Title: Whalefall

Author: Daniel Kraus

Publisher: MTV Books 2023

Genre: Thriller

Pages: 327

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges:

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.

Another mediocre read for me this week. I picked this up on th suggestion of a couple of lists with new horror style books for 2023. Ultimately, I wasn’t a huge fan. This read more like a thriller with long chapters of flashbacks and introspection. We didn’t get a sense of building dread that I really love in my horror novels. Instead, the whale swallows Jay pretty quickly and then we slowly have to follow his stream of consciousness and struggle to survive. There are a few parts that turned extremely gory, like even I was a bit grossed out. Overall, I just don’t think I really connected to this story and ended up with a “Meh” reaction at the end.

Next up on the TBR pile: