Libba Bray

Do you believe there are ghosts and demons and Diviners among us? Evie O'Neill has been exiled from her boring old hometown and shipped off to the bustling streets of New York City--and she is pos-i-tute-ly ecstatic. It's 1926, and New York is filled with speakeasies, Ziegfield girls, and rakish pickpockets. The only catch is that she has to live with her Uncle Will and his unhealthy obsession with the occult. Evie worries he'll discover her darkest secret: a supernatural power that has only brought her trouble so far. But when the police find a murdered girl branded with a cryptic symbol and Will is called to the scene, Evie realizes her gift could help catch a serial killer. As Evie jumps headlong into a dance with a murderer, other stories unfold in the city that never sleeps. A young man named Memphis is caught between two worlds. A chorus girl named Theta is running from her past. A student named Jericho hides a shocking secret. And unknown to all, something dark and evil has awakened.... Printz Award-winning and New York Times bestselling author Libba Bray opens a brand-new historical series with The Diviners, where the glittering surface of the Roaring Twenties hides a mystical horror creeping across the country.

The Diviners

Hanna Rybchynska

It was solid 4.5 stars! 
Great interesting story and really good characters!

Seventeen-year-old Evie O'Neill is thrilled when she is exiled from small-town Ohio to New York City in 1926, even when a rash of occult-based murders thrusts Evie and her uncle, curator of The Museum of American Folklore, Superstition, and the Occult, into the thick of the investigation.

Meg Ma. Guerrero 

as this was a re-read, my thoughts now are more or less just reiterations of how i felt when i first read it, except i think i have a better understanding now that i know how to read better (if that makes any sense). 

won't say much other than i enjoyed this as much as i did the first time and i'm glad i have the second book with me so i can continue reading this series without forgetting what happened lol

Mel 

I LOVED this book!
The setting was incredibly atmospheric (1920s New York??!) and added to creepy aura of this book. I enjoyed the 1920s slang and references to the culture of the time. 
This book was also way creepier than I expected it to be. Naughty John is absolutely terrifying and the murders are incredibly gruesome. 
The characters were also interesting and I loved seeing the intersecting storylines come together. I particularly enjoyed Evie and Memphis’ storylines. I wasn’t a big fan of the romance that happened early on in the book but I enjoyed the second more slow burn romance. Mabel, Jericho, Sam and Will were also really captivating characters. 
I can’t wait to read the next book and see how the story develops. Also, don’t read this at night ; )

nina 

It took me a month to read the book. Normally I finish books within the week I start, but for some reason, I could not get into The Diviners. I am not a quitter though, so I kept reading a couple of chapters at a time. 

And then 150 pages in, I was super invested and finished the rest of the book in a day. So you could probably say it started off kind of slow for me. 

I loved 1920's New York, magic, murder mystery, and the museum filled with occult objects. I enjoyed all of the main cast of characters as well, but my favorites were Theta and Memphis for sure.

Melissa Palmer

Book #1 Read in 2013
The Diviners by Libba Bray

This is the first book in a new young adult fantasy series. Evie has a talent--she can hold an object and tell secrets about the person who owns that object. This "talent" can lead her into trouble and she ends up sent to her uncle in New York City after using her power at a party and causing problems. Her uncle is working with the police to try to find a killer who is murdering people with a supernatural bent. Evie begins to assist him with solving the case. She also realizes that there are more people with unique talents like she has and she doesn't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing.

I enjoyed this book. I liked Evie, even though at times she was a bit selfish. Her friends, especially Jericho and Sam, were interesting. This book had decent action to it and had a good mystery plot line. I am curious to see what the next book in the series covers.

Denaiir

4.5 stars
I have to preface this by saying I'm not a fan of the 1920's, but this book was still marvelous. Even though the book was quite long, it wasn't slow-paced and I didn't think that the story dragged at all. Also, it was quite dark for a YA book, which automatically made it better in my opinion because I love darker books. I was quite surprised by the creepiness factor, details on the killings and the generally gloomy atmosphere, and it was great!

I enjoyed following the different characters, and again I was surprised that I didn't get annoyed with any of the characters, especially considering that Evie is the typical teenage troublemaker, my personal nemesis. But I even liked HER! But all the characters had interesting backgrounds, storylines and secrets.

I'm really looking forward to reading the next book in the series! The audiobook version was great, I recommend it!

Hannah Yang

I get the feeling that The Diviners is the kind of book people either love, or hate. The slang used throughout the book takes some getting used to, and the protagonist, Evie, is difficult to like at first, and the constantly switching perspectives might be annoying to some... but I liked it. However, I cannot bring myself to say I loved it, and there are several reasons:

1. Evie. Although there is definitely some character growth throughout this (massive) book, I found Evie thoroughly unlikable and far too impulsive / insensitive -- though, I think that's what Libba Bray was going for. As Jericho and Mabel point out, Evie views everything as a giant party and does not really regard the needs of other people (like Mabel) until she needs something from them. Since a majority of the book is narrated by Evie, I grew to at least tolerate her antics.

2. There is such a thing as too vague. The general vibe of The Diviners is mysterious, 'a storm is coming', 'they are back', mysterious pasts galore. However, despite a lot of info-dumping we don't learn that much about what a Diviner is, what they do, what they did once upon a time, and why they are so important / need to be hidden / all magically in the sameish place? I feel like the book covered a lot of plot, but some important series-building things were left out. Bonus: Evie mentions that her power doesn't always work, but it always works when she needed it to in this book. How irritatingly convenient.

3. Love triangles in the making. Although I appreciate the lack of actual romance throughout the majority of this book, I can almost guarantee a Sam-Evie-Jericho triangle in the next (Sam and Evie ftw. At least a bromance, pleaseee. Their characters are so great together.) Also, Memphis and Theta have their fated-to-be-together thing going on.

4. The characters fall flat. Every character is unique, every character has a story, every character has specific mannerisms etc. but they're all predictable, they all remain mostly the same, their tragic backstories remain partially locked away for the next book. In fact, I think my main problem with The Diviners was that it felt like the entire book was setting up for the next book. I expected a cliffhanger of sorts, I expected the 'it's not over yet'.

One thing that The Diviners definitely gets points for is that it is unique. You can compare it to lots of other books but it's got something special. I think that The Diviners is an okay book, and I will definitely read the next due to the interesting plot.

Lisa Sepulveda

This book was absolutely astounding while I can say there were moments were the pacing was slow altogether the writing was gripping and world libba bray built had me hooked. There were moments in this book were I was legitametly trying to catch my breath. I can not wait to continue with lair of dreams.

bless libba bray's heart and her ability to scare the shit out of me

Lacy W

Libba Bray is such a fun author. Her stories are really cool and are about topics I never would have thought to explore. I have read  A Great and Terrible Beauty and I really enjoyed that. There is always something about the paranormal that is so fascinating for me. 

I went into this book with some hesitation. When books are super hyped up, I tend to avoid them until the hype dies down. I have been burned a lot reading hyped up books. This was also a big jump for me because I tend to avoid books written about the USA in the 1920s. I just never really cared for that genre and time period. 

But this book has me excited about the 1920s and the paranormal. We meet Evie who has some special powers. In order to preserve her name, she is shipped off to live with her uncle in New York. Her uncle runs a museum dedicated to the creepy and unexplained. Evie helps her uncle in solving a murder. 

Evie was hot and cold for me. There were times that her wit and charm were just hilarious and then she would do something incredibly selfish. I think she really does mean well but she just doesn't think before she acts and speaks. I'm not saying I can relate to that or that I approve but I get it. She just wants to be liked. 

 I ship Evie and Sam. I will go down with that ship!

The other characters were cool. I enjoyed Theta and how dramatic she was. I'm interested to hear more about her and what she can do. Memphis was okay. I didn't much care for him but I enjoyed reading about what he could do. Jericho was eh. He was moody and  I refuse to ship him and Evie together! Even though Sam was more of side character, I liked him the best. He was so witty and I think he is good for Evie. Uncle Will is definitely hiding something. I'm anxious to discover what it is. I did enjoy how the characters came together. It wasn't forced and it felt very natural. 

I got to mention the way people talked in the 20's. Cat pajamas? Elephant's eyebrows? Like what the heck? lol. I literally was giggling every other sentence because the way they talk is just so silly and outrageous.

You can sure bet I will be continuing with this series. I love the supernatural world that Libba Bray has set up. It makes for a really wicked story line. Plus I have to know about all the little cliffhanger notes at the very end. I mean, I can't just not know, ya know?

Abdullah

The Diviners felt like a haunted and eerie journey through America's glamorous and unnerving past. 

This follows a set of characters as they encounter many paranormal activities linked with some serial killings and rituals while they try to fight some of their own internal demons. 


From The Diviners' Author's Note: 
But much of what you read is straight from the history books, with some of the most disturbing set pieces based on fact: The eugenics movement was quite real, as were those chilling light-up boards at state fairs. Ditto the Fitter Families for Future Firesides, the KKK, the Chinese Exclusion Act (and the Immigration Act of 1924), and the Pillar of Fire Church. Often, the monsters we create in our imagination are not nearly as frightening as the monstrous acts perpetrated by ordinary human beings in the aim of one cause or another.

The story itself had a great atmosphere to it but it was not gripping in a way that made me constantly want to read it. Most of the book was just set up and I was usually just waiting for something to happen and when something did, it wasn't as exciting as I thought it would be. Nevertheless, the book still had some great moments. A character did make a really dumb choice that irked me. 

Speaking of characters, we followed a ensemble of characters very different from each other and in very different situations from one another. Out of all the characters, Evie, Memphis and Jericho played the most important part in the story. Some level of depth was given to Theta, Mabel and Sam but they didn't have a major play in the story as much as I wanted. I didn't connect with any of the characters that much but it was a fun ride getting to them. 

I don't want to say much about the villan cause it's fun getting to know him slowly throughout the book. He's still very underdeveloped though.

I had problems with the pacing but it was still enjoyable. I recommend for people wanting to read something atmospheric, fun involving serial killing, cults and rituals. 

The climax was okay-ish but the aftermath made me really interested to the read the next book so I'm going to do that soon! 

🌟⭐🌟 
(3.5)

A young woman discovers her mysterious powers could help catch a killer in the first book of The Diviners series--a stunning supernatural historical mystery set in 1920s New York City, from Printz Award-winning and New York Times bestselling author Libba Bray. Evangeline O'Neill has been exiled from her boring old hometown and sent off to the bustling streets of New York City--and she is ecstatic. It's 1926, and New York is filled with speakeasies, Ziegfeld girls, and rakish pickpockets. The only catch is that she has to live with her uncle Will and his unhealthy obsession with the occult. Evie worries he'll discover her darkest secret: a supernatural power that has only brought her trouble so far. When the police find a murdered girl branded with a cryptic symbol and Will is called to the scene, Evie realizes her gift could help catch a serial killer. As Evie jumps headlong into a dance with a murderer, other stories unfurl in the city that never sleeps. And unknown to all, something dark and evil has awakened....

Jamieson

“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.” 


boy this shit was so good !! i die !!. Everyone kept telling me this series was the cats meow and I JUST DIDN'T LISTEN. And I should have, it's positutely swell !!

(okay enough lingo references) but the first thing I LOVED about this book was the setting. It's set in 1920s America and boy that is just such a fun setting to play around in. And Libba Bray definitely has fun with it. The slang and lingo used and references could have felt oversaturated but for me they didn't. I honestly just think they immersed me in the setting so much more. I also like that setting wise, how different policies and rules affected different groups was also explored and Libba Bray showed both sides of things like gang wars and prohibition. 

probably my favourite this about this book was the characters oh my godd I literally love them all. ESPECIALLY MEMPHIS MY SON. 

 👻 Evie is so fun and extra and I love her. How dare everyone call her annoying she's fun and energetic and sweet I loved following her. She's not a typical YA heroine in that she's extroverted, loves partying, doesn't take things as seriously as she should and is a bit of an attention seeker but honestly? Kind of related to her and really liked her. She's hilarious and cool and I don't care what anyone else has to say

👻 Memphis was my favourite because he was so sweet and nice. I loved his chapters and the plots revolving around him and his brother Isaiah. There's so much potential growth for his character and development of his plot which really excites me. ALSO HE IS SO NICE TO HIS BROTHER I LIVE. I love my soft boy. He's also black !

👻 Thata and Henry are interesting and I wish they were in it more. I liked when they did appear though. I loved their living situation and how they were such good friends. Thata is disabled and Henry is gay and it was cool to see that rep. I really hope they're in book 2 more
 
👻 Mabel and Sam weren't in it much either. I don't really have strong opinions on Mabel and think she needs to grow on me more. Sam was set up for something really interesting at the end which is nice, but I wasn't feeling him for a good part of the book. 

👻 Jericho is the hardest character for me to grasp I don't know how I feel. I wasn't 100% into the romance situation and I found him a bit bland and boring honestly. 



I really enjoyed the atmosphere of this book too. it was spooky and genuinely scary in parts. There was always a sense of tension and an undercurrent of scandal that I found kind of fun. You get the grimy parts of the underworld and streets contrasted with the exaggerated glamour of the partying and speakeasies which I found fun. And it did capture the same kind of aesthetic as The Great Gatsby which is one of my favourite books (especially aesthetically)

The audiobook narrator, January LaVoy also does a beyond incredible job at this. I can't even wrap my mind around how she made every single character sound so different and GOOD. Like, the narration is just astounding and I think it did add to my enjoyment of this book so much. I would never read this series any other way.

I am SO EXCITED to continue this series I just loved this opening book so much. It was spooky, with interesting characters placed in an awesome setting and i loved it. 


  “She was tired of being told how it was by this generation, who’d botched things so badly. They’d sold their children a pack of lies: God and country. Love your parents. All is fair. And then they’d sent those boys, her brother, off to fight a great monster of a war that maimed and killed and destroyed whatever was inside them. Still they lied, expecting her to mouth the words and play along. Well, she wouldn’t. She knew now that the world was a long way from fair. She knew the monsters were real.”

It's 1920s New York City. It's flappers and Follies, jazz and gin. It's after the war but before the depression. And for certain group of bright young things it's the opportunity to party like never before. For Evie O'Neill, it's escape. She's never fit in in small town Ohio and when she causes yet another scandal, she's shipped off to stay with an uncle in the big city. But far from being exile, this is exactly what she's always wanted: the chance to show how thoroughly modern and incredibly daring she can be. But New York City isn't about just jazz babies and follies girls. It has a darker side. Young women are being murdered across the city. And these aren't crimes of passion. They're gruesome. They're planned. They bear a strange resemblance to an obscure group of tarot cards. And the New York City police can't solve them alone. Evie wasn't just escaping the stifling life of Ohio, she was running from the knowledge of what she could do. She has a secret. A mysterious power that could help catch the killer - if he doesn't catch her first.

This is my second time reading this book, and my original review can be found here


Due to the fact this was my second time reading it, the suspense didn't get me as much this time. But I still really, really loved reading about the characters. I somehow love Evie even more, and I already loved her with my whole ass heart? I also appreciated Theta a lot more this time around reading this. 

There was also A LOT of foreshadowing to the later books I missed and I found it so fun to see it in here again. I really love the construction of these books and how many different elements are involved. 

I am so sad this series is ending but I am also already having a lot of fun in my 'pre king of crows release' reread

Sampurna Saha 

3.75 stars
Though I'm very new to audiobooks ... this is hands down the best audio narration I have ever experienced.
Now while I loved this.... it definitely could be a lot shorter and felt like the overall climax was a bit rushed and slightly too convenient. But the atmosphere, characters, and just the overall unnerving vibes of the book really made me love it.
I'm really looking forward to the sequel.
Although, the ship I was hoping for didn't end up together :(

Carah Gedeon

SO. DAMN. GOOD. I’m not good at reviews. I just loved it. The writing, the characters, the tone, the world. Libba Bray may be one of my all time favs now.

Sepia

I loved this book so much. It had the right amount of mystery, intrigue and romance. It was creepy at times, which I really liked and it kept me on my toes. I liked that it was slow towards the start as I could get used to the setting and get immersed in the story. I loved that this book was very diverse and had different types of characters. Oh and I loved the 1920s setting. The 'roaring 20's'!

Alice Myles

UPDATE FROM REREAD SEPTEMBER 2022
I love when you re-read a book and you're still as obsessed with it as you were the first time around. I read it this time rather than listening which changed the experience a little but I'm so excited that I still love this book! I screamed, I yelled, I sobbed, I smiled I just felt all of the emotions so strongly. I think going into it knowing how everything ends was fun too because I got to pick out all the little foreshadowing elements that you don't really pay attention to the first time. I would die for every single one of these characters and this is definitely not the last time I will be picking this book/series up. 

loved loved LOVED this! I loved the story, It was LOOOOOONG but I loved the characters (the side characters more than I loved Evie though but hey) and I will most definitely be continuing with this series! The audiobook is delightful and January LaVoy does such an incredible job with the narration!

this was so fucking COOL. i don’t think i’ve ever grown attached to so many characters in such a short amount of time… instant fav

When Evie is exiled from her boring hometown to New York in 1926, she worries her uncle will discover her darkest secret: a supernatural power that has only brought her trouble so far.

Kirsten Simkiss

This is the second time I've read this book and, admittedly, it had been a while since I'd last read it. I got the second book for Christmas and decided that it would be best to reread the first book so that the details would be fresh in my memory. Even the second time around, I just could not put it down. I love the characters, the relationships, the way the author melds the supernatural world to the world of the 1920s New York City - it's fantastic. I would recommend this to anyone who likes historically based science fiction. It's very very well written.

(view spoiler)[My only critique is that Jericho and Evie getting together at the very end of the book mildly creeps me out. I just can't fathom that Evie would care so little for her BEST FRIEND that she'd make out with the boy Mabel has a crush on. As far as I could tell, Evie's not in love with him. It just bothers me to no end - and Jericho should respect that as well, but he doesn't. I think he has genuine feelings for Evie, on the other hand, which makes his feelings a lot more forgivable. But I just don't get the chemistry between them and I hope Mabel is super pissed off at Evie if she ever finds out. (hide spoiler)]

Annie

Nadia Serrano

AMAZING! LITERALLY ONE OF MY FAVORITE BOOKS OF ALL TIME!!! 

I got this book at the dollar store for 3 dollars and it was A BARGAIN DEAL! It takes place in the 20's in New York and I mean what else could you want. This one is my favorite in the series because we are introduced to the characters and I love Evie so much. The book includes a love triangle tho JUST WARNING YOU and its killing me oh my goodness. This crime fighting/paranormal story has everything you could want. 

This book is not talked about much, EVEN THOUGH IT SHOULD BE, and it sooooooooo good. I highly recommend it.

Nicole Dykeman

4.5 stars for me. This comparison makes absolutely zero sense, but it reminded me of Strange the Dreamer. I think Libba Bray and Laini Taylor have similar writing styles in terms of the way their stories unfold. 

The atmosphere is my favorite part of this book. Libba Bray clearly did a LOT of research about 1920s Manhattan, and that work paid off—it felt incredibly authentic and well put-together, with a nice dose of the supernatural. The plot/mystery that we follow was also clearly planned and executed effectively. I love occult-y serial killers apparently. Each character - Evie, Sam, Jericho, Mabel, Theta, Henry (my fave), and Memphis - gets their time to shine, and there wasn’t a single perspective I didn’t enjoy. Every voice was distinct, and their stories tangled together into an interesting web of a book. 

Overall, really great and very much enjoyable, but only time will tell if these characters truly stick with me. I will definitely be picking up book two.

Anna Cashman

*thank god for audiobooks* tried reading this before and didn’t get past a few chapters but i think if i had given it a longer chance i would have end up enjoying it. i highly recommend the audiobook though, she does a great job with all the characters and there were a lot! 
overall a fun and spooky book! 
ending was weird and unnecessary, is probably trying to prepare you for the next book but too much was happening (with her very many characters) for her to expect us to remember that for the next book. in fact it kinda turned me off of reading the next one.

The Diviners

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