Whalefall: Review

I saw this book in the store and told myself I MUST HAVE IT!

Look at the cover of this thing, its dark, mysteries, and has a Whale about to eat a human on the cover. right there on it cover. this book cover alone screamed YOU MUST READ ME!!!!!!

Well I did, read it, and the cover does describe the book. In short it is about a guy who get eaten by a whale and his final moments stuck inside the whale's gut!

BUT.....

This book did disappoint me, I was hoping for the action to happen much sooner in the book than rather half way through the book. the first half was about Jay and him remembering his father, who was a horrible person to him. His father seemed to care more about the ocean and what was happening to it, than what was going on in his family.

His father was a diver, and hate his job as a deep sea diver tour guide. Jay remembers all the harsh punishments he got from his father for not remembering simple diving lessons, how he got caught up with an Octopus, or even almost getting his head chopped off by the blade of the boat.

It is written in Jay's perceptive and you live through Jay's memories of his late father, who is believe to unlive himself. As for Jay, despite how horrible his dad has, still believe that his body is out there somewhere in the ocean. This is when the story finally starts taken place, as Jay was diving in search of his father body when he get himself tangle up with a giant squid, before he could comprehend what is happening, he see a sperm whale coming after the both of them.

As he tries to free himself from the grips of the Squid and tries to make a swim for it, the whale has Jay in its mouth and Jay follows the squid down to the stomach of the whale. He does manage to break free from the squid, but now his new trap is trying to get out of the whale.

I found this story good, but not great. I did like reading about what can happen to you inside of a whale's stomach, and how much time you will have, but the continuous bouncing around timeline made it harder to know what memory Jay is tracking or what the story is suppose to be about, or the relationship he had with no only his father but with his family as there were moment he was talking about living his Aunty and Uncle, and being in a foster care system too.

I did like how short the chapters where, some where a couple pages long, and some were just 2 words on the page. I did like how the chapters where label with how much air is left in tank, giving the reader the feel anxious, and suspense as they read along with the story. I did love the part where Jay started communicating with the whale imagining it was father, and communication between him and his father forgiving each other.

It is a slow burn read and not much character development to the story - 3 Stars.