Debutante

From the book blurb, I thought Debutante would be a frothy manners novel, with some social backstabbing, romance, and pretty dresses. And this is how the novel starts. Eligible young women from established families (or from rich families with social aspirations) will be presented to the queen to begin their Season of competition fashion, upscale social events and serious husband-hunting. This gives readers enough time to care about the debs, and to be lulled into security, thinking about dresses and society tabloids.

Their season ends with the beginning of World War 2, and the book changes, by degrees, into a story of how these four girls survive the war. The debs take up high-class, voluntary work at first, but as the war gets closer to home, these lighter jobs disappear. The girls’ hobbies as debs — speaking foreign languages, driving a motorcar, etc. — turn into essential skills in the war efforts.  Money and privilege can’t protect them from the horrors of war, and although the book started as a social drama, it doesn’t hold back. Death, and the death of the brothers, husbands, and boyfriends who danced with them in their deb season, is always very close.

I particularly liked how the four girls grew over the course of the novel. Their goals and priorities changed quite a lot over the years, but their underlying personalities didn’t.