Spoilers Ahead
Whalefall by Daniel Kraus came into my life via a skeet (a Bluesky post, for those who are unfamiliar with the term) by Elizabeth Hargrave, designer of Wingspan. It basically said “I put Whalefall on my holds list, then by the time it was available, I forgot why I wanted to read it. Going in blind is highly recommended for this book”. So I popped over to my library app, put the book on hold, and didn’t read a single word more about it.
Holy cow, what a great way to experience Whalefall. If you’ve liked my other book reviews, give this one a shot blind. It’s worth it.
For those who don’t heed that advice, here’s the rest of the review.
Whalefall is a scientifically accurate thriller about a scuba diver who gets swallowed whole by a sperm whale. Bam, there it is. What a hook.
The book focuses on Jay Gardiner. Jay’s father was a local legend, the dive master. The ground he walked on was worshipped by anyone who knew anything about diving. His father, desperate to connect with his son, dragged him out on dive after dive after dive throughout the course of his childhood, and force-fed his expertise down his throat like a scuba diver foie gras. Naturally, this caused a bit of resentment between Jay and his father, and he left on less than good terms as soon as Jay was able to do so.
Jay returns to his hometown after his fathers’ death. He’s tired of local divers spitting at his feet. All they know is that Jay abandoned his father, the god of diving. Jay must be an insolent, disrespectful whelp to walk away from their hero. To prove his worth to the local diving community, and to himself, he’s taken it upon himself to recover his father’s remains from the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.
Once he’s successfully past the waves and submerged in the icy waters, he begins his search. He quickly comes across a giant squid! It’s remarkable, squids never come up to this depth, unless, they’re being hunted. A sperm whale emerges from the darkness, and sucks both the squid, and Jay into it’s gaping maw, whole.
What follows is Jay’s fight for survival. He moves his way back and forth from the whale’s stomachs, suffers untold traumas, all while hearing the whale’s (or his fathers) voice inside his head, offering nuggets of wisdom, and urging Jay to use his knowledge to escape before his oxygen runs out.
Now, here’s the thing. I come from a landlocked province, small town boy, raised by a single mother. I have no experience with diving, no reverence for the ocean, and no real complex feelings towards a father. And yet, despite having virtually no personal connection to this tale at all, I was utterly enthralled. The story bounces back and forth from Jay’s fight for survival, to memories of his childhood.
Whalefall can be summarized as “Daddy issues inside a whale”, and that wouldn’t be an entirely unfair summary. But it really misses the absolutely thrilling nature of the story. The story of Jay’s fight for survival is gruesome, exciting, and gripping. I was so caught up in suspense that I literally almost burned my family’s dinner because I got pulled into reading ‘just one more chapter’ as the meat cooked in my frying pan. If that’s not a ringing endorsement, I don’t know what is.
Daniel Kraus has produced an absolutely enthralling tale, and one that I recommend without hesitation. I loved the detailed descriptions of what it might actually be like in the inside of a whale, from the gritty floor of squid beaks to the existence of four stomachs. It’s obvious that Kraus has done his homework, and I look forward to reading more of his novels. And, the cover is awesome. I’d hang a poster of that in my room.
