Review: The Diviners

Title: The Diviners
Author: Libba Bray
Series: The Diviners #1
Published: 2012 by Little, Brown Books
Version: Hardcover
Obtained: Library

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, Ziegfield 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 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 hides a shocking secret. And unknown to all, something dark and evil has awakened. . .

First Sentence:
“In a town house at a fashionable address on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, every lamp blazes.”

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Oh. My. Gosh.

Guys, this book is incredible. Now, the last Libba Bray book I read was Beauty Queens, which I didn’t like at all (My review). So I was really hoping that with this one, she could revert the genius that created The Gemma Doyle Trilogy. And she did.

In this gigantic, amazing book (over 500 pages), we read the stories of multiple characters. Evie has been “banished” to New York City to live with her uncle, and she couldn’t be happier. She’s reunited with her best friend, Mabel. They meet a girl named Theta who is a glamorous chorus girl. Mabel has a crush on Jericho, Uncle Will’s assistant, who is trying to hide his biggest secret. There is also a young man named Sam, who is trying to find something very important. Memphis is another young man who wants to write poetry, but has to support his brother. All these young people are trying to navigate the glitter and glam of the twenties lifestyle. The narrative mostly focuses on Evie and her discovery of the full power of her supernatural talent.

Evie and her uncle Will try to help the police figure out who is murdering people and leaving them in strange positions with occult symbols on the bodies. As she helps him with the research, she realizes that her gift could be the best tool for finding the elusive killer.

This book was like a horror movie. But obviously better. Every time someone got killed, you saw it happen and it was the creepiest thing ever. Seriously. And the ending…holy crap. It was a complete rush. I love it! The entire concept behind it, with all the occult mutterings and strange symbols added a whole other level of creepiness to the mystery.

All the background information that was put into this book is mind-blowing. Libba Bray created so many amazing details, I almost forgot that a good bit of them were fictional. I haven’t read many books which take place in the Twenties, but let me just say that Libba COMMITED to the time period. The slang and the culture in general were perfect. The slang was so twenties that sometimes I wasn’t really sure what they were saying (But I loved it).  And all of these “Diviners” are shaping up to be really interesting in the next books.

Speaking of future books, I can’t wait to see what happens in this series. All of the characters have so much to tell each other and so much to figure out. I need to learn more about the young man introduced at the end. As for all the romantic relationships…..I definitely hope some different things happen in the second one.

Libba Bray has come back with a wonderful beginning to a promising series! The Diviners will be incredible, and I cannot wait until the others come out.

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Content Warning:
Some language and kissing. General creepiness. Typical Libba Bray attempts to step on toes. :)

Rating: