Book Review: The Lost Whale by Hannah Gold

 

I'm on a journey to check out all of this author's books, and this is the last one that's out at the moment that I haven't gotten to yet. Let's see if it's good. Spoilers ahead.

Rio is sent to live with his grandmother in California while his mother struggles with her mental health. Rio is at first very displeased with this, but once he gets settled in California he finds a new passion: Watching the grey whales that migrate past the coast. He especially develops a connection with a whale named White Beak. But then all of a sudden White Beak goes missing, and the worst is presumed. Rio, however, refuses to give up, and hatches a plan with his new friend Marina to go to look for the whale.

Like all the other Gold stories, I really liked this one. I do think that this is not one of my favorites by her, but it's still really, really good. I don't know what it is with this author, but I just get sucked into her character and character conflicts and the relationships between the characters pretty much instantly with each book by her that I pick up. Gold in general just seems to be very good at writing likable yet flawed characters with realistic, sometimes heavy conflicts.

I also like how the conflict of Rio's mother struggling with depression (possibly bipolar?) isn't just glossed over or fixed. By the end it's clearly stated that this is something that's just a part of her person and there's no magical fix-it-all cure for it. This is a bit bleak, yes, but also just a reality for a lot of people. And Hannah Gold thankfully respects her audience enough to write in mature themes with mature resolutions like this.

Rio and Marina are also just very likable heroes who just want to save the whales, though they're also definitely willing to take quite a bunch of risks in doing so. I also appreciated the character of Marina's father, he's not much in the story but he was still a nice supportive side-character. As is Fran, Rio's grandmother.

Overall I just really liked this story. The connections, conflicts and characters are just very well-written and the story was overall very engaging. Looking forward to whatever Gold publishes next!

Rating: 4/5