WHALEFALL

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. P.P.C. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine [Published: SEPTEMBER 2023]