Author: Libba Bray
Series: The Diviners #1
Genres: Historical Fiction, Mystery, Paranormal
Publication/Year: Little Brown Books for Young Readers • 2013
Page Numbers: 583
Format: eBook
Synopsis from Goodreads:
Do you believe there are ghosts and demons and Diviners among us?
Evie O'Neill has been exiled from her boring old hometown and shipped off to the bustling streets of New York City--and she is pos-i-tute-ly ecstatic. It's 1926, and New York is filled with speakeasies, Ziegfeld girls, and rakish pickpockets. The only catch is that she has to live with her uncle Will and his unhealthy obsession with the occult.
Evie worries he'll discover her darkest secret: a supernatural power that has only brought her trouble so far. But when the police find a murdered girl branded with a cryptic symbol and Will is called to the scene, Evie realizes her gift could help catch a serial killer.
As Evie jumps headlong into a dance with a murderer, other stories unfurled in the city that never sleeps. A young man named Memphis is caught between two worlds. A chorus girl named Theta is running from her past. A student named Jericho hides a shocking secret. And unknown to all, something dark and evil has awakened....
Printz Award-winning and New York Times bestselling author Libba Bray opens a brand-new historical series with The Diviners, where the glittering surface of the Roaring Twenties hides a mystical horror creeping across the country.My Rating: ★★★★★
Quote(s) I Like:
"The city ran on corruption as much as on electricity." - Memphis
"She wears her grief like a coat of feathers too heavy for flight." - Memphis
"People tend to think that hate is the most dangerous emotion. But love is equally dangerous." - Will
My Thoughts:
For my first Libba Bray and a book written in the 1920's I can't use impressed as the word. This was a mind blowing book that both excited and scared me simultaneously.
The writing style was perfect. The dialogues hilarious. The characters out of this world. I just can't fully express how amazing this book was for me. The multiple point of views was done so perfectly and never left me confused. Each character had their own tone and personality that wasn't too complicated to distinguish from the next.
The beginning of the story definitely creeps me out because we are introduced to Naughty John. He was released from the spirit realm as a bunch of teenagers forgot to close the window after playing with a ouija board. The story picks up when Evie is sent to live with her Uncle Will as punishment because she used her gift (which no one knows about) and everyone thought it was a mean trick. She sees her punishment as an opportunity to party and enjoy her summer. Little does she know work will lie ahead of her.
As she arrives in New York she falls in the mix of a case her Uncle has been asked to be apart of. In being such a bold and spunky girl she joins the case and learns about The Diviners.
The Diviners include Evie, Sam, Memphis, Isaiah and few other secondary characters. Sadly only Evie knows she is one of them. The Diviners have special powers and gifts to fight off evil.
In this, Naughty John is the villain. He comes back from the dead to finish a ritual in with he becomes the Beast and brings about Hell on Earth. Unfortunately he is stopped by Evie, but unknowingly Evie unleashes something much darker.
I can't fully review this the way I would like to because I would spoil it for so many people.
Just know, The Diviners is an AWESOME summer read. I definitely advise everyone to read it. I cannot wait to read the Liar of Dreams next to see what happens for Evie and the other Diviners.
Have you read this book?