OH GOD OH MAN OH GOD OH MAN.

So yeah, basically this book left me like this:



I've been a die-hard Libba Bray fan ever since the fabulous Gemma Doyle books. I also loved the insane, bizarre adventure of Going Bovine. And Beauty Queens was hilarious––although I thought it was a bit lacking in the usual strong storytelling element that Bray's other books have. However, that element is back again in The Diviners.

I just about died of happiness when I first heard of this book. I adore Libba Bray, and I More...

I don’t know how else to describe The Diviners except to say it’s pretty clear when reading this that Libba Bray set out to write a quintessentially American novel, and - good and bad - she’s succeeded. She may insist no historians were harmed in the writing of her book, but I just don’t see how she’s mastered such command of American history, not just through the facts, but through the way she captures the American experience, that she didn’t torture it out of someone. But just like America, th More...

"Ms. Bray, I have an idea for your next book."
"Yes?"
"Well, the researcher who worked on The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York left some notes lying in the library, and someone I know swiped 'em."
"Perfect! What should we make it about?"
"Hmm, not sure. Let's come back to it."
"Okay. Target audience?"
"Well, you have some cred in Young Adult, and the field is on fire. If we make it about a 17 year-old and her friends, we can draw in the pre-teens and More...

While The Diviners isn’t my first book by Libba Bray, it certainly is the one that impressed me the most. Bray has a distinct talent for vivid storytelling and that much is true in her wonderful portrayal of the bustling, fast-progressing nature of life in New York during the roaring twenties. The flappers, the radio mania, the clubs, the alcohol – it was all beautifully and subtly integrated into the book, creating an easily felt atmosphere. I’m not a linguistic expert, but the twenties-esque w More...

"Naughty John, Naughty John, does his work with his apron on. Cuts your throat and takes your bones, sells 'em off for a coupla stones."

Actual Rating: 4.5 stars

My initial rating given to The Diviners was a full, glowing five stars, five stars being the knee-jerk rating I give to books I love. However, sometimes, when writing a review for the books I give five stars (or really any other rating), I realize that there were some certain things in the book I'm reviewing that would result in me takin More...

The Diviners is my first book by Libba Bray, but I can tell you right now that it won’t be my last. I’m thrilled to have discovered another YA author of such talent and prominence. I would have given her a chance even before now, especially considering all the raving reviews written by my most trusted friends, but I simply never got around to it. Fortunately, she left me no choice with The Diviners. New York in the 1920s was impossible to resist.

I’ll start with my favorite part – the setting. L More...

The Diviners is, without a doubt, my favorite Libba Bray novel - and I've read all of them except for The Beauty Queens which I didn't get time to finish but which I fully intend to as I loved the few chapters I read of it. I am, truly, a self-proclaimed Libba Bray fan. I know her Gemma Doyle Trilogy had its flaws, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and I remember it changed my perspective of literature at that time quite drastically. The Diviners on the other hand, contains no flaws. Well, to be hones More...

I really didn’t know what to expect with this story going in, but I was pleasantly surprised with how much I liked it.

There are many storylines interwoven in this book, but the main character and heroine is seventeen-year old Evie O’Neill. Evie lives life to the full, something her parents do not appreciate. She stays out late drinking and partying with her friends which is highly frowned upon. Especially because this is during prohibition! She has a carefree attitude, always laughing and sayin More...

Reading that blurb up above doesn't make this book sound as serious and involved as it really is. It makes it sound like a fun read filled with glitz, glamour, and a little bit of mystery. And it is ALL of those things. But it is also so much more. There's a serial killer, a very bizarre cult-like religion, and a very in-depth plot. There is much more meat to this book than you would think.

Clearly it's a big book. There's a lot of heft to this one when you hold it in your hands. There are a lot More...

This book irritated the crap out of me.

I gave it 3 stars, but it hovers around the 2.5 mark for me. While I enjoyed the story and it held my interest throughout, the cutesy vernacular made me insane and ruined it for me.

This book is set in the 1920’s when prohibition was in full swing and you couldn’t swing a cat without hitting a bobbed haired flapper girl. Evie (said flapper) was sent away from her fake Ohio town of Zenith to New York City, after a party game showing off her divining power a More...

Originally Reviewed on The Book Smugglers

REVIEW

Ana's Take:

New York City in the roaring twenties is the setting for The Diviners. In it, an extremely diverse cast of characters experience life in NY with its modernity, its speakeasies, its movies palaces and the theatre. They also grapple with the mysterious and the uncanny: quite a few of them have unnatural senses or gifts that stretch the imagination.

Evie O’Neill is the book’s main character, if you will. She’s been exiled from her hometown More...

Libba Bray, I adore you (in a completely platonic way, of course). I remember seeing the description for this book about six months back and thinking, "Libba Bray? The 1920s?! Supernatural elements?!?! Oh my God, I'm buying it." Flash forward to September and my expectations were met and exceeded. I mean, this book was FANTASTIC. Like, instantly-adding-it-to-my-favourites fantastic. I-can't-really-make-coherent-sentences-right-now fantastic. Just. FANTASTIC!

First off, let me say that I really ap More...

Number one pet peeve on Goodreads: People rating it before they've read it. I love Libba Bray and just to offset the threes it's been given I'm giving it a five! When it comes out I'll change it.

After reading: not so good. I understand the 3s now!

Phew. Finishing this book feels like an achievement. At a whooping 600 pages, The Diviners is a an exercise in arm strength to simply read it, but it's absolutely worth it. Work those arms people! Historical novels not being my thing, I was a bit concerned that I was getting into a monster of a book that would bore me to death. I had nothing to worry about, however, when only with a few mere pages, Libba had created an intensely creepy and atmospheric setting that promised to disturb, to captiva More...

I started this book all sorts of giddy at the roaring '20s setting. The landscape, the clothing, the language, Bray obviously did a ton of research for this and I was sure I would love it. But then a comment would pop up here, an idea, a character, an argument, so that by the end the characters didn't feel authentic to the time period anymore. For as much as Bray hounded in the setting in the beginning, she hounded in modern characters and ideals that didn't fit the setting that it eventually ov More...

The Story:
The year is 1926. It’s the height of prohibition, the Roaring Twenties are in full swing, and the streets of New York shine with the electric light of promise.

It’s here, sent from her home in Ohio, in a dusty, largely ignored museum we find Evie O’Neill. And she couldn’t be happier. Evie’s a gal with a rather singular talent. One touch of an object and she can see its owner’s past, their secrets. Turns out Evie fits right into New York, and her Uncle Will's ‘Museum of Creepy Crawlies,’ More...

See more reviews at YA Midnight Reads
The very fat and heavy book strikes with a whomping 600 pages of awesomeness. The Diviners was definitely something I don't usually read. Dark, deep and pos-i-tute-ly twisted historical fiction that kept me shivering and content.

I found it extremely hard to review The Diviners, you'd probably expect a long review for a long book but after a reading/reviewing slump, I just guess that is not the case. Short review ahead!

I admit, this book was horribly hard to More...

No offense Libba, but that is one ugly cover so far :P

ALSO HAVE YOU GUYS SEEN THE TRAILER? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBenU9... Freaking FANTASTIC.

Update: Read the first 11 chapters of this through a preview on my kobo.

....

Fangirling.

My god Libba you write the creepiest shit. I love you.

Update:

I GOT A COPY OMGWOO!

Review

It took me a long time to figure out how I felt about Libba's newest and reemergence into the foray of supernatural-creepy-crawlie-funtimes. Aka The Diviniers. It's been five More...

You can find this review and others on my blog: http://lalovelystories.wordpress.com/

I loved this book so much!


After reading The Diviners I had only one thought: I need the next book. Now. The Diviners is a story full of creepiness, awesome characters, and beautiful writing. This book enraptured me immediately. I am certain that The Diviners is a book that will keep you reading until the last word.

Evie O'Neill is a very unique character. She craves attention and will do almost anything to be in More...

Goodness. That was one long book. One long, sparkly (yes, sparkly) and frightening book.

I wasn't sure what I was getting myself into when I decided to buy this book. Historical fiction and I just don't get along. Often times it's glaringly biased and it tends to forget that people of color existed. I was pos-i-toot-ly shocked when the Chinese Exclusion Act was mentioned and that there was a black main character.

I thought this book was just going to be about flappers discovering magic and having More...

Let's begin because there's a lot to cover here, folks. The Diviners is another supernatural period piece by Libba Bray. This time her story is set in the Roaring Twenties; smack dab in the middle of a social, cultural and economic transformation for the city that never sleeps. The narrative follows multiple plots that weave together a tapestry of mystery, magic, murder, and religion. This book is beastly in its size, but it is unabashedly readable. Bottom line: this is another Bray success.

Let' More...

Two stars is a shockingly low rating, I know. Sorry bout it.


Here is a list I've composed, honestly expressing why I didn't enjoy this book. I'm guessing not all of my complaints will seem significant to you, so bear that in mind.

1. Right off the bat I have to admit that the biggest negative factor for me is the character of Naughty John. He was effectively creepy, scary, and haunting to read about, so I'm sure many of you will find him to be a positive factor-- but for me Ms. Bray crossed some More...

I'm sorry to say how disappointed I am in this book. I've read Libba Bray before and her books are filled with snappy dialogue, interesting characters and bits that make you laugh out loud and others that will bring on tears. None of that is true here. I would think this was not even the same author.
All of the twenties slang was too heavy. Yes, I get it. It's the twenties and boop-boop-de-boop or whatver, but enough with it already. And as I was nearing the end of the book, I had the realization More...

“Oh, Evie, you’re too much,” people said, and it wasn’t complimentary. Yes, she was too much. She felt like too much inside all the time. So why wasn’t she ever enough?

E' da tantissimo tempo che non leggevo un libro ben scritto come The Diviners. La prosa è infatti senz'ombra di dubbio il punto di forza di questo romanzo: incredibilmente evocativa, si ha davvero la sensazione di camminare per le strade di quella New York degli anni venti. Si tratta di una lettura lenta e anche abbastanza impegna More...

3 stelle 1/2 in realtà
La stella nera di New York è stata una lettura che mi ha subito incuriosita,
la bellissima cover,la trama accattivante e gli sfavillanti anni 20 periodo storico controverso e intrinso di proibizionismo!
Un mix perfetto e molto promettente....ed inoltre avevo sentito parlare un gran bene della Bray per il suo unico e affascinante modo di scrivere.
Sin dai primi capitoli la Bray,con la sua descrizione vivida e accurata immerge completamente negli anni venti,
Manhattan la città c More...

Eerie and cryptic are the first words that come to my mind, if someone asked me to describe The Diviners. It’s peculiar how The Diviners left me with fragmented feelings; on the one hand it was the enigmatic, dark and you were left with the sense of foreboding, with a killer on the loose in New York no-one is really safe, but despite this dangerous and haunting vibe throughout The Diviners was a book brought to life by its vivid, energetic and bright characters.

Evie just doesn’t know when to sto More...

This sounds like the Libba Bray I know and love.

4.5/5

Veramente un bel romanzo; l'ambientazione nell'America degli anni '20 è decisamente ben resa, le descrizioni sono vivide e ben dettagliate.
Buona anche la caratterizzazione dei personaggi, tutti con vari segreti più o meno manifesti nel romanzo; la protagonista, Evie, è un'eroina spesso capricciosa ma allo stesso tempo spigliata e ironica che non ha bisogno di alcun principe che la porti in salvo.
La trama è basata sul tema dell'occulto e del paranormale e i capitoli dedicati a queste tematic More...

“There is no greater power on this earth than story. People think boundaries and borders build nations. Nonsense—words do. Beliefs, declarations, constitutions—words. Stories. Myths. Lies. Promises. History.”

To be honest, finishing this book feels truly like an achievement. Not in a bad way - despite the book's thickness, you won't find yourself shamefully skipping paragraphs. In a few words, this book will capture your mind and you won't be able to let go.

The book is set in 1920's New York. Evi More...

«John il Malvagio, John il Malvagio, fa il suo lavoro adagio adagio. Ti taglia la gola e ti strappa gli ossetti, poi se li vende per due spiccioletti.»

Esistono certi libri che ti conquistano dal primo sguardo. Libri che ami ancor prima di iniziarli. Libri che, quando finalmente cominci, ti prendono ad un punto tale che non puoi far altro che pensare continuamente alla loro storia e ai personaggi e al mistero che si nasconde in quelle pagine, e che sai ti rimarranno nel cuore per molto, molto tem More...