Title: THE DIVINERS
Author: Libba Bray
Series: four sequels (or perhaps companion volumes?) will follow
Publisher: Little, Brown Books For Young Readers
Publication Date: September 2012
Pages: 592
Status: keeper

LibraryThing Info

The Diviners for purchase at The Book Depository

The Diviners for purchase at Kobo


Free preview of The Diviners at Kobo


Review copy received at Book Expo America.

I have an odd relationship with Libba Bray’s books. We’ve spoken before of my love for GOING BOVINE, but my feelings for the Gemma Doyle books are less positive¹.

THE DIVINERS, I decided, would serve as a tie-breaker (assuming a tie exists when you've loved one book and disliked three). It wouldn’t affect how I felt about the Gemma Doyle series, but perhaps it could help me decide whether I wanted to read BEAUTY QUEENS and Bray’s future releases.

And y’know what? I’m gonna read the fuck out of everything Bray publishes from hereon out.

Hell, if the rest of the Diviners books were already available, I’d be smack-dab in the middle of a feels-ridden binge of historical awesomeness.

Part of the reason I pushed that pesky 3:1 negative ratio to the side and nabbed a copy of THE DIVINERS off that large, enticing pile at BEA is that it’s about ghosts. In the 1920s. In New Frickin’ York².

Evie’s a total rabble-rouser, thanks in part to her ability to read a person’s past from the objects they’ve handled and her inability to keep quiet about what she’s learned, so her parents ship her off to New York City to live with her Uncle Will. (Because life in New York is somehow a punishment?) Evie’s thrilled with the arrangement; she and her best NYC friend, Mabel, will party all the live-long day at Manhattan’s many cinemas, theatres, and speakeasies. And hey, if Will’s consulting work with the NYPD gives her a chance to help with a murder investigation or two (and, by extension, get her name in the papers), so much the better. These murders aren’t the work of an ordinary killer, though. Before long, Evie is enmeshed in a supernatural web stretching back fifty years--as are a surprising number of her new friends.

And it is frickin’ awesome.

Really, y’all, there were times when I felt like Libba Bray wrote THE DIVINERS just for me. Here’s a non-exhaustive list of topics that come up at one point or another:

• ghosts


• dreams


• dark forces that threaten to engulf the world


• girls with guts


• the theatre


• the impact of history


• creepy-ass cults


• houses that think for themselves


• the fast-paced life of a 1920s flapper


• strong friendships


• cyborgs


• pickpockets


• seriously dark shit

Remember: this list is non-exhaustive. There's tons more in THE DIVINERS. Tons more.

It seems like I lot, I know--perhaps even too much--but Bray brings it all together with verve and flair. The results are thick and glorious and immersive; the sort of thing I, at least, can wallow in for hours with nary a care. It wasn’t long before the inside of my head was a great big mass of OMG THE DIVINERS OMG MUST READ MORE OH GOD OH GOD THE DIVINERS OMG.

I knew in my bones that I loved it, but I still felt like there was something... not missing, exactly, but not as present as I might have liked. As dearly as I loved the setting and the trappings and the wealth of glorious detail, I wasn’t sure I felt much for the characters. I liked them, yes, but could I truly say I cared about them? I didn’t know.

Then Bray placed one of them in mortal danger, and there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that I would suffer and suffer and suffer if they were to die. And when the smoke cleared, I felt exactly the same about every other character.

That clinched that.

I can’t wait for the sequel. Bray’s website doesn’t give a release date, but her FAQ do state that THE DIVINERS is the start of a four-book series. Bring it on.

4.5 stars – loved the hell out of it

Other Reviews:

There are lots, so I'll direct you to the Book Blogs Search Engine.





Back In the Day:

• One Year Ago: The Sunday Salon: A General Update


• Two Years Ago: A Library Loot Vlog


• Two Years Ago: Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon


• Three Years Ago: The Angel of Darkness by Caleb Carr

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1. I’ve deliberately avoided sharing my in-depth reaction to the Gemma Doyle books on the internet because there’s enough negativity in the world and Libba Bray seems like a lovely person besides. Only, right after I picked up THE DIVINERS at BEA, I ran into a blogging friend with whom I compared the books we’d selected so far, and the subject came up. I thought I was safe because, hey, I was airing these views in public! Nothing was written down!
   
   About an hour later, I remembered that I was at frickin’ Book Expo America, where Libba Bray or one of her dear friends might very well be lurking in the crowd, listening to my every word. Then I felt super-duper bad.


2. Reminder: when I like things, I swear at them. A lot. I had to remove a fair few profanities from this post, lest I overwhelm those of you who regard such things in a different light. I’ve also changed most of the non-omittable fucks to fricks, except in cases where nothing else would do.