You've Got Five Pages, The Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn, to Tell Me You're Good.

The first chapter can make or break a reader's engagement with a story. We as writers must craft brilliant opening pages in order to hook those picky readers, so let's study the stories of others to see how they do it! We return to historical drama in Joanna Quinn's The Whalebone Theatre, and know what? I don't mind. The story is geared to follow Cristabel Seagrave from toddlerhood to adulthood spying on Nazis in France, so our first impression of the protagonist is her impish, defiant nature. Oh, this kid is great fun, and I wouldn't mind following the toddler Cristabel around for a whole novel. Quinn does marvelous work as a writer in keeping the prose vivid and active, while also throwing in the occasional childish term like "nothingy." It's a lovely balance for adult readers who may not appreciate the quirky language of a child, while also sounding true as a voice for a young character. We watch Cristabel meet her stepmother for the first time, and this occasion clearly marks a strained relationship for the future--any stepmother who refers to a child as "it" is not all that keen on children, to be sure! So while we didn't see the whalebones just yet, I enjoyed seeing much of Cristabel's personality and imagination shine through so much in this opening scene. Those are the character traits an author wants to establish early so that the protagonist's later choices not only propel the story forward, but also ring true to the character we're happy to know. And what will you learn from these opening pages? Let's find out! Cheers!