A debut middle grade novel in the tradition of Black Beauty and The One and Only Ivan, in which a young orca who dreams of becoming the matriarch of her pod instead finds herself living a life in captivity.

Just like her grandmother, Whale dreams of becoming the matriarch and storyteller of her own pod one day. But her dream becomes a nightmare when she is captured by the Two-Legs as a youngling and is taken to a sea pen far from her home. At first, angry and scared, Whale can only think of escaping and finding her way back to her family. She even tries to trick the Two-Legs she calls Red who feeds her to lift the rope wall that keeps her a prisoner. Instead, Red tries to befriend her. Whale wants to resist him, but she’s bored and lonely for her pod and despite herself, starts to look forward to his daily visits.

Just when Whale gets used to life with Red and even comes to count on his sing-song laughter—becoming friends after all—Whale is ripped away from the pen she’s known as home for more than a year. She’s taken on a long painful journey to an aquarium and made to perform. It’s grueling work and hard on Whale’s body, but if she doesn’t perform, she doesn’t eat.

Her only solace is her adopted whale family. She still misses her own pod terribly and tries not to give up hope of seeing them again, but it’s nice to have Elsa, Gaia, Cleo and Katya to talk to and to grieve with in the face of the mistreatment they endure from their trainer. She spends years in the tank with the others telling stories of their old lives, still hoping to return to them and trying to find joy in the here and now. But as Whale grows older, her lungs begin to fail. Finally, she is too sick to perform. When the sling reaches into the tank to take her away from the aquarium—away from the family she’s loved—Whale thinks of the promise of Whale Fall where the Great Mother would at last reunite her with her family—her body becoming one with the ocean. She’d done her best. When she couldn’t escape, she survived and tried to be happy. It was time to rest.

But after another long difficult journey, it’s not Great Mother Whale meets, but an old friend, with a sing-song laugh and red hair who’s finally, in his way, set her free.

A deeply moving story of family, determination and hope as a majestic creature weathers the storms of a life in captivity, Whale Fall is a must read.

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