“Whalefall” By Daniel Kraus Review
I bet the email subject line made you think: “Oh god, she’s reviewing ‘Moby Dick,’ isn’t she?” Fear not, cult members. I have not lost the plot that much. But I am reviewing another whale-centric tale for you, so buckle up your flippers.
The marketing blurb is so on-the-nose, I'm just going to steal it: "A 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."
➡️ Title: Whalefall: A Novel by Daniel Kraus
Length: 336 pages
✅ Why It Works: This is one of the more unique novels I've read, and maybe the most horrifying. It's classified as a thriller, but it reads like true horror. Being swallowed alive is terrifying enough on its own, but the scientific detail makes it too real. I woke up in the middle of the night, stressed out from nightmares about being digested. I also learned more about whale sphincters than I ever needed to know.
The prose gets a lot of criticism online, but I enjoyed it. It's lyrical, almost poetry-like in a way that mirrors the experience of slowly running out of oxygen alongside the main character. I'm not sure it would work in a traditional novel, but here it does.
❌ Why It Doesn't: While I admire the scientific detail, the experience itself is implausible, if not impossible. Sperm whales are the only whales with a throat potentially large enough, and even then, survival is incredibly unlikely. There are no documented cases of a person being swallowed by a whale, though this guy got spit out.
Read It? Definitely, but you might come away with thalassophobia. If you read it now, you can be prepared for the movie version this October.
Rating: ✨✨✨✨✨/5
Not a subscriber? I send free, unsponsored reviews most Sundays. Sign up here.
🎧 Listening: “The Documentary Podcast” by the BBC. If you like quality storytelling about global topics, you’ll love this. I suggest this episode about Westerners who willingly moved to Russia.
📰 Trialing: Apple News+. I'm testing Apple's premium news service to access outlets not available through my library's digital subscriptions.
🥤Sipping: Bloom Pop Prebiotic Soda. This is my new favorite sweet treat at the end of a workday.
🌼 Growing: Zinnias. I got my first blooms of the season this week!
Catch you later, cult members.
