My husband loves stories, and while he had previously enjoyed print books, once he discovered audiobooks, he started devouring them.  He had a decent commute to work, so there’s plenty of time for him to listen while he plods to and from work.  We got to meet this author at the Scarelastic Book Fair in Indiana, so Hubs made it a point to find one available as an audiobook from the library.  When he finished this one, he raved about it, so I was looking forward to it as well. 

            Obviously, I didn’t enjoy it as much as he did.  I’m not a big fan of back-and-forth timelines, sometimes it works for me, but most of the time I find that type of format frustrating.  This one was particularly annoying, and I’m not sure if it was because the “back” portion made the main character seem like a whiny brat.  While I understand Kraus was setting up the backstory between Jay and his father, I didn’t find that the use of the back-and-forth format played itself out well when I got to the end. I half expected Jay to actually find his father, and that might have helped me with the story, but the end was so unsatisfying, I just found everything else about the story to be lacking. 

            Again, my husband absolutely loved this book, and I have made it a point to vocalize that literary preferences are varied, so please don’t take my review and avoid the book because of it.  I didn’t particularly enjoy this one, but you might, so give it a shot. 

This is astonishing and gory and beautiful! It made me cry on this bus! I WEPT ON PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION BECAUSE OF THIS!

This is the most beautiful way possible to tell a story of a guy swallowed by a whale. The overarching theme of trauma, of a son's love-hate relationship with their father, and of differing perceptions of masculinity is very gracefully well woven into a harrowing and factually correct (well, mostly) thriller. Every line is like a poem, each is written powerfully and weaves seamlessly all the different narrative threads in the novel, all the way to the profound ending. It has elements of magical realism as the story unfolds, and it adds so much into the depth of characters.

It was a big gulp to swallow as you follow Jay through his grief in the stomach of a sperm whale. It was tough to listen to what a father should be versus what they are even at their best.

There’s no doubt that the lows might always seem like the highs when you feel unloved.

Overall! This book was pretty easy to engage with and I’m sure if you’ve got a more vivid imagination than me (or at least can see images in your head), you’ll be able to picture some really unique things being described. It is p major daddy issues and you should check content warnings!