This year’s Pulitzer Prize for Fiction went to Daniel Kraus for his phenomenal work of historical fiction, Angel Down. For readers who’ve not followed Kraus’s career, it felt like a surprise win–the story, set during World War I, is unique in structure, being told through a single sentence. But for those readers who’ve known Kraus since the start of his career, the Pulitzer win made complete sense and felt like an honor his work more than deserved.
Kraus’s work has been growing and expanding since his debut, The Monster Variations, in 2009. He is a writer who takes bold risks and always delivers on the promise and premise of his stories. He cut his teeth in young adult literature, but he’s continued to shine in his forays into adult fiction, middle grade fiction, and even comics. Many readers may not realize they’re already familiar with Kraus’s work, even if they are less familiar with his name. Kraus worked with Guillermo del Toro on the novelization of The Shape of Water, having breakfast with del Toro as the idea was forming. He and del Toro teamed up to write Trollhunters, the middle grade series turned animated 2016 Netflix show. He’s also worked with the family of filmmaker George A. Romero, too, bringing to life The Living Dead, a novel Romero left unfinished when he died in 2017. Pay The Piper, published in 2024, was another collaboration between Kraus and the late Romero’s extensive notes on the story. Kraus’s one work of nonfiction to date, Partially Devoured: How Night of the Living Dead Saved My Life and Changed the World, is a love letter to Romero’s classic zombie flick.
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Before focusing full-time on his writing career, Kraus worked as a librarian and as an editor for Booklist, overseeing the publication’s coverage of books for youth. Without doubt, his experience working with readers–both those he met in the library and those working in the library helping their patrons–gave him a perspective on literature that has helped him leverage his skills and creativity. That’s not to touch on the research, which Kraus discusses in his periodic newsletter, Last Kraus on the Left.
“I’m not interested in bad vs. good. I love writing about bad vs. worse,” said Kraus to an audience in Illinois last fall upon the publication of Angel Down. Without doubt, that shows up in all aspects of his work.
But where does one start reading Daniel Kraus books? That depends on what genre or age group you want to explore, though going into any of his books with an open mind, whatever your preferences on genre or age category, will ensure a memorable experience. For this short guide, though, you’ll find a pair of titles written for adults, one title written for young adults, and a bonus pick from Kraus himself.
Readers who love audiobooks should take note that Kraus’s books make for excellent listening. Performer Kirby Heyborne has narrated 10 of his titles, earning numerous accolades for them along the way.
WhalefallDebuting on the big screen in October, Whalefall may be Kraus’s most widely appealing title in terms of its themes, structure, and pacing. It’s a story tailor-made for film, and it’s a nail-biting ride, start to finish. Jay Gardiner is heading to find the remains of his dead father in the Pacific Ocean. It’s a way for him to reconnect with his father, who died by suicide a year earlier. Jay knows that finding those remains will be tough, if not impossible. As he descends into the water, he comes face-to-face with a giant squid. In his attempts to dodge the squid, he’s then swallowed by a sperm whale. That’s when Jay realizes his oxygen tank has one hour of air left–and that he has to figure out how to get out of the whale’s belly before it’s too late. The amount of research that went into how a whale’s body works, including its digestive system and what happens as one’s oxygen depletes while deep in the ocean, is remarkable. So, too, is the rapid-paced, heart-pounding “will he/won’t he” survival story a touching and heart-rending story of grief and loss. It’s hard sci-fi at its best. |
 RottersWhat brought me to Kraus’s writing was his incredibly creepy and disturbing horror. Even as he weaves in and out of different genres, horror is a mood that permeates it all. Rotters is quintessential midwestern horror, and Kraus’s own upbringing in small-town Iowa shines through. Joey, 16, lives in Chicago with his single mom. He’s a good student and a good musician to boot. But when his mother dies in a tragic accident, Joey’s sent to rural Iowa, where he’s now living with the father he never knew. The beginning of their relationship is rocky. They’re living very separate lives, thanks in large part to Joey’s father being a strange and dodgy person. But as they come to understand one another a little more, Joey begins to join his father in a business with a long and storied history: grave robbing. All of Kraus’s horror is scary, and this is a stellar example of the kind of book you’ll read with all the lights on. You’ll never look at graveyards the same way, either. |
 Angel DownDespite being a long-time fan of Kraus and trusting him as a writer, Angel Down made me nervous. The story, written as a single sentence, is set during World War I. While this book requires a willing reader, it is not only deeply rewarding, but it’s the kind of book that begs for a second read immediately after finishing it. Private Cyril Bagger may have survived the war so far, but he and four of his comrades are given a new mission. They’re to go into No Man’s Land and euthanize a wounded colleague. What they find isn’t a soldier, though. It’s an angel who seems to have been hit by artillery fire. The soldiers each have something they want from the angel, but they’ll have to stave off their desires. The angel may, in fact, hold the key to ending the war. This is a story, to quote Kraus, about bad vs. worse. It’s a story that wrestles with massive themes of war, life, and death, as well as faith, religion, and what more exists beyond the human corporeal existence. It’s a story about storytelling, too, with the book’s single-sentence format providing readers with a clever meta-narrative. While it’s initially intimidating, once you begin reading this, you’ll find that the structure provides ample, consistent pacing. The book also offers plenty of opportunities to breathe along the way. (I’d recommend readers who like Angel Down or who want to read another book toying with the themes of Angel Down in Kraus’s catalog, check out his 2020 YA book Bent Heavens. That one does some similarly interesting things, but it centers a pair of teens who encounter an alien that one of the teens is convinced is her missing father). Out of curiosity, I reached out to Kraus to ask him what book from his oeuvre he wishes more people would discover. Here’s his bonus pick and his why: |
 Blood SugarThe answer is Blood Sugar. Always Blood Sugar. When asked which of my books is my favorite, this peculiar little book always hovers near the very top. It is the only book I’ve ever written that I could have written forever. (Well, I sort of felt that way about Partially Devoured, too.) Coming off the major efforts of The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch and The Shape of Water, Blood Sugar was a true passion project, an oddity I worked on between other things. I utterly fell in love with the voice of it, which sits somewhere between wholly disturbing and hilarious. And I’ve never written anything else even remotely humorous. It stands entirely alone in my catalog, and it’ll always be the mutant child I love most. |
So what’s next for Daniel Kraus? His career won’t be slowing down anytime soon, with several books coming down the pike. The Sixth Nik, a work of deep space sci-fi, was released in summer 2026, with Where There’s Smoke, There’s a Liar, the final entry into his middle grade series with cowriter Lisi Harrison, publishing January 2027. He’ll then be publishing his first Western, We Who Bend the Tall Grass, in 2028.