Joanna Quinn

A TODAY SHOW #ReadWithJenna BOOK CLUB PICK • A transporting, irresistible debut novel that takes its heroine, Cristabel Seagrave, from a theatre in the gargantuan cavity of a beached whale into undercover operations during World War II—a story of love, family, bravery, lost innocence, and self-transformation. “The Whalebone Theatre is absolute aces...Quinn’s imagination and adventuresome spirit are a pleasure to behold.” —The New York Times “Utterly heartbreaking and joyous...I just disappeared into The Whalebone Theatre and didn’t want to leave.” —Jo Baker, author of Longbourn One blustery night in 1928, a whale washes up on the shores of the English Channel. By law, it belongs to the King, but twelve-year-old orphan Cristabel Seagrave has other plans. She and the rest of the household—her sister, Flossie; her brother, Digby, long-awaited heir to Chilcombe manor; Maudie Kitcat, kitchen maid; Taras, visiting artist—build a theatre from the beast’s skeletal rib cage. Within the Whalebone Theatre, Cristabel can escape her feckless stepparents and brisk governesses, and her imagination comes to life. As Cristabel grows into a headstrong young woman, World War II rears its head. She and Digby become British secret agents on separate missions in Nazi-occupied France—a more dangerous kind of playacting, it turns out, and one that threatens to tear the family apart.

A novel

The Whalebone Theatre

Enjoyable historical fiction with a formidable main character and lots of action. 

Laura Hilliger

"Left to raise [themselves], and had done so as a resourceful child would, using the tools to hand... They were rough copies, children’s drawings; Mowglis who had taught themselves to walk upright and put on clothes."

The Whalebone Theatre was recommended to me as part of the 12 Challenge I am taking part in this year and I am super excited to branch out from the genres I have gotten myself stuck into and obsessed with recently (looking at you fantasy romance). Coming of age 20th century war novels have always been one I struggle with unfortunately, there are some I love like Atonement but most I just cannot drag myself through. This book was somewhere in the middle.

The Whalebone Theatre follows the lives of the Seagrave family, an eccentric blended well to do family on an estate called Chilcombe in Dorset. The three key characters are the Seagrave children, Cristabel, Flossie and Digby, who are mostly left to their own devices, raised predominantly by French governess' and their maid, Maudie - while their parents (who are also their uncle or step-parent as different parties die or remarry multiple times) throw lavish 1920's parties. The family pulls together their titular theatre near the beach and use the bones of a beached whale as their stage. In the second half we fast forward to when the children are in their 20s and World War II is starting and we follow them through the trials and tribulations of being a soldier, a spy and also as women.

"She realizes that, for all she resents the unfair advantages given to the opposite sex, she does not want to be a man, she only wants it not to matter that she is a woman. She wants this. This friendship, this acceptance. To be valued for what she can do, rather than told what she can’t."

The first half of this novel starts off strong, it is harebrained and unconventional and dripping in privilege but in a critical, thoughtful way. Towards the middle the story drags, and drags. I found myself thinking I should be further through the novel than I was, feeling I had reached the 50% mark and finding out I was only at 25%. The second half picks up again with the interest of special operations training, following their activities in France and back home and the different ways the war effects different people and what they sacrifice. Honestly, this book felt like two completely different books built into one, and while it was written beautifully - the prose was absolutely delectable - I couldn't help but feel just a little bit exhausted by it. I think it could've benefited from a good edit to cut it down at least 100-200 pages.

The key interesting part of this novel for me was the inspection of women's roles in the early 1900's, especially during war times. I think the female characters in this book were the real stars of the show, from Rosalind who fell into multiple unloving marriages for the sake of being able to be married, Myrtle the profound but slightly overwhelming "aunt" from the US who simply had far too much money compared to sense, to Betty and Maudie the household staff - one a traditionalist and the other a modern thinking free spirit, to Hilly and Philly who made up the Bohemian threesome traveling the world with their Russian lover, his wife and his four wild children, and lastly Crista and Flossie who both loved and worked hard for what remained of their family both in different but equally important ways.

"Either they notice I’m a woman, and they don’t want me because of that, or I have to hope they somehow don’t notice, which leaves me rather eradicated either way."

Overall, this book is a great study of England during the interwar and WWII periods, but read just a bit too much like a heavy handed history book interspersed with family drama. It would be enjoyable for someone who loves historical war fiction and in the end I did find myself connected to the story as a whole, even surprising me by bringing me to tears at points, but wish it was just a bit more refined than it was.

Genevieve 

"Left to raise [themselves], and had done so as a resourceful child would, using the tools to hand... They were rough copies, children’s drawings; Mowglis who had taught themselves to walk upright and put on clothes."

3.75 ⭐'s

The Whalebone Theatre was recommended to me as part of the 12 Challenge I am taking part in this year and I am super excited to branch out from the genres I have gotten myself stuck into and obsessed with recently (looking at you fantasy romance). Coming of age 20th century war novels have always been one I struggle with unfortunately, there are some I love like Atonement but most I just cannot drag myself through. This book was somewhere in the middle.

The Whalebone Theatre follows the lives of the Seagrave family, an eccentric blended well to do family on an estate called Chilcombe in Dorset. The three key characters are the Seagrave children, Cristabel, Flossie and Digby, who are mostly left to their own devices, raised predominantly by French governess' and their maid, Maudie - while their parents (who are also their uncle or step-parent as different parties die or remarry multiple times) throw lavish 1920's parties. The family pulls together their titular theatre near the beach and use the bones of a beached whale as their stage. In the second half we fast forward to when the children are in their 20s and World War II is starting and we follow them through the trials and tribulations of being a soldier, a spy and also as women.

"She realizes that, for all she resents the unfair advantages given to the opposite sex, she does not want to be a man, she only wants it not to matter that she is a woman. She wants this. This friendship, this acceptance. To be valued for what she can do, rather than told what she can’t."

The first half of this novel starts off strong, it is harebrained and unconventional and dripping in privilege but in a critical, thoughtful way. Towards the middle the story drags, and drags. I found myself thinking I should be further through the novel than I was, feeling I had reached the 50% mark and finding out I was only at 25%. The second half picks up again with the interest of special operations training, following their activities in France and back home and the different ways the war effects different people and what they sacrifice. Honestly, this book felt like two completely different books built into one, and while it was written beautifully - the prose was absolutely delectable - I couldn't help but feel just a little bit exhausted by it. I think it could've benefited from a good edit to cut it down at least 100-200 pages.

The key interesting part of this novel for me was the inspection of women's roles in the early 1900's, especially during war times. I think the female characters in this book were the real stars of the show, from Rosalind who fell into multiple unloving marriages for the sake of being able to be married, Myrtle the profound but slightly overwhelming "aunt" from the US who simply had far too much money compared to sense, to Betty and Maudie the household staff - one a traditionalist and the other a modern thinking free spirit, to Hilly and Philly who made up the Bohemian threesome traveling the world with their Russian lover, his wife and his four wild children, and lastly Crista and Flossie who both loved and worked hard for what remained of their family both in different but equally important ways.

"Either they notice I’m a woman, and they don’t want me because of that, or I have to hope they somehow don’t notice, which leaves me rather eradicated either way."

Overall, this book is a great study of England during the interwar and WWII periods, but read just a bit too much like a heavy handed history book interspersed with family drama. It would be enjoyable for someone who loves historical war fiction and in the end I did find myself connected to the story as a whole, even surprising me by bringing me to tears at points, but wish it was just a bit more refined than it was.

Cristabel, Flossie, and Digby are growing up in an unconventional way in the days before WWII in England. When the war comes, they will each make decisions that impact one another and their futures.

That recap sounds so familiar, but this story is anything but. I can't believe it's a debut. It's a sweeping saga that moved me and will stick with me. Definitely read this.

Cheri McElroy

Cristabel, Flossie, and Digby are growing up in an unconventional way in the days before WWII in England. When the war comes, they will each make decisions that impact one another and their futures.

That recap sounds so familiar, but this story is anything but. I can't believe it's a debut. It's a sweeping saga that moved me and will stick with me. Definitely read this.

Sarah Erle

Cristabel Seagrave has always wanted her life to be a story, but there are no girls in the books in her dusty family library. For an unwanted orphan who grows into an unmarriageable young woman, there is no place at all for her in a traditional English manor. But from the day that a whale washes up on the beach at the Chilcombe estate in Dorset, and twelve-year-old Cristabel plants her flag and claims it as her own, she is determined to do things differently. With her step-parents blithely distracted by their endless party guests, Cristabel and her siblings, Flossie and Digby, scratch together an education from the plays they read in their freezing attic, drunken conversations eavesdropped through oak-panelled doors, and the esoteric lessons of Maudie their maid. But as the children grow to adulthood and war approaches, jolting their lives on to very different tracks, it becomes clear that the roles they are expected to play are no longer those they want. As they find themselves drawn into the conflict, they must each find a way to write their own story...

The Whalebone Theatre A novel

Reviews