Diviners (Diviners, #1)

by Libba Bray

It's 1920s New York City. It's flappers and Follies, jazz and gin. It's after the war but before the depression. And for certain group of bright young things it's the opportunity to party like never before.

For Evie O'Neill, it's escape. She's never fit in in small town Ohio and when she causes yet another scandal, she's shipped off to stay with an uncle in the big city. But far from being exile, this is exactly what she's always wanted: the chance to show how thoroughly modern and incredibly daring she can be.

But New York City isn't about just jazz babies and follies girls. It has a darker side. Young women are being murdered across the city. And these aren't crimes of passion. They're gruesome. They're planned. They bear a strange resemblance to an obscure group of tarot cards. And the New York City police can't solve them alone.

Evie wasn't just escaping the stifling life of Ohio, she was running from the knowledge of what she could do. She has a secret. A mysterious power that could help catch the killer - if he doesn't catch her first.

• ISBN10: 1306762014
• ISBN13: 9781306762014
• Publish Date: 1 January 2012
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 19 May 2015
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
• Format: eBook
• Language: English

Reviews

[Amber]

I was very hesitant to read anything by Libba Bray after the shitfest that was Beauty Queens, which is one of the worst books I have ever read. I wasn't a fan of the weird satire, or the overwhelming amount of annoying characters. But while The Diviners had some trace of the same writing style, which is expected since it's by the same author, I ended up really enjoying it, and now I really want to read the Gemma Doyle series as well.

Full review on Books of Amber

Withholding a rating because I'm not quite sure. On one hand it was fantastically creepy, but some things were bothersome.
Full review coming soon.

[nitzan_schwarz]

To read this review and more, go to my blog Drugs Called Books

There is about one thing I can say about this book to summarizes it: it blew my mind away. Seriously, if you have not yet read it - skip looking at reviews and just read it. I doubt you'll regret it, because this book is just pos-i-tute-ly amazing, as Evie would say, and despite having some minor issues with it, I couldn't bring myself to lower the rating by even 0.00000001%. Because it was just simply that good.

BUSY, BUSY
The week of reading The Diviners just happened to be one of the busier weeks in my life. I literally had absolutely no time to read. A day I managed to squeeze in 5o pages of the book was a good day. Which is the only reason it took me so long to read this marvelous book. Otherwise I would've been done with it in three days tops.

THE PLOT
The story of The Diviners is told from multiply points of view, including the victims', the murderer's and of course our heroes, thus allowing us insights into numerous heroes and waving the world of not one, but about ten different characters. You think that'll get confusing, don't you? You'll be wrong. Mrs. Bray is a master of writing and moves from one character to another flawlessly and seamlessly without a glitch.

The pace of the story is slow - but not dull. Every part is interesting, but all your heroes don't meet at once (in fact, one set of heroes meet twice the entire book and very briefly at that) and it takes time to get to the answers. I loved every bit of it.

As for the story itself, it has everything in it, and I kid you not; from fantasy to sci-fi, to horror and historical - this book has it all.

This book also deals with a wide range of issues; rape and abuse, heinous murder, being gay, thievery, bigotry (this might not be a book set in Germany prior to WWII, but you can see the seeds of the holocaust even here. And to my great delight our heroes despise it!) and of course, the oldest issue in the book - being different. And it does it all flawlessly and seemingly without any effort.
It's really refreshing seeing some parts of the world most people rather not talk about being handles so humanly and so... beautifully, I guess.
It can almost make you hate Bray for being so darn amazing. Almost.

I suggest that if you're easily scared, do not read this book at night before bed - it might give you nightmares. This book is just so chilling, with such a creepy villain! It gave me the heebie jeebies, and sometimes I had to stop reading this book because I was actually, genuinely terrified to continue, I dreaded what's to come! (and then I had to open the book again and continue because I also had to know what will happen, if that makes any form of sense...)

Another thing amazing about this book is that it's not predictable, at all. You'll just have so many OMG! moments while reading this book, and you'll never know which direction it will go into next!
One of the most surprising bits for me were Theta's back-story, of which half I guess and half blew my mind away, and Jericho's uniqueness, which was just a WOW moment for me.
Also, Bray is not afraid to kill off supporting characters we love ~sniff sniff~ I'm so not over a certain someone's death!

Despite loving this book, some things did bother me... but not enough to make me lower the stars;
The thing that bothered me most was the sudden change between not believing in ghosts and killers-returned-from-the-dead to DO believing. It happened so abruptly, like someone just snapped their fingers and--viola! they believe.
If I were in their place I would've asked a lot more questions, demanded more answers, before believing any of it (well, with the exception of Evie who did suggest the idea in the first place) - especially when it comes from the mouth of a person that until than fiercely denied the possibility it was really the work of something not human!
This is such a big book (578 pages on my edition, some editions even more!) - you'd think at least some of it should deal with convincing them.

Also, Memphis and Evie met twice the entire thing and barely had one conversation! what's the deal with that?


THE CHARACTERS

This book may be told from various heroes, but there is definitely a main heroine, and her name is Evie O'Neill. I loved Evie; she had wicked sense of humor and sarcasm, she was human to boot, easy to relate to, kind but selfish, sassy, and just plain awesome. I think Mrs. Bray chose good to focus on Evie. She could sometimes be childish, but that just made her more amazingly real to me. I kinda wish Evie was real - I think we could be good friends :]

The one other character I will refer to in this review is Naughty John himself. Don't let the funny and childish nickname fool you - the guy's true terror himself. He is the villain in the story, a ghost returned to life who wants to unleash The Beast himself on the world and bring on Armageddon. He is sick, twisted and creepy as hell, as well as probably one of the most horrific villains I've ever read about. Lets put it like this; I would never ever ever ever (and many more evers) want to meet this guy on a dark alley. I'd rather kill myself before that.

Aside for Evie and Naughty John we had a variety of other characters; Memphis, Sam, Theta, Henry, Jericho, Mable, Will, Bill, Sister Walker and others, all whom were well built and fleshed out. As you can see, there are way too many characters to stop on each one, especially as they're all different.
But I will say that I loved them all, found them all intriguing and valuable to the story, though I was a bit surprised at the amount of characters, seeing as the summary only mentions three others aside of Evie!

THE ROMANCE
I loved the romance of The Diviners, for many reasons.

Warning; the second part of this section discusses my thought process throughout the book and therefore might contain spoilers!

First, it doesn't take stage center. This book doesn't revolve around the romantic relationships of the characters, but take a more subtle approach to the subject. That way, the romance doesn't overshadow the plot, nor is it the plot, such as in many other books. Not to say that I have any problem with books in which the relationship is the story, as I love those too, but sometimes a girl wants more. And oh, boy, more did I get...

Second, I had so much room to speculate on my own! this book both deals with a wide range of characters (as mentioned before) and doesn't spotlight the romance, so you could actually play with it quite a bit.
Like, at first I thought that because Memphis was shown right after Evie, something will happen between them (you'd be surprised, but that's often the case. It's a method for authors to subconsciously link characters that are supposed to be connected in the reader's mind).
But then Sam came into the picture and kissed the girl - and I re-considered; Memphis talked about finding "the one", and later on Theta talked about wanting someone to like her for her, and I had a "aha!" moment and figured out they'll be together.
Then there was the issue of Mabel and Jericho. I thought they'll end together, seeing as Mable had been silly over him for years, but when I inspected my copy for flaws (I actually got the book with a torn page and a few others crumpled from the bookstore, if you can believe it!) I saw Jericho's name with Evie's in a romantic context, which completely took me by surprise at that point because until then I hadn't the foggiest notion they'll get together (though later on there was definitely indicators that that will happen, and quite loud ones).
Then I had to start wondering who Mabel will get with. There was that mysterious person who saved her in the rally...
There was also the matter of Henry who seemed to be looking for... someone... but who is the mysterious Louis? (I'm not trying to lure you in - I seriously don't know. We don't find out in this book).
God, contemplating on all that while reading was just so darn fun!!

Third, the characters had great chemistry and despite hookups being fast, they were still sweet.
I had some problem with the fact Memphis and Theta met once and were head over heels in love with one another since, but they were really cute together and extremely sweet.
Sam and Evie's fights were just so fun to read about, but despite that Evie seems to be leaning toward Jericho (*gasp* please don't let there be a love triangle next book!) - the awkward and somewhat cute guy, whom she also had great chemistry with.
Henry and Theta, despite not being a romantic kind of partners were so compatible it was adorable, and all characters - romantically involved or otherwise, just fit each other so well! Banzai!

THE WRITING
I covet Mrs. Bray's writing style. I want to be able to write so beautifully, because her writing is just so phenomenal, beautiful and stunning. I hated the writing in the last book I've read, and then I came upon this. Heaven. Just saying.
On the first chapter of this incredible story Mrs. Bray describes the wind. Yes, just the wind. Only that may possibly be the most beautiful description I've ever read.

Not only that, but Bray really puts us in the time period the story is set in, rather than just tell us we're there. She uses phrases from the time, references to things that happened there and description that really make us feel the era! She's amazing. Or rather, she's the cat's meow! (LOL)

Oh, and did I mention that Bray is a writing genius and master? She can creep you out like no one else can, and in the next page make you gasp with the beauty of one of her descriptions. She makes you feel and understand your characters, their world, the scenery.

Oh, I might be in love. But just a tiiiiiiiiny bit.

THE ENDING
First, let me make a little happy dance about not having a torturous cliffhanger at the end.
Then let me cry because despite that, I'm still desperate for the next book. Dang it!
We don't leave our characters dangling off the edge of a cliff, but there are so many questions we want answered, so many things still left hidden and cloaked in shadows, so many characters we have not yet met but are obviously going to, and so many characters we have met in need of a proper introduction of one another, that you don't need it to be madly and desperately in need of the next book.
Now I sit here and weep - because we don't even have an expected publication date or a name for the next book! With my luck, I'll have to wait for 2014 for it!

IN CONCLUSION
if you haven't figured it already - I am madly in love with the book; the characters are wonderful, the plot phenomenal and unique, the writing style absolutely gorgeous.
I will HAVE to read all of Bray's books after this one, that's for sure.

[violetpeanut]

This is the perfect book to read this time of year. It's a little bit creepy, has some supernatural "stuff" in it and has a good monster. This is also one of the best pieces of historical fiction I've read in a long time. The descriptions of the 1920's were spot on - from the slang to the music to the architecture and mood of the time period, it was fantastic. There were a few places where the story dragged a little bit - that's why 4 stars instead of 5 - but all in all it was very enjoyable. I look forward to seeing where the series leads.

[rakesandrogues]

As engrossed as I was into the mystery, The Diviners by Libba Bray just isn’t a book that you can read in one sitting. At 600 whopping pages, The Diviners has a lot of heavy material in it. Bray does justice in exploring the world of 1930’s New York – it’s just a lot to handle in one book.

When it comes to reading a great book, length shouldn’t matter at all. But unfortunately, I was hit with Restless Reader Syndrome about 2/3 of the way into THE DIVINERS by Libba Bray. I was just itching for the mystery’s resolution at that point, even if I had a long way to go. I would have liked the pacing to be a little more fast-paced, but I can understand why Bray would want to take her time to develop the characters and the setting as this is the first book in a new series.

I love the way Bray effortlessly transports readers back in time during the 1930′s and New York City. The city was such a fascinating period throughout the Prohibition Era. I loved the fact that Bray did not focus on just one neighborhood. I loved the similarities and contrasts between the different neighborhoods such as Harlem, the Upper East Side, and the Theatre District in Midtown. I could easily picture 1930′s New York in my head. Bray is probably one of my favorite historical authors because of this reason.

Other than the masterful crafting of the 1930′s, the strongest point of THE DIVINERS by Libba Bray is the vast array of colorful characters. Each character was well-developed and interesting. I wanted to know more about every single one of them and it’s hard to pinpoint a favorite. I think that most of the fun was uncovering each character’s backstory and learning more as to what made them a Diviner. I enjoyed the fact that Bray included a diverse set of characters that further showcased what it was like to live as a teen in the 1930′s.

I think that part of the reason that I started to get restless was the fact that THE DIVINERS by Libba Bray started to reflect what I was learning in school. The Book of Revelation plays a big role in the murder mystery. There have been lots of interpretations of the Book of Revelation in pop culture, but I really enjoyed the way that Bray took this idea and incorporated it into a murder.

THE DIVINERS by Libba Bray is a start to a promising series, but I do hope that Bray caps off her books at around 600 pages. I don’t know if I can take any longer than that. However, THE DIVINERS by Libba Bray is still a highly enjoyable read. Crossing multiple genres, THE DIVINERS by Libba Bray has a bit of everything to please a wide audience.