Title: The Diviners (The Diviners #1)
Author: Libba Bray
Release Date: September 18th 2012
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Pages: 578 (paperback, international / first edition)
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 her uncle will 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 unfold 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 is hiding a shocking secret. And unknown to all, something dark and evil has awakened...
November 1 is just around the corner and, just last week, I was sad that I won't be able to read anything scary in time for it, but now I'm sad because I read the perfect Halloween book weeks away from it!
The Diviners starts with Libba Bray introducing us to Evie, an outspoken party girl from a ridiculously conservative town, who gets sent to New York after another episode of thoughtless fun. She - oh, just read the blurb above; it does its job quite well, really (especially because I copied it straight from the back of the book and into Goodreads! Guess who the new librarian is, hehe).
One of the things that I loved most about this book is how Bray's writing transported me to New York in the 1920s and introduced me to a plethora of living, breathing characters - all of whom were equally interesting and mysterious. I thought I had them all figured out - particularly Evie! - and then surprises smacked me right on the face, one after another. A few other Diviners weren't focused so much on in here, so I guess we'll meet them again next time. And here I thought they'd be like some paranormal version of X-Men, oh well.
I also loved how it tackled a wide range of issues in the family, religion, and society, even racism and abortion - both of which are wrong, no matter how I look at them.
The ending reminded me of the quiet before a storm. Bray wrote an exhilarating start for a series, packed with action, wit, and humor, brimming with mystery and suspense that had me guessing and shocked right until the end, and with just the right amount of romance (I'm Team Jericho, by the way *avoids the tomatoes*). It kept me on the edge of my seat - and my bed, and my school's corridor, because I brought it everywhere I went - and spooked me out a number of times because I actually believe in these paranormal stuff, and this book is another reminder of why I'd never play with a Ouija board even if my eyes were about to pop out of boredom. I pos-i-tute-ly can't wait for the next one!
MY FAVORITE PARTS were the revelations, and there were so much of those!
RATING: 5/5
(photo and summary from Goodreads.com)
Great review! I've been putting off reading The Diviners because of the length, but after all the rave reviews I think I have to bite the bullet and read it!
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