Whale Talk is a 2001 novel by young adult writer Chris Crutcher. It is narrated in the first person by the quick-witted, sarcastic, and athletic "T.J." Jones, an adopted Asian-African-European-American teenager living in Cutter, Washington, a fictional location in the Pacific Northwest's Inland Empire, set about 50 miles outside of Spokane. The novel focuses on how T. J. jumbles together a shabby swim team of student underdogs in order to aggravate and shame his high school's elitist athletics program.