hard sci-fi thriller is full of cinematic and wild suspense and would be great for fans of Andy Weir, although the tone is far more austere.--Andrea Dyba
Publishers Weekly Review
This gripping sci-fi thriller from bestseller Kraus (who previously coauthored the novelization of The Shape of Water with Guillermo del Torro) takes readers quite literally into the belly of the beast. After local diving legend Mitt Gardiner dies in a suicide by drowning, his estranged high school--age son, Jay, sets out to bolster his own reputation as a diver by retrieving his father's remains. Returning to the water after two years away from his domineering dad, Jay makes the risky dive. Instead of locating the body, however, he finds a giant squid, and then a massive sperm whale finds them both. Accidentally ingested, Jay struggles to escape the whale's belly before the creature either digests him or retreats to depths that could crush him. Jay's struggle to free himself from his blubbery prison mirrors his struggle to free himself from his father's shadow, which forms the real heart of the story. Kraus provides solid nautical science alongside the stretchy coincidences that fuel Jay's survival. Just on the brink of horror fiction, especially for the claustrophobic, this deep-sea thrill ride will have readers on the edges of their seats. (Aug.)
Summary
A USA TODAY BESTSELLER
Named a Best Book of 2023 by Book Riot , Shelf Awareness , and NPR

The Martian meets 127 Hours in this "astoundingly great" (Gillian Flynn, #1 New York Times bestselling author) and scientifically accurate thriller about a scuba diver who's been swallowed by an eighty-foot, sixty-ton sperm whale and has only one hour to escape before his oxygen runs out.

Jay Gardiner has given himself a fool's errand--to find the remains of his deceased father in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Monastery Beach. He knows it's a long shot, but Jay feels it's the only way for him to lift the weight of guilt he has carried since his dad's death by suicide the previous year.

The dive begins well enough, but the sudden appearance of a giant squid puts Jay in very real jeopardy, made infinitely worse by the arrival of a sperm whale looking to feed. Suddenly, Jay is caught in the squid's tentacles and drawn into the whale's mouth where he is pulled into the first of its four stomachs. He quickly realizes he has only one hour before his oxygen tanks run out--one hour to defeat his demons and escape the belly of a whale.

Suspenseful and cinematic, Whalefall is an "powerfully humane" (Owen King, New York Times bestselling author) thriller about a young man who has given up on life...only to find a reason to live in the most dangerous and unlikely of places.
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