An imaginative melange of The Great Santini, Pinocchio, and A Monster Calls, this novel is by turns fascinating and annoying. Daniel Kraus’s main inspiration came from a news report about an incident where two kayakers were temporarily sucked into the maw of a humpback whale. He goes deeper - literally - and has his protagonist swallowed whole. During the ensuing struggle to escape, 17-year-old Jay Gardiner confronts his tortured relationship with his father, a legendary diver and sea salt. Everything involving the physiognomy of the whale and the means Jay resorts to in his efforts to get out is spellbinding. Every flashback to his prick of a father - who becomes a kind of spirit guide during the crisis as well - actually drains sympathy from the story.

Jay has ended up in his predicament because, after refusing to go see the estranged father when he was dying of cancer, the boy is diving to try to retrieve the bones left behind in Monterey Bay when his old man killed himself in a dive. Jay believes this will heal his broken relationship with his Mother and sisters and repair his image in the eyes of beach bums who idolized the Dad. For the reader, the suicide is just one more selfish act by a profoundly unpleasant man who was unworthy of this son. We really just don’t care about a reconciliation, even oppose it.

The story is soon to be released as a film and the visuals have the potential to be amazing. But the Jay character has the potential to be so whiny and the father so unlikable that one does not envy the director the job of melding action and emotion, which the book does not quite manage.

(Reviewed:20-Jul-26)

Grade: (C) Orrin C. Judd

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Daniel Kraus Links:

    -WIKIPEDIA: Daniel Kraus (author)
    -AUTHOR SITE: DanielKraus.com
    -FILMOGRAPHY: Daniel Kraus
    -AWARD: Daniel Kraus (The 2026 Pulitzer Prize Winner in Fiction)
    -COLLECTION: Daniel Kraus Papers, 1987-2016 (University of Pittsburgh)
    -AUTHOR PAGE: Daniel Kraus (Penguin Random House)
    -ENTRY: Daniel Kraus (BookBrowse)
    -ENTRY: Summary Bibliography: Daniel Kraus (Internet Science Fiction Database)
    -BOOK SITE: Whalefall (Simon & Schuster)
    -BOOK SITE: Whalefall (DanielKraus.com)
    -ENTRY: Daniel Kraus (GoodReads)
    -ENTRY: Daniel Krause (Bookreporter)
    -ENTRY: Daniel Kraus (Bram Stoker Awards)
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    -ENTRY: Whalefall (GoodReads)
    -WIKIPEDIA: Whalefall
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    -VIDEO INDEX: “daniel kraus” (YouTube)
    -INDEX: “daniel kraus” (ReacTor)
    -INDEX: Daniel Kraus (LitHub)
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    -ESSAY: What Night of the Living Dead Taught Me About Filmmaking—and Life (Daniel Kraus, March 13, 2026, LitHub)
    -EXCERPT: Read an Excerpt From The Sixth Nik by Daniel Kraus: Deep into space soars The Sickness: a ship woven from biomatter and capable of reacting to every need of its human crew. (Daniel Kraus, June 2, 2026, ReacTor)
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    -AUDIO INTERVIEW: Author Daniel Kraus on his new thriller 'Whalefall' (Ayesha Rascoe & Ryan Benk, August 13, 2023, NPR: Weekend Edition Sunday)
    -AUDIO INTERVIEW: Revisiting 'Whalefall,' the underwater thriller from Pulitzer winner Daniel Kraus (Ayesha Rascoe, May 18, 2026, NPR Book of the Day)
    -AUDIO: The Sunday Story: A Life Worthy of Whalefall (Ayesha Rascoe, November 12, 2023, Up First from NPR)
    -PODCAST: Novelist Spotlight #141: Daniel Kraus, author of “Whalefall,” “Shape of Water” and “Trollhunters” (Mike Consol, Jan 19, 2024)
    -PODCAST: Pulitzer Winner Daniel Kraus on Angel Down and World War I Horror (Nightmares & Narratives with Ryan Thomas LaBee, May 14, 2026)
    -PODCAST: FEARMONGERS EP 31: AUTHOR DOWN: DANIEL KRAUS DISCUSSES HIS NEW NOVEL ANGEL DOWN (FEARMONGERS with Clay McLeod Chapman, Jul 9, 2025, The Westport Library)
    -PODCAST: Angel Down: A Discussion with Daniel Kraus (Battles of the First World War Podcast, Oct 1, 2025)
    -PODCAST: #PouredOver: Daniel Kraus on Angel Down (Jenna Seery, Jun 12, 2026, Poured Over (The B&N Podcast)
    -PODCAST: I Asked Daniel Kraus About WHALEFALL and ANGEL DOWN Here's What He Said (The House of Shadows & Ink, Jan 9, 2026)
    -AUDIO: From historical fiction to horror, author Daniel Kraus infuses Iowa in his work (Ben Kieffer, Samantha McIntosh, February 27, 2026, Iowa Public Radio: River to River)
    -PODCAST: A Whale of a Tale with Daniel Kraus We get the backstory to the new novel Whalefall, about a man who finds himself in the belly of a sperm whale. (Atlas Obscura, August 21, 2023)
    -PODCAST: 1034. Daniel Kraus (Otherppl with Brad Listi Podcast, May 16, 2026)
    -PODCAST: Episode 72: Daniel Kraus (The Thoughtful Bro, 9/26/25)
    -VIDEO: "Adaptations" with Daniel Kraus & Susan Orlean (2026 American Writers Festival
    -PODCAST: Author Interview - Daniel Kraus (Friendly City Books, August 31st, 2023)
    -VIDEO: Daniel Kraus - Fall Author Series 2024 (DMPLibrary, Oct 24, 2024)
    -PODCAST: Bestselling author Daniel Kraus on new novel ANGEL DOWN and WHALEFALL movie (DMT Resurrected! Ep. 9) (Dead Men's Tales & Turnbuckles, Jul 25, 2025)
    -PODCAST: Daniel Kraus Talks Partially Devoured and the Enduring Power of Night of the Living Dead (Howard's Haunt, Mar 5, 2026)
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    -PROFILE: ‘Partially Devoured’ and ‘The Sixth Nik’: The Undead in His Head: Daniel Kraus puts human stories on gruesome horror-movie terrain. The terror is part of the trip. (James Kennedy, July 10, 2026, Wall Street Journal)
    -PROFILE: Evanston author Daniel Kraus puts horror in the spotlight, talks Pulitzer win: In early May, Kraus’ 2025 novel “Angel Down” won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. (Yong-Yu Huang, May 28, 2026, The Daily Northwestern)
    -INTERVIEW: A Conversation with Daniel Kraus Celebrating Angel Down (Friends & Fiction and Meg Walker, Jul 29, 2025)
    -INTERVIEW: Getting into the belly of author Daniel Kraus (Sal Nudo, November 14, 2024, Smile Politely)
    -INTERVIEW: A perfect Sunday with... Daniel Kraus (Cavan Scott, 28 Sep 2025, The Cavletter)
    -PROFILE: Horror icon George Romero and Daniel Kraus' new book based in the bayou (Carrie Shepherd, 8/30/24, Axios)
    -INTERVIEW: An Interview with Author Daniel Kraus (Nerds that Geek, 8/4/2020)
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    -ESSAY: 10 Brilliant Novels by Daniel Kraus You Should Read (Capes & Tights, August 26, 2024)
    -ARTICLE: Daniel Kraus’ ‘Angel Down’ and Bess Wohl’s ‘Liberation’ are among Pulitzer winners in the arts (HILLEL ITALIE, May 4, 2026, AP)
    -VIDEO: Humpback whale almost swallows kayakers near Avila Beach (Liz Gonzalez, November 2, 2020, Fox26 News)
    -VIDEO: Whale momentarily swallows kayaker in Chile (ABC News, Feb 14, 2025)
    -INTERVIEW: I Got Gobbled Up by a Whale It was amazing. (As told to Heather Schwedel, Aug 26, 2023, Slate)
    -ESSAY: How Whales Die — and the Remarkable Life Their Bodies Support Afterward: Learn more about how whales die and how their bodies can provide nutrients to surrounding marine life for up to a century. (Sara Novak, Jul 11, 2026, Discover)
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    -ESSAY: How Whales Die — and the Remarkable Life Their Bodies Support Afterward: Learn more about how whales die and how their bodies can provide nutrients to surrounding marine life for up to a century. (Sara Novak, Jul 11, 2026, Discover)
    -ESSAY: Giant Squid, Elusive Creature of the Deep, Gets a Vivid Close-Up (Amisha Padnani, Dec. 29, 2015, NY Times)
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    -STUDY GUIDE: Whalefall (Super Summary)
    -REVIEW INDEX: Daniel Kraus (Publishers Weekly)
    -REVIEW INDEX: Daniel Krausl (Kirkus)
    -REVIEW: Swallowed by a Sperm Whale, and Mourning His Father: In Daniel Kraus’s novel “Whalefall,” a teenage diver is gulped down by a 60-ton whale and must try to escape. (Sarah Lyall, July 30, 2023, NY Times Book Review)
    -REVIEW: Whalefall review: Stunning novel about being swallowed by a whale: A teenage scuba diver has an hour to escape from a whale that has swallowed him before his air runs out in a novel by Daniel Kraus which is like nothing you have read before (Neil McRobert, 23 August 2023, New Scientist)
    -REVIEW: of Whalefall (Matthew Jackson, Paste)
    -REVIEW: of Whalefall (Books, Bones and Buffy)
    -REVIEW: of Whalefall (Meeple and the Moose)
    -REVIEW: of Whalefall (Kate, Library Ladies)
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    -REVIEW: of Whalefall (Horror Writers’ Association)
    -REVIEW: of Whalefall (Dave Simms, Cemetery Dance)
    -REVIEW: of Whalefall (Charlie Battison, FanFiAddict)
    -REVIEW: of Whalefall (CAROL O'DAY, BookLife)
    -REVIEW: of Whalefall (Haley, my thoughts are a blog)
    -REVIEW: of Whalefall (Publishers Weekly)
    -REVIEW: of Whalefall (BookMarks)
    -REVIEW: of Whalefall (Becky Spatford, Booklist)
    -REVIEW: of Whalefall (Amy E. Casey)
    -REVIEW: of Whalefall (Jason Austin, Readings)
    -REVIEW: of Whalefall (Cannonball Read)
    -REVIEW: of Whalefall (Dead Reader)
    -REVIEW: of Whalefall (Bookshelf Fantasies)
    -REVIEW: of Whalefall (Lily Ericson, Tenderfoot Times)
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    -REVIEW: of Whalefall (A Book Wanderer)
    -REVIEW: of Whalefall (Breezy Afternoons)
    -REVIEW: of Whalefall (Fill your bookshelf)
    -REVIEW: of Whalefall (Zach Rosenberg, Horror DNA)
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    -REVIEW: of Angel Down by Daniel Kraus (Abigail Nussbaum, 6 July 2026, Strange Horizons)
    -REVIEW: This Brilliant, Unforgettable WWI Novel Just Won the Pulitzer: Daniel Kraus’s “Angel Down” follows a soldier who encounters a celestial being on the battlefield. (Ben H. Winters, 7/26/25, NY Times Book Review)
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FILM:
    -FILMOGRAPHY: Daniel Kraus
    -FILMOGRAPHY: Whalefall (2026) (IMDB)
    -WIKIPEDIA: Whalefall (film)
    -FILM SITE: Whalefall
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    -ESSAY: The Whalefall Trailer Reveals How The Unadaptable Book Becomes A Movie (JEREMY MATHAI, JUNE 9, 2026, Slash Film)
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    -FILM REVIEW: Whalefall (
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