The Diviners (Diviners, #1)

by Libba Bray

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

Some things I like when I read books:

- 1920s setting
- a ghostly, witchy feel
- people who are not what they seem
- multiple POVs
- a solid good vs. evil plot with lots of delicious twists.

And, that’s pretty much what I got from The Diviners! I already knew I enjoy Libba Bray’s writing after sparkling reviews for both A Great and Terrible Beauty and Beauty Queens. I expected to enjoy The Diviners, but that doesn’t make me any less impressed by the way she manages to build so many intriguing, different worlds that still hold true to her voice and make me fall for the characters. Especially secondary characters.

For example, in The Diviners, I loved Theta Knight. All the characters were good and I feel like at some point Mabel is going to turn into a villain because that would be a delicious twist… but Theta really brought it home for me. She was such a powerful character, but played just perfectly so she never outshone Evie, the main protagonist. Not a single character here was boring, so if you’re a character reader, expect to become invested.

I rarely discuss audiobook narrators unless they are really good or really bad, so I just wanted to point out that January LaVoy was a great choice to read this book. She captured the menagerie of voices effortlessly and it was a joy to listen to her. Also, I’ve had that “Naughty John, Naughty John, does his work with his apron on” ditty stuck in my head for days, so she must be doing something right in bringing this world to life.

In general, I didn’t feel the plot left much room for surprise. And this isn’t a complaint about the book or the plot, because I still enjoyed it, but we knew the villain before we knew the protagonists, and that never changed, not really. We added accomplices and methods and a little more depth, but I kept waiting for a surprise that didn’t come. And believe me, I was ready to hear that William was actually in on it because he seemed like just the type to be secretly nefarious.

As a rule, I enjoyed listening to this book. I liked it better than A Great and Terrible Beauty, but not as much as Beauty Queens. The pacing really dragged at the end, where the villain had been vanquished but things just kept going. The wrap up took a little longer than I would have liked, and I actually checked to make sure I wasn’t listening to a preview of book two. But other than that bit and the poor cat that was sacrificed for his intestines (I HAVE FEELINGS) this was a generally good book.

Judging by the Goodreads reviews, this series just keeps getting better, so I’m looking forward to reading Lair of Dreams.