The Whalebone Theatre
A Read with Jenna Pick
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4.2 • 198 Ratings
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • A TODAY SHOW #ReadWithJenna BOOK CLUB PICK • A transporting, irresistible debut novel that takes its heroine, Cristabel Seagrave, from a theatre made of whalebones to covert operations during World War II—a story of love, family, bravery, lost innocence, and self-transformation.
“Absolute aces...Quinn’s imagination and adventuresome spirit are a pleasure to behold.” —The New York Times
“Utterly heartbreaking and joyous.” —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.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Joanna Quinn’s endearing debut novel made us contemplate the many identities a person can inhabit during their lifetime. Cristabel Seagrave is being raised by two uncaring stepparents in 1920s England, but she determinedly finds adventure with her stepbrother, Digby. The two preteens turn the bones of a beached whale near the family’s Dorset estate into a theater where they mount their own plays. We were utterly charmed by Cristabel’s off-kilter childhood and pleasantly surprised when the story does a 180, time jumping to follow Cristabel and Digby’s thrilling exploits as spies in occupied France during World War II. Quinn unfolds this complex story brilliantly, using letters and diary entries to show us how these vivid, unforgettable characters grow and change over time. We were dazzled by The Whalebone Theatre.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The emotional upheaval of the interwar years in England is dramatized afresh in Quinn's dazzling and imaginative debut. Cristabel Seagrave's mother dies in childbirth, and Cristabel's father, Jasper, who remarries when she is three, dies soon after. This leaves Cristabel to be raised by her disinterested stepmother, Rosalind, who then marries Cristabel's aviation-obsessed uncle Willoughby, Jasper's brother. In 1928, when Cristabel is 12, she discovers a dead whale washed up on the beach adjoining the decaying Seagrave estate. She turns the whale's rib cage into the proscenium for a theatre, where she ambitiously stages The Iliad and The Tempest with the help of her half sister Flossie, cousin Digby, loyal kitchen maid Maudie Kitkat, and Taras Kovalsky, a Russian artist. Fourteen years later, Cristabel and Digby's experiences at playacting will come in handy when they are both parachuted into France on separate espionage missions to help the Resistance during WWII. But will they survive to see the renaissance of the Whalebone Theatre? Thorny, idiosyncratic Cristabel is a formidable first among equals in this expansive cast of memorable eccentrics. Peacetime whimsy gracefully segues into scenes of unbearable tension and heart-wrenching suspense as Cristabel boldly infiltrates Paris on the eve of its liberation. Combining elements of I Capture the Castle, Brideshead Revisited, and Charlotte Gray, this is a reading experience to be long cherished.
Customer Reviews
Great but parts dreadful
Beautiful writing but uneven. Parts exquisite in language but painfully slow in developing the story in the first part of the book. I found myself riveted by some descriptions, then quickly page turning to get back to the story.
DNF
DNF. I had such high hopes for this book. It’s all over reading lists, it’s recommended at the library, and it seems like a great story. The problem? The pacing is terribly slow and the plot is nearly nonexistent. I wish I was able to read a 550 page book with almost no discernible storyline or action, but I am not. I got a little over halfway through, so I’m counting it, if only as a reward for the emotional labor I put myself through every night for a week trying to find something to like about it. I think it could be great if it was more thoughtfully edited. PS: does anyone else feel guilty stopping a book halfway through?
Excellent writing
Kept my interest from beginning to the end.