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The Divines

Ellie Eaton (Goodreads Author)

3.28 · Rating details · 1,494 ratings · 442 reviews

With the emotional power of Normal People and the reflective haze of The Girls, a magnetic novel that moves between present-day Los Angeles and a British boarding school in the 1990s, exploring the destructive relationships between teenage girls.

Can we ever really escape our past?

The girls of St John the Divine, an elite English boarding school, were notorious for flippin ...more

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Hardcover, 320 pages

Published January 19th 2021 by William Morrow

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Average rating 3.28 ·

Rating details

· 1,494 ratings · 442 reviews

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Jan 21, 2021 Tina rated it really liked it

Shelves: netgalley-audiobooks

3.5 *

This book seems to be a little hard to review and I can see I'm not the only one thinking this. It is a debut book that I think is beautifully written and pretty smart. I listened to the audiobook. The narrator is exceptional.

The story alternates from past to present time. In the past, Josephine attended a boarding school in England during her teenage years. The school was St. John The Divine and the girls called themselves, "Divines." It is a boarding school for the privileged that many of ...more

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Nov 09, 2020 Jessica | JustReadingJess rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: netgalley

I really enjoyed The Divines. It is a coming of age novel where the main character experienced every possible problem imaginable. The story also discusses Jo’s problems in adulthood. The Divines really focuses on what happened in the past and how that affects Jo in the present.

There are so many lies and rules broken in The Divines. The girls all go by nicknames that could be boy’s names. Jo experiments with her sexuality. The girls have their first sexual experiences. Drinking, smoking, sex, and ...more

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Jan 15, 2021 DeAnn rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2021, netgalley-2021

3.5 Complex Boarding School Stars

This complex story is difficult to categorize, it’s a bit coming-of-age, escaping the past, and with a bit of a mystery thrown in. This debut novel really got me thinking about perception and reality and how we reconcile ourselves with the past.

There are two storylines, one is set at a boarding school in England, St. John the Divine, and features the privileged girls who are students and call themselves The Divines. There is a long history and legacy with mothers ...more

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Jan 23, 2021 Olive Fellows (abookolive) rated it it was ok

Shelves: lit-fic

Like many readers, I'm a sucker for a good campus novel, so when I saw the premise of "The Divines" by Ellie Eaton on NetGalley, I couldn't press request fast enough (thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for the review copy).

The book starts off well enough. In her adult years, our main character Josephine returns back to the town where her former boarding school used to stand. The passing of time has brought about a number of changes: the buildings that used to make up the school have eit Like many readers, I'm a sucker for a good campus novel, so when I saw the premise of "The Divines" by Ellie Eaton on NetGalley, I couldn't press request fast enough (thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for the review copy).

The book starts off well enough. In her adult years, our main character Josephine returns back to the town where her former boarding school used to stand. The passing of time has brought about a number of changes: the buildings that used to make up the school have either been flattened or repurposed and Josephine is newly married - she's actually on her honeymoon. There are some things that haven't changed, however. A local to this town catches on that Josephine attended that school, St. John the Divine, and the two have a quite disconcerting encounter. The reader starts to catch on that the "townies" and the school girls, known as "Divines" didn't exactly get along back in the day. We also learn that there was a reason Josephine has been distancing herself from her past for the last 15 or so years.

Eaton splits the narrative between Josephine's new adult life with her husband and the story of what happened when she was known as "Joe" (the Divines all take boy names as nicknames). We're led to believe that there was a massive scandal at the end of the school year and that one girl - Joe's roommate, Gerry - had a tragic accident. In the meantime, there's a mystery of someone leaving lewd photos around campus for the girls to find and an unlikely friendship that develops between Joe and a "townie," Lauren.

Again, a strong premise that's assisted by some really nice writing. But as the book went along, the story got progressively weaker. The side characters - with maybe the exception of Lauren - didn't have much to them and the tension didn't really build, nor resolve into anything. In my humble opinion, the best part of a campus novel is a growing sense of dread as you get closer to the ~~bad thing that happened ~~ at the school.

But I just didn't feel it in this book and I can't figure out why the author would have made the "modern" Josephine sections so frequent, since all they did was yank me out of the boarding school story. The extreme mismatch in pacing between the school sections (which seem to take place over one semester) and the adult Josephine section (which spans actual years) was so jarring. The cherry on top was the plot twist actually being a plot hole.

I'm willing to read more from this author because it's clear she has writing skills, but this story was a mess. ...more

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Nov 14, 2020 Sam rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2020-reads

It's hard to give a rating to The Divines, a book I didn't exactly enjoy reading but found coldly compelling with its woven, tangled psychological drama-mystery of the teenage girls from boarding school St John the Divine. We follow the narrator, Josephine, (Joe while at school, Sephine in her adult life after shedding the Divine from her life) as she uncovers, recalls, processes who she was, who she is, and what happened all those years ago, flipping back and forth between her school days a It's hard to give a rating to The Divines, a book I didn't exactly enjoy reading but found coldly compelling with its woven, tangled psychological drama-mystery of the teenage girls from boarding school St John the Divine. We follow the narrator, Josephine, (Joe while at school, Sephine in her adult life after shedding the Divine from her life) as she uncovers, recalls, processes who she was, who she is, and what happened all those years ago, flipping back and forth between her school days and her present life. Eaton tackles material that often comes up in the coming of age young girl tale - exploring sexuality, toxic friendship, mean girls, cliques, isolation and loneliness and the pathological need to belong for some - and leans into some of the darker, crueler aspects of the teenage girl experience.

What's clever is Eaton doesn't only do this: she also is really focused on perception and reality, the visions and versions of these girls and then women that they create, recreate, recall, to fit in, to fit out, to protect themselves from trauma, to transcend what trauma was inflicted upon them or that they dished out to others. We see Josephine through a broken carnival mirror, getting parts of her that make a whole but is also distorted somehow: the Joe she thinks she is as Divine, the Joe the other girls see and interact with, the Sephine she's created to break from her past and reinvent herself, and the Sephine that still has Joe lurking within her and cannot break away. Eaton often has little mirrors for her characters spliced in the narrative - one Divine character becomes a child psychologist trauma specialist yet the confrontation of the trauma at Divine is revealing. It's smart, sharp, and unnerving to read. Reading it is a bit like handling something beautiful, broken, and dangerous: it's not an entirely pleasurable experience and perhaps it brings up painful reminders of what it was to be that teenage girl, but you appreciate it and its craftsmanship even though it's uncomfortable.

My only complaint - because cruel, selfish but interestingly flawed, vulnerable, compelling characters don't stop me really liking something - is that the pacing seemed off and the ending, while making a degree of thematic sense, seemed very undercooked. After a creepy prologue, the book unfolds fairly slowly and it takes longer than it should to understand the lingo and set the scene and stakes. But then it starts moving as we see Sephine unraveling her past and a bit herself in the present while also being transported to a building tension between Joe in her past relationships, with Skipper and the Divine girls, with Gerry, with Lauren, with Stuart. But then, at the climax - the reveal of the scandal and a reunion of sorts - I felt as though we were left wanting more, that the confrontations and discussions and reflections from Sephine or other characters were not enough. I was left deeply unsatisfied by the ending...

And yet I think this was part of Eaton's point, stretching that discomfort, that dissatisfaction, that prickly, looming guilt and disgust and anxiety and titillation across the full range of the novel. When does something end? When we choose for it to? Maybe, but it's been a few hours and I can't quite shake the unnerving feeling I had reading this book. It lingered, and not in ways I necessarily liked or enjoyed, but I still marvel at the force of it. And that mirrors how Eaton's characters are dealing with their own endings and becomings and pasts. I don't even know if I can recommend this book, but I'd hope that if the blurb and this somewhat bizarre review have intrigued you, you give it a try. 4 stars and I will be both eagerly and anxiously awaiting and dreading future books by Ellie Eaton. ...more

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Feb 09, 2021 Barbara rated it really liked it

Shelves: adult-fiction, suspense, mystery

Teenage girls are cruel, and “The Divines” by Ellie Eaton is an almost horror story about a group of privileged boarding school-girls. Eaton writes so well that I got stomach-aches reading this novel. This coming-of-age story garnered a big buzz and lots of press. It’s deserved. The tone, emotions, and cruel shenanigans ring true, uncomfortably true.

The story line is a prior student, Sephine, is drawn back to her now defunct boarding school. Her mother, also an alumnus of the same girls boardin ...more

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Jan 04, 2021 MaryBeth's Bookshelf rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction

WOW! I don't know what it was about this book, but I could not put it down. An exploration of the choices we make and how they haunt us through adulthood. ...more

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Feb 01, 2021 Emma rated it it was ok

2.5/5 Stars

I'm always looking for novels with a dark academia feel since I find them very intriguing and enjoy reading them. I must say this one kind of fell flat to me. I would say that the only dark academia part was the setting which is a boarding school in England, but in regards to academics there really wasn't much, which for me was just a shame.
Some of the characters did have some interesting storylines, but in the end it all felt quite inconclusive. The parts set at boarding school were ...more

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Feb 08, 2021 Jenny (Reading Envy) rated it really liked it

Shelves: reviewcopy, read2021, ebooks, february

I got sucked in by this campus novel and enjoyed some of its unique quirky elements - all girls school, narrator's mother also attended, all girls refer to each other with boys' names, and most intriguing - there is a significant town-gown tension. The chapters are largely at the school when Josephine is a child, but also show her as an adult starting from her honeymoon.

I enjoyed reading this, but ended it feeling some dissatisfaction in how some stories resolved.

Thanks to the publisher for giv ...more

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Feb 04, 2021 Lilith Black Bee rated it liked it

Pretty good, but that ending though?! Very disappointing! Besides, am I the only one that wonders what really happened, did Jo imagined some of the things or not?! 🤔

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Dec 30, 2020 Elizabeth Turnbull rated it liked it

Shelves: arcs, tbr-december-2020

I have so many mixed feelings about this book.

For the first 90% of the novel I was convinced this just wasn’t for me. I was struggling to connect to the story or invest in the characters. I felt frustrated and angry at Jo for her cowardice and pettiness. Her lack of empathy and depth. Until the very end. The ending, while perhaps a bit vague for my taste, was intriguing enough to change my perception of all of the chapters proceeding it.

First of all, I listened to this as an audiobook and the ...more

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Jan 19, 2021 Kelly rated it liked it

Shelves: 2021-arcs

3.5 stars

This audiobook was off-putting and I honestly have no idea how to feel about this book. After doing some thinking and after reading a couple of reviews about this book, I feel like I have a better understanding as to what the author tried to do here and while for me, this was not a read I would describe as "enjoyable" it was entertaining and kept my attention from beginning to end!

In The Divines, you will follow Josephine's perspective in present and past time. She is very unlikable an ...more

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Oct 14, 2020 Marta :} rated it really liked it

Shelves: arcs, adult

“Divines could be cruel, conceited, arcane, but we were faithful to the end. We sobbed and hugged one another. Forever, we promised, always. Nothing could break us apart, proving in the end how much we underestimated Gerry. We swore on our lives. We crossed our hearts.”
Thanks to the publisher for offering me this copy of The Divines, you can also find my review on The Nerd Daily.

Ellie Eaton’s compelling debut is a study into how we constantly reshape our memories in order to make them fit bette “Divines could be cruel, conceited, arcane, but we were faithful to the end. We sobbed and hugged one another. Forever, we promised, always. Nothing could break us apart, proving in the end how much we underestimated Gerry. We swore on our lives. We crossed our hearts.”
Thanks to the publisher for offering me this copy of The Divines, you can also find my review on The Nerd Daily.

Ellie Eaton’s compelling debut is a study into how we constantly reshape our memories in order to make them fit better with the personal identities we are trying to build in the present. Any inaccuracies between who we used to be and who we are tend to be altered in order to create a more harmonious image of our self. And when trauma is also involved, can we really trust our memories to tell the real story? That’s what The Divines is trying to explore in addition to the Boarding School Syndrome, which is related to the long-term effects of attending a boarding school such as depression, anxiety, difficulties in forming and maintaining relationships, and even amnesia.
Josephine is newly married, she has a promising career as a freelance journalist, and her future looks so bright that she seemingly has no reason to dwell on the past. A spontaneous visit to her old boarding school will change everything and propel her on a journey of introspection and self-inspection. It will motivate her to reflect on the experiences that built her personality and made her who she is as an adult. She will think back almost obsessively on her classmates, the Divines with their pretentiousness, the way they isolated themselves, looked down on anyone from the outside, their odd traditions and lastly, the scandals that lead to the school closure. When she gets the opportunity to reunite with some of them, she will seize it and try to understand more about her past self and what really went down back then.
The students of St John The Divine are very privileged, they all come from rich families that pay ridiculous tuitions to the school and because of that, the teachers are extremely lenient on them. They let the girls get away with absolutely everything from taunting the school staff relentlessly to smoking and drinking on school grounds without ever being truly punished, they have no regard for the rules or for any authority. The antagonism between the Divines and the ‘townies’ (as the locals are called) made it even more apparent that the girls have no grasp of the real world or the struggles of everyone else because of their entitlement. They have nothing but disdain for anyone who is less than Divine and being Divine comes with speaking and acting in a certain way, owning fancy clothes and having boyish names. Because of this unity and even uniformity, the only characters that leave a lasting impression on Josephine are Gerry Lake who is the outcast of their class and Lauren, a townie that she befriends specifically because she comes from a different background and she isn’t easily impressed by the antics of the Divines. These two characters are the only ones that stir up trouble by not confining to the rules and standards set by the Divines, but there are definitely consequences for their actions.
What set this book apart from the others in the dark academia sub-genre is the emphasis on character development, the negative effects of such an elitist education, and the introspective process that an adult who went to a boarding school might go through, especially when faced with the important decision of choosing the right type of education for their own children rather than the usual themes of mystery, murder, and violence. It doesn’t completely shy away from these later subjects, but it definitely focuses more on human relationships and the psychology behind dark academia. The writing is lyrical and mesmerising, and the twists and the mysterious atmosphere will definitely keep you turning the pages in search for answers. There are some conflicts and plotlines that are build up and teased ceaselessly only to have some very unsatisfying and unforeseeable conclusions. Until you realise how unreliable the narrator really is, you might feel a bit tricked by those turns of events.
The Divines is a bold debut that shows us that memory can be way trickier than we think. It is a gritty study into how our identities are built, how our formative years impact us, and how our past will always influence us in ways that we might not even be aware of. The seemingly effortless way of building suspense, the beautiful writing, and the complex psychological themes that are addressed in this book will certainly convince you that Ellie Eaton is an author to watch. ...more

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Feb 04, 2021 Tammy rated it liked it

Shelves: release-2021

The Divines (as they’re called) are the girls at St. John the Divine, a private English boarding school. Josephine, who spent five years at the school, has received an invitation to the schools reunion of its students (it was closed in disgrace with her graduating class.) She’s now married with a daughter living in California. She hasn’t spoken to her classmates for fifteen years, and is unsure if she wants to attend. The invite evokes a strong need to reflect upon her time there. This story fol ...more

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Nov 13, 2020 Raychel rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: literary-fiction, listened-as-audiobook, 2020-read

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC audiobook version of this title!

I'm not going to say any outright spoilers but I might say some spoilerish things, so if you don't want to know anything about this book beyond the summary, please tread lightly with my review!

This is a tough one for me to review. It usually takes me a while to listen to audiobooks and at just over 11 hours, I flew through it in around 4 days. This is in part due to Imogen Church's absolutely phenomenal narrati Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC audiobook version of this title!

I'm not going to say any outright spoilers but I might say some spoilerish things, so if you don't want to know anything about this book beyond the summary, please tread lightly with my review!

This is a tough one for me to review. It usually takes me a while to listen to audiobooks and at just over 11 hours, I flew through it in around 4 days. This is in part due to Imogen Church's absolutely phenomenal narration. I would give books a shot that did not interest me in the slightest based solely on how she handled this audiobook. 10/10 for her, she did beautifully.

There were parts of this book that I loved tremendously. I was enamored by Lauren and the differences she caused in Jo, the tiffs between the girls, the feud between the Townies and the Divines. The creation of the "Divine" girl was also so interesting. All of their habits and traditions were endlessly entertaining. The critique and discussion about the nastiness of girlhood and being a teenager was also done really refreshingly.

But in the end I am left feeling so...unfulfilled. And maybe that's the point and I just don't get it? Maybe I wanted something out of this book that it was never going to give me. I spent a good amount of this time being so angry at Jo and I thought there would be an eventual moral pay off. I would ultimately describe this book as a book about teenage girls viciousness from one of the bully's perspectives. Jo isn't the worst by any means. She has redeeming qualities and Eaton does a fabulous job of showing the pervasiveness of toxic behavior. Maybe if The Divines had another omniscient narrator that offered another perspective, I would find it more complete.

I'm also so upset by adult Jo's behavior. Every time adult Jo would have a section, I would spend the majority of it wishing that we could go back to her school days. I wanted to see growth and development and acceptance. I would have even taken recognition. But instead...she was exactly the same. Arguably she was worse. And again, maybe that's the whole point. In fact, I'm sure of it. But for me it wasn't enough.

Writing this review, I've talked myself up from 2 stars into 3 because I think there are some really strong aspects. I could see Ellie Eaton writing a book in the future that I would consider absolutely stellar based on those strengths, so I'm going to keep her on my radar. What I didn't like about this one just personally won out for me.

**EDIT: After thinking about this over the weekend, I'm dropping my review back down to 2 stars and what it really comes down to is Lauren. My little queer heart absolutely breaks for Lauren. I understand the reasoning behind having her character being used the way it was but really, I think it was fucking unnecessary. The more I think about her, the angrier I get. She was a joke and a punchline. It's far too often writers get away with writing characters like Lauren for a diversity quota and to ~explain~ some homophobia. It's 2020. We're better than this. Thinking about the bedroom scene after the haircut makes my blood boil. So, yeah. I had enough problems all around but Lauren really sinks this solidly down to 2 stars for me. ...more

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Jan 06, 2021 The Candid Cover (Olivia & Lori) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: arc, audiobooks, 2021-releases, netgalley, adult-fiction

Full Review on The Candid Cover

The Divines by Ellie Eaton is a coming of age story that is shocking and seductive. The book has a dual timeline and a flawed, dislikable main character that is revisiting her teen years at an elite boarding school for girls. While this debut is beautifully written, the audio version will definitely draw you in and captivate you.

It has been a while since I have read a true bildungsroman and The Divines is one book that explores all of the psychological and moral g ...more

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Jan 26, 2021 Erika Lynn (shelf.inspiration) rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2021-books

4.5 Stars

See more on my Bookstagram: Shelf.Inspiration Instagram

“Divines could be cruel, conceited, arcane, but we were faithful to the end..Forever, we promised, always.”- The Divines.

This book follows Josephine who attended St. John the Divine boarding school when she was younger. The girls of this elite English school, were notorious for flipping their hair, harassing teachers, chasing boys, and chain-smoking cigarettes. Now in her thirties, Josephine hasn’t spoken to another Divine in f ...more

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Feb 04, 2021 kyle rated it it was ok

Shelves: fiction

afraid the pretty cover is all this book has going for it

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Jan 18, 2021 Amanda rated it did not like it

Shelves: netgalley, popsugar-2021

I received an ARC through the Book Club Girls Early Reads program from Harper Collins Publishers.

I’m sorry to say, but this book was absolutely awful. There was not one single likable character in the entire book. They were a bunch of insufferable, entitled, selfish brat bullies who used their perceived status to make life absolutely miserable for everyone around them. I read for enjoyment, but this book made me feel disgusted and angry at their awful behavior. If there was ANYTHING redeemable ...more

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Jan 16, 2021 Stacey-Lea rated it liked it

Shelves: arc

3.5 stars
The Divines alters between two timelines of our protagonist, Josephine’s, life. Her time as ‘Joe’ while attending St John the Divine, a boarding school in the middle of England and as ‘Sephine’, an adult trying to come to terms with her past.

There were many elements I enjoyed in here, mostly from boarding school chapters, wherein Eaton raises the topics of toxic friendship, the feeling of isolation at a young age and the exploration of sexuality in a time where it wasn’t so openly disc ...more

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Sep 12, 2020 Cari rated it it was amazing

My review will appear in Booklist! This is a very complicated book, more complex than I could adequately describe in my review. It starts a little slow but ramps up after the midpoint, and I found myself more invested than I thought I would be. This may be a hard sell to patrons, especially those who are used to boarding school mysteries, because it's less of a mystery than a character study. But it will stick with me for a long time. ...more

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Feb 18, 2021 Anna Luce marked it as dnf

Shelves: ebooks-overdrive, disappointing-reads, netgalley, covers-i-love, 2021-reviews

DNF 20%

Now tell me if you have heard of this kind of story before: in the prologue, someone dies, years later our narrator for some reason looks back to the past and this 'death'. I kind of blame TSH for this 'trend'. Eaton's novel reads a lot like an amalgamation The Secret Place, The Lightness, Good Girls Lie, and All Girls. This kind of setup can be great if done right but I am afraid that in Eaton's hands it ends being a bland, and not nearly sapphic enough, affair.
I am so tired of the narra DNF 20%

Now tell me if you have heard of this kind of story before: in the prologue, someone dies, years later our narrator for some reason looks back to the past and this 'death'. I kind of blame TSH for this 'trend'. Eaton's novel reads a lot like an amalgamation The Secret Place, The Lightness, Good Girls Lie, and All Girls. This kind of setup can be great if done right but I am afraid that in Eaton's hands it ends being a bland, and not nearly sapphic enough, affair.
I am so tired of the narrator with a "mousy" appearance and a boring personality. The writing too, in my opinion, of course, was pretty dire ("my nipples mutinous in the cold and hard as bullets. I enjoy looking at my wide, milky colored bottom"). Also, this book intend audience is an 'adult' one so why in the world does Eaton feel the need to remind her readers as if were three-year-olds, that when our narrator, who is clearly a grown woman in the 'now', is talking about her time as a pupil at this fancy school, this was in the pre-internet days ("This was preinternet remember; no one could google anyone"). Lastly, and this is something that quite a few English authors do when you have a character whose first language is not English, there is no need to throw in dozens of expressions (italicized of course) in their native tongue. Our narrator (whose name is Sephine....) is married to a guy who happens to be Austrian. While I know from my own personal experiences that sometimes some words might come to you in your mother tongue and you do not the English equivalent but here the guy is clearly fluent yet he says "Nein" and "Ja" and "Mein Gott". Come on, we get it, the guy is Austrian!
This novel offers very little to the clique/private school/someone dies subgenre. While I usually end up DNF reviews by saying that I'm sure others will enjoy this', here, I would advise readers to check out its overall score (tis' low for a reason) before committing to this.

ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
...more

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Feb 08, 2021 Sakshi rated it liked it · review of another edition

2.5 unsatisfactory stars

The Story had potential but the narrative just failed to keep my interest, specially because of the constant back and forth between the past and present. The past was somewhat intriguing but the present timeline put me off, it was quite boring and some topics were unnecessarily and grossly detailed. The protagonist seemed an odd character to me, she kept victimising herself even though she was vain and a bully and she seemed to hate her child. She even seemed quite violen ...more

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Feb 15, 2021 Liz Barnsley rated it really liked it

The Divines is a brilliant in your face novel, encompassing the vivid brutality of youth, the mysterious ways your formative years can echo down throughout adulthood and ultimately how one change of perspective can throw everything you thought you knew into turmoil.

I loved it, it is a story of friends and perceived enemies, of privilege and lack thereof, with an engaging, broken central character whose life you fall headfirst into.

The Divines of the title are an arrogant group and the author ha ...more

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Jan 20, 2021 Celeste rated it it was ok

Shelves: contemporary, literary

I received an audio copy of this book from the publisher, Harper Audio, via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is not an esoteric academy novel, for sure. It’s a boarding school novel using the school mainly for setting and atmosphere. I was hoping for The Orchard or The Secret History, but at a girl’s boarding school. I got something more akin Pretty Little Liars or Cruel Intentions. I found it very superficial, with appearances mattering more than just about anything else. It’s al ...more

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Jan 31, 2021 Helena rated it really liked it

Shelves: lit-fic, 2021-new

kind of wack, but really enjoyed it!

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Nov 12, 2020 Anita Fajita Pita rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: netgalley, audio-philes, 2020

The Divines was a creeper - it snuck up on me. I had no idea what to expect, and was even questioning the point of the book in the early pages, but I just kept listening. Tbh, Imogen Church was an outstanding audiobook narrator, and I'm a little sad that I didn't find any of her other works on my tbr.

The story unfolds in the present as past ruminations about Josephine's (or Jo's, since The Divines gave each other male nicknames) days at St. John the Divine boarding school in the 90's. Jo explore ...more

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Oct 04, 2020 Jemima rated it it was amazing

A captivating novel which drew me in from the start. The characters were beautifully vivid. A striking reminder of how acutely bewildering, gruelling and confusing the teenage years are - the awkward navigation of which can have life long lasting impressions. Highly recommend.

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Sep 01, 2020 Glenn Stenquist rated it it was amazing

A haunting revist to her shut down adolescent boarding school brings back vivid past. keeps you involved till end. Chilling

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Nov 21, 2020 Alice 🌙 rated it really liked it

Shelves: arcs, audiobooks, 2020, netgalley, contemporary

3.75/5 ⭐️
This is just about a all girls boarding school and the shit they get up to and the drama and bullying ect. I did like the duo time lines tho

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