I love the range and depth of the story-- remarkable descriptions! The characters and choice are vivid and clear, and the prose was engaging.

The "go to" novel for readers of historical fiction this fall. It's a long narrative with detailed, whimsical descriptions of landscape and people in the tradition of Rosamund Pilcher perhaps. Settle in a comfortable chair on a rainy day and forget about the world around you.

Christabel, Flossie, and Digby, raised as but not entirely siblings, grow up on a slightly shabby estate in Dorset where they put on Shakespeare plays in a theater made of the bones of a whale which washed up on the beach in 1928. Set both between the wars and during WWII, this is their story and it's largely told by Christa and Flossie, very different young women. The children are almost feral, with the girls educated by a governess and Digby's tutor (and they live in the attic). Friends of the family-a Russian artist, his wife, his children, his mistresses, a Colonel, an American-live on the estate and figure throughout. It's all somewhat idyllic until WWII, when Digby enlists and Christa volunteers, leaving Flossie to run things at home. Both Digby and Christa find themselves in the SOE and these sections are the most gripping. This is an unusual novel- it's written very much like novels of an earlier age with major events happening in an understated way. I'll admit I almost put it aside because I was tired of the childhood theatricals and honestly couldn't visualize the whale, but I'm very glad I didn't. There are scenes that linger, scenes that are poignant and scenes that are tough, and scenes that are sweet. This takes a bit of patience but it's very much worthy your time. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. An excellent read.

This book was beautifully written, but got so caught up in being literary that it got a bit boring at times. That's really all I can think to say about it. It covered so many tropes: seeing the world as a child and a bildungsroman for all three children, surviving a war, finding your place, and the place of theater in the world. I feel as though it tried to do too much at once by trying to focus on all of these themes.

I loved the three Seagrave children—courageous Christabel, musical Flossie, and loyal Digby, who survive disinterested parents by creating imaginative plays at the Whalebone Theater. The reader gets to know them as children, and also as they each play an adult role in World War II. My one criticism is that I felt the first part of the book was too long.

“The Whalebone Theatre” was beautifully written and extraordinarily truthful about the tragic effects of childhood trauma and war, but without bad language or graphic details. It felt old-fashioned in the best sort of way, sad and lovely with moments of poignant humor and enough references to classic stories to please the bookworm inside all of us.

A rambling story of a woman with dreams confronted by the realities of life and war. I found this book difficult to stay with. There was so much detail that it was hard to get thru to the real story.

The Whalebone Theatre is sprawling story of three siblings from childhood to service in WW2. Though it wasn’t what I expected (I expected far more focus on the WW2 portion), the narrative is so well-done that I almost didn’t care. The descriptive power Quinn has is phenomenal, I really found myself transported to different times, joining the Seagrave children on their adventures. I think we can all see a portion of ourselves in each child as they learn and grow. This is the perfect story of the way childhood wonder carries us to adulthood and shapes us.

An inspiring and heart wrenching novel of love, loss and finding oneself. The main characters portray a love so pure and untainted that it gives the novel a rose colored tinge, even as it deals with setbacks, disappointment and tragedy. Reminiscent of All the Light We Cannot See, this book will fill your heart, tear it apart and lovingly put it back together.

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Knopf Doubleday for an advanced copy of this work of historical fiction.

Childhood is a time and a place that is both scary and wonderful, new but in numerous ways, but with a lot of old expectations that have to met or maintained. Being left on one's own, or even own devices sounds wonderful, making stages out of whale bones, digging in the dirt to one's content, but can also make life as one grows older harder to understand, or to manage. or quite possibly it could give a young woman all the confidence she needs to go on, as the world goes darker. The Whalebone Theatre, by Joanna Quinn, is a novel about dysfunctional family, life after wartime, and life during wartime as a First World War leads inevitably to a Second.

The book opens on holiday season at the manor of the Seagrave family, who are running abound preparing for the master of the house to return with his new bride, his second. We meet Cristabel Seagrave as she prepares to meet her new mother, who she presents with a nice pile of mud and some grass. Cristabel is a girl with her own ideas and thoughts about what is right, what is wrong, and even when wrong, is always sure that she is right. Her father is cold and distant, confusing her new stepmother who expected much more from life, until the war took all her boys she loved away, and making her world much darker. A whale washes on shore and Cristabel decides the bones will be perfect to make a stage from, where she her new darling brother and the staff of the manor can perform on. This acting helps later as both Cristabel and her brother joing the Special Operations during the Second World War, moving to France to become an agent with the resistance.

There is a lot going on and happening in this book, which for a debut reads quite smoothly and never seems to lose the narrative. Quinn has an interesting writing style, making different characters narratives subtlety different and really giving a nice feel to the story. I really can't get over that it is a debut. The characters all have a chance to not to shine, but to exist in the novel, with Cristabel being clearly the best and the one readers will have a good time with. Cristabel has a good heart, and a better imagination, and her defying the way that women were thought to have to behave is fun.

A big sprawling book that goes to places I didn't expect and much more emotional then I would have thought. A really great debut novel, that makes one wonder where Joanna Quinn will go from here. For fans of big novels, with quirky characters and situations, like Charles Pallister or even readers of I Capture the Castle.

I had great expectations on this book but after it dribbling so slowly after about a quarter of the way through, I must say that the storyline was just not exciting or engaging. While the character of Christabel, the unwanted and neglected child of the manor shows strength, gumption, and creativity, the rest of the characters are just too shallow. Following the death of her father, her step-mother marries her uncle and life at the manor house takes a bohemian turn full of endless parties while Christabel and Florence are left to their own devices in the attic with the kitchen maid. Together with her half-sister, Florence and also known as “the veg” by her own mother and her cousin, Digby, now the much-wanted Seagrave heir, Christabel finds a dead whale washed up on the shore. After claiming it as her own, they build a theater within the whale and create a sanctuary for their world of make-believe. Later this would have a profound effect on the adults that Christabel, Florence, and Digby would become and their involvement during WWII. A bit of an historical saga, or period drama, the writing is pretty choppy and indulgent. I must admit the plot was too odd in that it did not keep me engaged to really enjoy this book nor care about the characters. Sorry, just not in to this one which is a disappointment as I love historical fiction.

Many thanks to #netgalley #thewhalebonetheare #joannaquinn for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Style is really hard to follow. Failed to engage my interest in the characters due to choppy writing as well as no hook.

A stunning atmospheric story of a family during the inter war period. I loved it.
Many thanks to Knopf Doubleday Publishing and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

The Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn was not at all what I expected. And I am glad for it. It spans post-WWI through WWII, and the heroine of the story, Cristabel, is a spunky, smart, independent, adventurous girl/ young woman who drives the story from beginning to end. Set in a luscious backdrop of the sweeping and isolated English estate, Chilcombe Manor, The Whalebone Theatre chronicles Cristabel’s chaotic, tragic family from the arrival of an unwanted stepmother to the addition of a half-sister affectionately (yet somewhat cruelly) nicknamed the Veg to the very welcome of a step-brother (Digby), and the broken and wild coming-of-age for all the Chilcombe children. The novel opens with the discovery of a beached whale; claimed by Cristabel, it becomes the literal backdrop of all the children’s wild adventures. And gives Cristabel the chance to make her stamp on the world around her. As WWII explodes, the children go their separate ways to serve their king and country- the Veg becomes a land girl, Digby is taken away on a special mission, and Cristabel becomes an undercover agent. Her skills honed at Chilcombe in acting and surviving prove her to be a perfect addition to the King’s service. The Whalebone Theatre is heartbreaking at times, and yet it is humorous and full of life. It will definitely pull you in, and leave a lasting impression. Quinn has crafted a tale that checks the boxes: strong female characters; relationships that grow and change throughout the book; a mix of history, humor, and romance. I can’t give this a full 5/5 because I was a bit disappointed in the way the adults are presented at the beginning only to fade away in the end. I understand this is Cristabel’s story, but it seemed like a wasted opportunity to not explore those relationships all the way through. Still, I highly recommend! Thank you to @NetGalley for the eArc.

I loved this book so much - it was the best book I read this month for sure. The 3 main sibling characters were so vividly drawn, and their relationship made me laugh and tear up. I loved all the details of the amateur theatricals they put on, and while I preferred that to the war narrative at the end, I do feel that it was tastefully done and genuinely moving at times. Highly recommended.

The Whalebone Theatre
by Joanna Quinn
Pub Date: October 4, 2022
Knopf
576 p.
Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the ARC of this book. I am surprised it is a debut. Beautifully written. Highly recommended. Perfect for book clubs. Historical fiction fans of All the Light We Cannot See, The Night Circus and Crooked Heart will devour The Whalebone Theatre.
4 stars

In The Whalebone Theatre author Joanna Quinns delivers a magical read starring a phenomenal main character, Cristabel.. It's 1928 when orphan Cristabel finds a huge beached whale on the shore of the British seaside town where she lives a difficult life with her irresponsible stepparents. An opportunity for a much needed imaginary escape presents itself in the form of the whale's rib cage, in which Cristabel and her coterie of allies build a theatre. Time passes and wartime presents new challenges for which her playacting youth have uniquely prepared her. Cristabel is a delight; her self-transforming journey to discover her own agency is riveting. Highly recommended. Perfect for book clubs. Historical fiction fans of All the Light We Cannot See, The Night Circus and Crooked Heart will devour The Whalebone Theatre..

A delightful novel set during World War II in the South of England.

We follow the lives of Christabel Seagrave, her sister Flossie and brother/cousin Digby as they grow up in an old family estate in Dorset. Christabel is orphaned at a young age, but makes her own way as an independent and headstrong young woman.


When a whale washes up on the beach near the house, she eventually manages to get the whalebones installed near a cottage on the estate, set up as a small stage on which she can direct plays. Over the pre-war years, she and her siblings, the maids and cook and various older family members, produce plays attended by friends and family and dignitaries from as far a way as London.

Eventually she and her brother end up on the Special Operations Executive forces who are sent to France to assist the resistance.

This was a wonderful book - with excellent characters and settings. I was routing for Christabel from the beginning. She struggled with the confines of being a woman in war time - what she was and wasn't allowed to do, and what was expected of her.

It was at times entertaining, enlightening, heartbreaking and touching. I was sorry to get to the end.

Shocked this is a debut. It was so beautiful! I felt it was a little long and slow to start but I really enjoyed. I loved that even the characters with minimal
Influence felt larger than life.

This book took me on an unexpected but enjoyable journey. When the book opens with a motherless child wandering around a country estate, I would never have predicted the twists and turns it would take along the way. The theatre itself, the estate, the attitude of living through the 1920s and later into the 1940s was an interesting look at society through the lens of both the landowners and the people who work for them.

It's definitely an "upstairs, downstairs' story because we hear about everyone who populates the house. Their stories are rich, varied and very quirky. This is a novel that will be enjoyed by both Anglophiles and readers of historical fiction.