Got me through a family death

I changed my rating from 5 stars to 4 for one main reason: the relationship between Jay and his father. To me it felt like that subplot was just justification for emotional abuse. If I were writing this story, I wouldn’t have given the father any time of day and would have had Jay cut himself off from the rest of his family for enabling the father. The ending was also a bit too vague and abrupt for me.

I want to love this book. But there was so much scientific anatomy that I got bored. And the lyrical poetic nature of it just did not hit home for me.

Rarely do I give 4 stars. Rarely does a book deserve them. But Whalefall was a solidly good read. I read it in one sitting because it seemed wrong to break up the momentum. The analogies and symbolism were just a delight too. It was like The Old Man and the Sea meets Jonah.

I had high expectations for this book. Compared to the Martian it is plodding, predictable, implausible and just… sad.

It was a blessing to have stumbled upon this book the day it released. I had recently read The Martian by Andy Weir, and seeing this book connected to both The Martian and 127hrs in its description intrigued me. It was so much more than I was prepared for. I came for a fictional diving story, but I fell in love with the relationship between father and son weaving throughout it all. As the story began to unravel, I cried. Maybe it was a fluke. I cried again. I'm surprised. I cried again. And again. And again. It was so beautiful and cathartic, and although my idyllic relationship with my own father is far and away the antithesis of the character's, this story stirred up all of the best moments I've had with my dad, and brought me to ponder the painful loss that eventually will come. To the author - Thank you so much. All of your work was worth it. This has become my new favorite book.