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The Diviners (The Diviners, #1)

Libba Bray

Start date: October 1, 2020

Finish date: October 31, 2020

Why we're reading this: Won the poll for spooky-themed BOTM
[close] Won the poll for spooky-themed BOTM

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Aug 13, 2020 Aarushi rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2020-favorites, favorite-series

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This book was initially going to be 4.5 stars for me, but because of that ending I think it's more of a 5 star book personally. Took me a whole dang week to read it though: but I still loved it so much.

I want to talk about things that I loved in The Diviners:
1) the world building. I'm not usually one for historical fiction, but so many people loved it and it was a hyped book, so I tried it. The world was amazing. I felt like I was in the 1920s, experiencing what life was like for all these diff This book was initially going to be 4.5 stars for me, but because of that ending I think it's more of a 5 star book personally. Took me a whole dang week to read it though: but I still loved it so much.

I want to talk about things that I loved in The Diviners:
1) the world building. I'm not usually one for historical fiction, but so many people loved it and it was a hyped book, so I tried it. The world was amazing. I felt like I was in the 1920s, experiencing what life was like for all these different characters. When the book ended I wanted to stay in and experience it all.

2) the characters. I loved how Libba Bray made all the characters so authentic and realistic, not just perfect characters who you love all the time. Take our main protagonist, Evie, for example. Evie was a girl who knew how to have fun and was brave. But she was selfish often in the book, and occasionally made bad choices that affected her and the others. Evie did grow a lot, though, throughout the book, but still has a lot of room to grow, and I'm excited to see her character development in the rest of the series. I loved Sam as much as I loved Evie (which was a lot). Sam was sarcastic and a con artist/pickpocket who lived on the streets, but he was smart and resourceful as well. His plotline was honestly a little less clear to me than Evie's, but that's probably because we did not get a lot of POVs from him. Jericho I expected to hate going into the books because a bunch of reviews I had read stated that Jericho sucked, but I didn't end up hating him. I sort of liked him, but his whole plotline was very confusing and in my opinion, not cleared up enough. Jericho was the most bland character out of them all, though, and even he was an interesting character to read about, so that's a good sign. I really loved Theta and Henry, though; they were honestly awesome and had such unique, interesting stories. Memphis and his POVs bored me but only because I wanted to get back to Theta and Henry or Evie, Sam, Jericho, and Will. I get why Memphis needed to be included in the story, though; he is a vital piece of the whole series, I can tell from now.

3) the plot. I loved the plot. It was interesting and had many twists and turns everywhere, even though I felt it dragged on in parts. The ending was definitely my favorite part of the whole story: it was exciting and fast paced. We didn't get enough Theta and Henry in the last third of the book, and I also think this story is slightly unfinished and leaves enough of a gap for you to want to read the second book. There was a slight love-triangle blooming in the last part of the book between Sam, Jericho, and Evie, but I'm excited to see how it plays out (still ship Sam and Evie)

I feel like I could go on about how great this book was, and even though it was long and dragged on at parts, it definitely deserves the hype. It is such a great historical fiction; it lives up to its name. Can't wait to read Lair of Dreams (is that the name of the second book? I'm not sure).

5 stars, because The Diviners deserves it. ...more

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