Book Review: The Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn

In parts, this felt like two stories joined together. There is the story of three semi-feral children, related to each other in complicated ways, growing up in a crumbling English estate in the last days when such places existed. Then there is the story of those three children during the Second World War, which is really a story about the various roles people – and especially women – filled in that time, both at home and at the front. The characters carry through but the two parts have quite a different feel.

Cristabal is still quite young when her widowed father brings home a new wife. Rosalind is not at all maternal and Cristabel, who has been left mostly to her own devices since her mother died when she was an infant, is already the wild and creative girl she will grow into. She desperately wants a younger sister instead, Flossie. Digby, the heir to the Seagrave name comes later, under somewhat more complicated circumstances.

All three, not quite siblings, grow up together at Chilcombe, largely unsupervised. Their home is a rotating door of artists and lackadaisical grown-ups. When a dead whale is found on the shore nearby, Cristabel claims it as her own and, eventually, uses the bones of the whale to create her own theatre. Putting on plays brings their strange community together in a new way and offers Cristabel more control than she’s ever had before, even if she doesn’t get all the credit.

Jump forward a few years and World War Two has begun. Cristabel, Flossie, and Digby are young adults, still struggling to find their place amidst a society that is coming to an end and a world that is going through enormous upheaval. The first part of the story focuses largely on Cristabel as the oldest and most creatively driven child. The second part moves between the three and Quinn does an excellent job of creating their distinct characters and experiences. We see Flossie left behind at home, developing into an independent and thoughtful young woman while Crista and Digby have more obvious adventures. And yet even in a similar field, Cristabel and Digby’s experiences and opportunities vary vastly, largely because Digby is a man.

While a little uneven in parts, this was a well-written and enjoyable novel and, I think, will appeal to fans of Kate Atkinson and Kate Quinn.