Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

Whalefall by Daniel Kraus

12 reviews

crayoline's review against another edition

emotional tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.0

I did not enjoy this book even a little bit. I went into it without really knowing anything about it, so unlike other reviewers, I did not have the expectation of a thriller where a guy sciences himself out of a predicament. I was open to it being allegory or have deeper meaning or whatever. But man. The sentences—cringe. The dialogue—cheese. The writing style—melodramatic. The audiobook narration—whiny. The sentences—fragmented. 

This read like an undergrad creative writing assignment about setting atmosphere. It was as if the author pulled out a thesaurus to force alliteration wherever possible and use as many words as possible to reinforce that the inside of a stomach is gross. And he really thought he was doing something by highlighting the passage of time in PSI instead of minutes. 

The main character was whiny which made me really not care about the story. The reflections lacked depth, the revelations were trivial. It’s lit for men written by a man, and it’s not my thing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Gore, Vomit, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcohol

Minor: Suicide

caseythereader's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Cursing, Gore, Suicide, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Death of parent, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

biobeetle's review

adventurous challenging dark reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Cancer, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse and Alcohol

septi's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Suicide, Terminal illness, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cancer, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, and Vomit

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders and Pandemic/Epidemic

klinkertinlegs's review

adventurous emotional funny tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Suicide, Terminal illness, Death of parent, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

andreatypesbraille's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Alcohol

iam's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

To be completely fair to the book, I was fully aware that this wouldn't be entirely up to my speed. But I am committed to finding more SciFi/deep sea horror books, so I gave it a chance.

The SciFi part felt misleading to me. I guess it is a much broader term than I like to think, but for me it implied a futuristic setting, or speculating about sciences, but this was... none of that. Maybe some people count the "getting swallowed by a whale" scenario as speculative and scientific, but.... nah, not to me in this case. If it had been more focussed on the horror or science of it, maybe, but that's not what this way.

I cannot entirely speak to the realism and scientific accurary of the book, about sperm whale and other oceanic animal behaviour and anatomy.

That said, the main focus of the book was not the science or horror of getting swallowed by a whale. Instead it's about family relationships, maybe the dysfunctional dynamic between the protagonist, teenager Jay, and his father. I expected that, so I was ready for the constant and numerous flashbacks. I found them a bit disjointed, but they frequently fed perfectly into the happenings of the current "present tense" timeline, which I appreciated.

What I didn't entirely appreciate or expect was the almost spiritual elements. While inside the whale, Jay hears and talks to a voice, which is seemingly his father and the whale in one being. It was bizarre, though I sort of compmarentalized it as that phenomenon when someone in a life or death situation hears an outside voice telling them how to act. In a way that makes sense to me, too, as that is exactly what happens, with Jay remembering past conversations and experiences with his family that help him deal with the situations he's in.

However, some of the things just seemed a bit too convenient, or bizarre. Like the whale just HAPPENING to have swallowed exactly the things that Jay needs to survive. Or Jay being able to tell the whale to call for help when it gets attacked by Orcas, and there being a whole massive showdown between a pod of orcas and a bunch of sperm whales??? I may be completely wrong, but idk, that just broke my suspension of disbelief.

To keep it short: overall I this was a rounded story with a quite satisfying ending. However, I wasn't a fan of the execution or themes, but I knew that going in. It could have been a solid three star read for me, but the part towards the end that tries to absolve the abusive father of any guilt and says it's actually also the son's fault that he was abused, knocked that down for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Cancer, Gore, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Self harm, Suicide, and Alcohol

pvp_niki's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cancer, Emotional abuse, Gore, Suicide, Terminal illness, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing and Vomit

Minor: Alcohol and Pandemic/Epidemic

cassie7e's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.5

A meditative, interminable metaphor for grief and complicated father-son relationships. (Blurb claims "scientifically accurate" - I forgive all my thoughts of "how is he not dead yet" on the basis of being metaphor.) 

Warnings:
- Emphasis on "interminable" - if you're looking for a plot heavy thriller, this is not for you. Even for me it dragged on.
- Nonlinear timeline, mimics memories bubbling up. I love this style but it's polarizing.
- Many graphic descriptions of injury and slogging through slow confused obstinate thoughts.

The acknowledgement of covid in 2021-onward parts of the timeline was startling (how long until it isn't anymore?) but it's merely part of the setting, not part of the story at least.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Gore, Blood, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cancer, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Terminal illness, and Death of parent

Minor: Vomit, Alcohol, and Pandemic/Epidemic

meganpbell's review against another edition

adventurous emotional informative reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A teen finds himself in the belly of a whale when diving for his estranged father’s remains in this intense science thriller and extended meditation on fathers, sons, and the life-saving legacy that lives on in us long after those we’ve lost. As someone who lost an estranged parent as a teen, it was hard for this book to gain my trust—and it did in the bigger picture, but not in the finer details. Still, a thrilling and moving read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Terminal illness, Blood, Medical content, Grief, and Alcohol