The Listeners by Maggie Stiefvater -> Starting July 4th, 2025

[Jamie]

#1 New York Times bestselling novelist Maggie Stiefvater dazzles in this mesmerizing portrait of an irresistible heroine, an unlikely romance, and a hotel—and a world—in peril.

January 1942. The Avallon Hotel & Spa has always offered elegant luxury in the wilds of West Virginia, its mountain sweetwater washing away all of high society’s troubles.

Local girl-turned-general manager June Porter Hudson has guided the Avallon skillfully through the first pangs of war. The Gilfoyles, the hotel’s aristocratic owners, have trained her well. But when the family heir makes a secret deal with the State Department to fill the hotel with captured Axis diplomats, June must persuade her staff—many of whom have sons and husbands heading to the front lines—to offer luxury to Nazis. With a smile.

Meanwhile FBI Agent Tucker Minnick, whose coal tattoo hints at an Appalachian past, presses his ears to the hotel’s walls, listening for the diplomats’ secrets. He has one of his own, which is how he knows that June’s balancing act can have dangerous consequences: the sweetwater beneath the hotel can threaten as well as heal.

June has never met a guest she couldn’t delight, but the diplomats are different. Without firing a single shot, they have brought the war directly to her. As clashing loyalties crack the Avallon’s polished veneer, June must calculate the true cost of luxury.

[Ellen-Arwen]

I will start this one as soon as I can; I love Maggie Stiefvater and can't wait to see her in a new genre

[Ellen-Arwen]

I've literally just started and am only 3 chapters in but loving it so far; it's great to be reading something by an author where you can just relax because you know the storytelling is going to be good... does that make sense? (Too late for any more tonight).

[Trisha]

I know, I love this author too! I just finished my Stephen King audio so I've finally started!

[Trisha]

Through Part 1 / 7 chapters

(view spoiler)[ hmmm interesting so far
I like the idea of this water - and how much they drink

I like her running the hotel but wow I don't know if I could juggle all she does. Not sure what I think of the romance part with the son.

and the agent - I feel bad he has it so tough, trying to convince everyone to help him - but he is making mildly wild requests. (hide spoiler)]

[Ellen-Arwen]

Trisha wrote: "Through Part 1 / 7 chapters

hmmm interesting so far
I like the idea of this water - and how much they drink

I like her running the hotel but wow I don't know if I could juggle all she does. Not ..."


Part 1 Upstairs/Chapter 7 (view spoiler)[ After saying how much I trust Maggie Stiefvater, I'm not totally feeling comfortable as a reader with her in this genre if that makes any sense? It feels very modern, just happening to be set in the 1940s. The events are of 1942, but the dialogue/feeling feels more modern... does that make any sense? Also, sorry for being a stickler, but there were a couple of things I wasn't sure about - I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have had galoshes made from plastic in the 1940s... unless plastic and rubber are used interchangeably in US English? (Sorry, I'm reading this really slowly because I'm going to a book club type event with MS on Tuesday evening so I want to read it thoroughly - and maybe that's making me more critical lol)

I like the sweet water too, and it's very much her style - having something that's sort-of magical and very local, very community, specifically West Virginia, that the outsiders just aren't going to get. I like that aspect (although I couldn't quite picture the scene with June in the town-hall meeting thing where she was carried off the table and the crowd sort of crowd-surfed her... did I read that wrong? It felt wrong lol).
Sorry, went off on a tangent - yes, interesting and I wonder if the outsiders are going to be affected by the water - Minnow Rye said he couldn't avoid it forever, and that's only drinking it! He'll have had food made in it, be washing in it etc... I'm not sure how much of a magical element that's going to be... Hmmm.

I definitely couldn't juggle everything she does - god no! Impossible job indeed! The romance with 'Goyle' doesn't really feel like romance yet - well, not a conventional one at least! We have no idea of his feelings really, just what June thinks of his feelings, everything's mediated through her take on things... interesting. (hide spoiler)]

[Ellen-Arwen]

To end of chapter 12 (view spoiler)[ I was a bit confused that June had been left the lily house - does she know that??

Loved the description of the bras and Minnow Rye and the other agent (I keep getting them confused *facepalm*) sorting through all this stuff, normal detritus but having to treat everything with suspicion... like the calorie counting book: 'well, it could contain code, so it's gotta go!' What a strange job.

I really like Hannelorre (although it took me a minute to realise she actually didn't speak - I've switched to reading it rather than listening because I want to take it in better), and am with June on not being comfortable with the way her parents/physician are treating her. I hope we get another chapter/section from her PoV.

June is very, VERY good at her job - that scene with the Japanese woman and the awkwardness of tipping showed it - but I feel like something's gotta give...

It's a slower read than I expected (or maybe I'm just reading it slowly), but that's partly because I read somewhere that it was a 'page-turner' so my expectations were skewed lol. It's not that kind of story; a third of the book was sort of exposition/scene setting before the Axis people arrived, and I don't think there will be a big EVENT as such, just lots of subtle ones.

I like the way she writes; she doesn't treat the reader as stupid and lets you work things out yourself, there's lot that's implied and (particularly if you're reading it so analytically like I am lol), there's a lot of interpretations. But sometimes I feel like she's not quite hitting the mark? I'm more into it now, but I felt like some of the scene changes/PoV changes were a little awkward earlier on.

I'll be interested to see what happens with Sandy, and Stella as his 'minder' - and I'm sure something more is going to happen with bathhouse IV, lots of foreshadowing in the first section when June didn't end up visiting it, but was reflecting on how no one knew how far down it went etc. We've had one almost dead body there (Sandy as a kid), and I wonder if there will be another...? (hide spoiler)]

Sorry, Trisha, I have written a TON! I won't be offended if you don't reply to all of it but I do love chewing out ideas and thoughts properly; it feels like ages since I've done this properly - sat down and read in a more considered manner - because I've been frantically trying to keep on top of arcs, and read my huge physical oppressive TBR etc. It's good to slow down and read things in a different way sometimes, but it's okay if you're not in that frame of mind!

[Ellen-Arwen]

Oh, one more point - sorry! The description of the hotel is COMPLETELY different to the one on the cover which is really bugging me lol. I wish I had the American edition lol. I think it's in chapter 5 where it describes the hotel as having bits tacked on here and there, and conservatories built as the landscape can fit them, but the UK edition has the most square, regular building ever. Did the illustrator read the book??



(I am so sorry - too much for you to read!!!)

[Trisha]

Ellen-Arwen wrote: ".."

oh that's wild. I didn't even think about that!! I'm doing the audio so I never look at the cover but yeah, for me, it's just stairs! lol

[Ellen-Arwen]

Trisha wrote: "Ellen-Arwen wrote: ".."

oh that's wild. I didn't even think about that!! I'm doing the audio so I never look at the cover but yeah, for me, it's just stairs! lol"

Right?? It's just ANNOYING me lol. I was audio booking, but now I have a physical copy too, so I was gonna switch between the two but I'm preferring reading it.

To end of Part 2/Downstairs

(view spoiler)[ Definitely picking up the pace in this section (although it's not the page-turner i read it would be lol).

I guess Hannelorre is what we would now consider autistic - non-verbal and having 'melt-downs' - but in a time where we didn't have that vocabulary. It's interesting thinking about what labels do to us, and the people around us, and therefore how we are treated. Her counting is really effective, and also suggests what we'd now call OCD, but how do would you even begin to understand that with someone non-verbal? I really feel for her. And she recognises her 'melt downs' as Poor Behaviour - oh, that poor kid. I'm worrying that something bad is going to happen with her and that little bit of water in Avalon IV, where Sandy was almost drowned as a kid - it's got to come back into the plot.

I'm in two minds about the water ('demon water' as it's sometimes referred to), and wondering how much of it is going to end up being magical realism, and how much just local superstition and whether that even matters...

June continues to be incredibly impressive as 'Hoss'. Her birthday was a nice insight to how the other staff at the hotel feel about her, all those unofficial gifts, but she's concentrated on the water and what she has to 'do' about it, and the bad things coming in threes... Her advice to Pennybacker is calculated and interesting (advice about his wife I mean).

It's very atmospheric, and feels: these people who are supposedly 'evil' but are really just people. So true. And the staff, June, the hotel, have to treat them as they treat all other guests - working out what they want before they want it, that interesting definition of luxury that Mr Francis explained to June before he died.

And the maths that Pennybacker has to do about sending people back to their countries of origin in order to get American diplomats back from Europe - how do you begin to make those decisions?? He has a bloody hard job too. How to balance a journalist who will be persecuted in Germany vs a child who will likely be euthanased? :( (hide spoiler)]

[Ellen-Arwen]

To end of Part 3/Inside (I like how the sections correspond to that little poem that June didn't even understand what she was writing about way back in chapter 5)

(view spoiler)[
I'm still intrigued about 411; are we going to get more information on her in the last section or is Maggie going to leave the readers to fill in the gaps? She always orders lemons and croissants... I can understand why Tucker is frustrated about her being on the staff payroll because what does she actually DO?

And also what did June do in Avalon IV - are we going to have that explained? I know I said I liked the reader having to do some legwork, but I also want to know lol! And Mr Francis said that Sandy heard the water but he didn't listen, and what a comfort it was he wasn't the only one who could hear it... but now June is alone again, with Sandy disabled/shell-shocked... hard stuff. But a bit opaque as to what's happening atm! I hate how the agents treat him like he's not there; at least June treats him as a person (as does Hannelorre). "He wanted to do more in the world" (p.302, chapter 22) - it's all very sad. And mentioned, sort of casually, in the same paragraph that Toad's (head of staff, I think?) husband was killed, as she had predicted...

Horrible that Hannelorre saw Lieselotte Berger (the German journalist with those intriguing identical scars)* try to kill herself. And the 'devilish math' that Pennybacker has to keep going with - Berger and Hannelorre's lives for someone else's...

Tucker and June going back to both of their hometown, and then their kissing in the car felt inevitable; will it go any further? What about when Edgar Gilfoyle returns? (Because he surely will at some point). I wonder what that 'black mark' on his papers are, why he has to do this assignment...

*it's mentioned that Hugh Calloway has facial scars too but I can't remember where they come from, or if it's said - is it significant? Still confusing him and Pony tbh lol. (hide spoiler)]

[Trisha]

end of part 3

sorry, I took this one on my walk this morning and then running around so I missed chatting about section 2

but (view spoiler)[ I wonder if I'd like this more if I were reading this and not listening. but I am not loving this. Is it just me, but it feels like we're supposed to have compassion and feel bad for the people in the hotel? to believe the Nazi's are okay to hide their children in America? That they should have butter instead of the margarine the staff has because they are being held their, protected but watched? Ugh, I'm really struggling with this idea. Maybe it's just poor timing for my broken American heart.

I agree, the kissing felt inevitable

I don't blame the water for trying to turn. I liked her idea to have the soon to be brides dive into the fountain. that was a sweet moment. I liked the snails too, even if they were bad news.

the 2 things I'm most intrigued about - who is 411?! lol It's got me intrigued, that she just talks through the door and no one will give any hints! And what she does in Avalon IV - why everyone feels so much compassion for her and her time there. What is it? What is happening there?

(hide spoiler)]

[Trisha]

I'm done and was not a fan. Ugh, I hate that I didn't love it

but I do know - I've been to a few book festivals where this author was - and I know she likes to experiment. She likes to write books that aren't the same and push her as an author

so even though this one wasn't my favorite, I'll definitely read the next one and the next! lol

[Ellen-Arwen]

No worries, I wrote a ton and it would have been a lot to answer! I also finished it and just listened to a B&N question and answer with her, and I like it more after having heard her talk about it (which is always kind of inevitable for me lol) but I also didn't love it, as much as I wanted to. I REALLY wanted to.

it's cool you've heard her talk as well, and I wonder what you would have made of her talk this evening (/afternoon in America). She talked a lot about the difficulties of moving from writing YA to adult fiction and the difficulties she struggled with, and I don't feel she totally nailed all the stuff she was trying so hard to do, being honest. She was definitely trying to write something different, and it was - and it wasn't...? It felt almost like this was the gateway novel from writing YA to adult and she didn't quite get it, and maybe this was the one that should have been her 'practice' one, because I'm sure the next will be better. (She's working on another adult historical, possibly finished it, so we have that to look forward to!)

Heating her talk did make me REALLY want to go and re-read The Raven Cycle and the Scorpio Races lol (apparently there was a reference to the Scorpio Races which I totally missed!).

Yeah... I think we have similar feelings - you've just been a lot more succinct lol.

A lot of thoughts...

[Trisha]

Awe, I was hoping you were enjoying this one more than me!!

I can't even imagine how tough it would be switch from YA to adult. There definitely has to be differences but I wonder what all they think have to be different.

Oh, a gateway novel, I love that description! OOOH and I loved loved loved the Scorpio Races. I completely missed a reference to that too.

Honestly, I think I struggled most with this being tied to WWII. If this was just about a hotel that had to juggle tough people staying there. I really liked that part of it and the waters.

[Trisha]

Ellen-Arwen wrote: "No worries, I wrote a ton and it would have been a lot to answer! I also finished it and just listened to a B&N question and answer with her, and I like it more after having heard her talk about it..."

Wow, did you find this a recording or did you attend an author talk?
I love listening to authors talk about their books. It always helps me love and appreciate the story more!

[Ellen-Arwen]

Trisha wrote: "Ellen-Arwen wrote: "No worries, I wrote a ton and it would have been a lot to answer! I also finished it and just listened to a B&N question and answer with her, and I like it more after having hea..."

It was a live online event that my sister-in-law had booked to 'go' to, so all the family decided to read the book and make it one of our holiday activities :) It was great! It definitely makes me enjoy the book more; I just love author talks too.

[Ellen-Arwen]

Trisha wrote: "Awe, I was hoping you were enjoying this one more than me!!

I can't even imagine how tough it would be switch from YA to adult. There definitely has to be differences but I wonder what all they th..."

I mostly struggled not with the WWII specific stuff but with the 1942 stuff, the potential inaccuracies... I mean, some of that was to do with the war, but it was more practical stuff than feelings about the war in myself (if that makes sense).

Yeah, we both wanted to enjoy it more - but I do think there's potential for better adult books from Maggie in the future. (I'm glad you liked my idea of a 'gateway' book; it feels less damning and puts a positive spin on things :) at least that's how I see it)