The Diviners (Jan/Feb 2013)

[Taylor]

OMG it's a young adult book, you guys.

[Alexa]

That's OK, I can handle it! How did you hear about this/what made you want to pick it?

[Taylor]

My friend Erika, who is in the club, just brought me a copy last night and said it was really good. I liked Libba Bray's trilogy (A Great and Terrible Beauty, Rebel Angels, The Sweet Far Thing) so I'm looking forward to reading this one!

[Alexa]

I feel like I should recognize her name, but I don't think I've read any of her stuff. I guess I've just heard/read her name, without paying much attention. Her work looks really interesting.

[Katie]

Libba Bray, wrote Beauty Queens?

[Taylor]

She did write Beauty Queens, but I didn't read that one. Did you?

[Katie]

Ah, I did read that one. I enjoyed it.

[Taylor]

This book is great!! And sccuurrryyyyy

[Alexa]

I'm about half way through. She really evokes the roaring twenties, so much so that it's as if the era is a character in the book.

[Alexa]

Well, I finished it. I really enjoyed about the first third of it, but then it started to get tedious for me. I'm curious how it compares to her others. Are they all in a similar style?

[Taylor]

I liked how she really evoked the atmosphere of the 20's as well, she did a great job of putting us into the era... though it started to feel gimicky to me towards to end. The constant use of 20's slang by Evie, for example. Pos-i-tute-ly!

I really enjoyed the way things unfolded, but I felt things were a bit drawn out. I see what you mean Alexa when you mention all the different threads going at once (in your review), and cutting away to characters that haven't developed yet and feeling that it distracted from the main events going on. I'm interested to see where those threads go though, she has set up a lot of mystery to unfold in the sequels.

In relation to her other books, I have only read the Gemma Doyle series which I thoroughly enjoyed. They are set in different eras and have different "magic" but the writing style and development of events is similar. I think I liked the Gemma Doyle trilogy better though, probably due to the setting mostly (it was late 19th century British India).

I also really appreciate that Bray includes gay/lesbian characters without making a big fuss about the fact that they are gay/lesbian. They are included and that's their orientation and it's treated as totally natural. Dig it.

[Alexa]

Yes, I agree with you about her depiction of gay characters and the natural, casual way she includes them. On the other hand I think her depiction of an inter-racial relationship was a bit too casual. That two folks in the 1920's would just dive into an inter-racial relationship without even a moment's hesitation didn't ring true to me. Now it is true that their various friends ask them if they are sure they are up for this, but it's as if the two of them never even see each other's skin color (and while Stephan Colbert may not "see race" the rest of the world does). I think this aspect of the story would have been more powerful if she had made it less casual and spent a little more time having the characters actually think about what they were doing.
But, then, they are all teenagers and diving in heedlessly in all other aspects of the book, including murder mysteries.

[Taylor]

Yes, I agree about the inter-racial couple. I love that she included it, but given that it was the 20's, the characters weren't apprehensive enough about it. She didn't have to make a statement with it, but she could have been less casual for sure.