Whalefall

A Novel

By: Daniel Kraus

Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne

Soon to be a major motion picture from 20th Century Studios

A USA TODAY BESTSELLER
Named a Best Book of 2023 by Book Riot, Shelf Awareness, and NPR

The Martian meets 127 Hours in this “astoundingly great” (Gillian Flynn, #1 New York Times bestselling author) and 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.

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.

Suspenseful and cinematic, Whalefall is an “powerfully humane” (Owen King, New York Times bestselling author) thriller about a young man who has given up on life…only to find a reason to live in the most dangerous and unlikely of places.

Critic reviews

"Narrator Kirby Heyborne embodies the gruesomeness and terror and beauty in Daniel Kraus’s story. Listeners will feel its intensity in the pit of their stomachs. Teenage scuba diver Jay Gardiner is consumed by guilt as he seeks to find the remains of his father, who died by suicide, in the Pacific Ocean. As Jay searches the ocean’s depths, he is swallowed by a sperm whale. As the story switches between key moments in Jay’s past and the rapidly decreasing air in his tanks, listeners will feel like they themselves are gasping for air. Heyborne’s performance robustly expands Kraus’s tale, and it is divine."

Not what it’s billed as

There’s nothing wrong with the production of this. Kirby Heyborne did a great job with what he had to work with, but this is not really a thriller, or a horror novel. It’s kind of a story about grief and forgiveness, but that is marred by the fact that it also perpetuates a tired cliche about how your abusive parent wasn’t Really That Bad and You Should Forgive Them.

If you’ve had to cut a parent or other relative out of your life, this book is likely to be incredibly frustrating.

Aside from that, there’s just not enough meat on the bone to make this a full length story. The actual diving and eaten-by-whale parts are just not given enough meaningful page time to provide a sense of urgency to things, especially with the constant flashbacks that completely derail narrative tension.

This is not an action story!

This is a haunting story about death, mourning, and family and it's devastatingly beautiful. Best story of the year for me, so far, and one of my top 10 of all time. The comparison to The Martin sets you up for an optimistic and fun story of survival and that's just not what this is. You'll find yourself fighting tears more than biting your nails.

Some folks didn't like the narrator but I thought Kirby was excellent and I look forward to experiencing more that he's done. Additionally, some people found the flashbacks to bring a weird rhythm, but the pacing and structure made me think of Arrival by Ted Chiang.

Overall, I'm sad I can only experience this for the first time once. Great read.

Slow start but it gets better

I read this with my a book club. I thought it took to get to the inciting incident.

Not as scary as I was expecting, way more about father n' son relationship and

like, like , like 👍 like like....I like I like I like Not scary like I was expecting, way more about father n' son relationship and coming to see through the high walls of famuliar expectations....I felt moved emotionally to think of my own family relationships and was moved to cry a few times. Excellent writing and a "memorable" book for 2025 !

Mind bending adventure

This was an adventure into a world few of us have experienced. Totally grabs the reader and inserts them into another world and dimension. The possibility of escape keeps you on your toes!