The Diviners
Ratings165
Average rating3.8
This has everything I love in a great book. The characters were fleshed out and interesting, the setting was unique and the story was engaging. Looking forward to continuing on with this series.
Idk, young adult isn't much my thing. While I like the mystery aspects and ghosts. I did not like the characters at all. Or the romances building up...
I can see people liking this as the first of a series rather than a stand-alone, and I can see why they would rate it higher because of that, but OOF. There is just no way I can rate this higher than a three. Overall, I'm not sure I'm committed enough to go on with the series.
The Pros:
—The setting is well-described and you feel like you're in NYC in the 1920's
—The research has clearly been done well and thoroughly, as well as the copywriting. It's cleanly written and you learn something along the way.
—There's an interesting and diverse cast of characters... too many of them, but still.
The Cons:
—It's too long at 600 pages... by like 300 pages. Generally I could forgive that if the pages are spent building an intricate plot and in-depth characters, but NOPE! Literally after the climax of the book and the resolution of the plot, there's still 1/8 of the book to read...
—Most of the book is a set up for the next book (“The storm is coming!”). There are chapters upon chapters dedicated to characters who have no bearing on this book's plot, like Memphis and Theta and Henry and Mabel and Sam...shall I go on? They all pass each other like ships in the night and you think, at last, they must meet each other, have some connection, and it will all make sense to the plot, but NOPE! Any connections are superficial at best and drag the book out, no matter how much you like the characters.
—That said, with so many characters and unrelated subplots, the characters end up being kind of shallow and superficial. And the resolution of the plot feels somehow unimportant. How could finding a crazy supernatural serial killer feel unimportant? Because it's clear that the author would rather be focusing on other things, like whatever is about to happen in the next book.
—Lastly, how on earth is this book marketed to young adults? It's scary. And there are SO MANY adult themes it's actually kind of ridiculous. Here are a few of them: frightening imagery, violence, rape, domestic abuse, abortion, assisted suicide, child abuse, bodily mutilation, animal abuse, underage (or at least illegal) drinking, smoking, police corruption, complex ideology (eugenics, communism, religion, cults, secret societies, the occult)... If it were a faithful film depiction, it would be rated R, not PG 13.
ZO goed! Ik las dit als een audioboek en dit was absoluut een meerwaarde, dankzij de fantastische uitvoering van January LaVoy.
In dit boek komen de jaren '20 van de vorige eeuw helemaal tot leven. Van straattaal over speakeasies, tot zelfs de lelijke kanten van de periode, zorgden ervoor dat ik helemaal mee gezogen werd in het verhaal.
De plot was een combinatie van mysterie en horror, met net de juiste hoeveelheid griezeligheid. Enige minpuntje was misschien het tempo, vooral omdat het einde precies wat snel werd afgehandeld.
De cast van personages zijn ook zo levensecht. Ik was absoluut geen fan van het hoofdpersonage Evie, die extreem egoïstisch is en met momenten ronduit gemeen, maar ik ben niet iemand die van een personage moet houden om een boek goed te vinden. En ook al was ik dat wel, er is nog een overvloed aan andere personages om aan die behoefte te voldoen.
Erg meeslepend, atmosferisch en spannend! Een goed afgerond verhaal, met net genoeg openstaande vragen om mij super benieuwd te maken naar het vervolg, zonder mij op mijn honger te laten zitten.
The more I read of this book, the less I liked it. Before the last two hundred pages, I was mentally writing a very different review.
First of all, I don't like horror and I don't like thriller and I don't like suspense. These are things that I know I don't like - except, sometimes, the type of horror doesn't bother me. (Example: Whyborne & Griffin series by Jordan L. Hawk, which is a Lovecraftian inspired horror series. That works for me, somehow.)
This book started out delightfully creepy and atmospheric, took a sharp turn to ‘too much for me' around the third/fourth death (probably didn't help that I was reading it at night, after everyone else had already gone to bed) and then took a strong leap with both feet to the realm of ‘I physically cannot care anymore/bored now' when Jericho told about his past. It was like my level of macabre and horror had been filled and now all the stress and tension was just draining out. I literally couldn't care anymore and during the final confrontation, I was bored. There had been so much terrible up to that point, whatever new stuff was going on just didn't register for me.
(Also, up until that point, I wasn't sure if I would be continuing this series or not. I won't be, partially because of the problems that I had with this book, but also because I read the synopsis of the next three and...there are too many things I dislike just in the synopsis. For my own happiness, I need to stop here.)
Of the things I did like, at the top is the setting. Manhattan in the 1920's, how cool is that? Look, I love anything from the 20's, 30's and, possibly, the 40's. Hard work has to be put into any story like that to make me dislike it. And the research that the author did was obvious and amazing.
I also mostly like the characters, even when they aren't being exactly likable - though I wanted them to all meet up and defeat the big bad together. Because they didn't, this leaves me feeling like this is one long, (super long) extended (super extended) prologue. I mean, for me, groups are very important and in horror, non-solo is the most important. Also, the fact that, really, only Evie's group dealt with the coming anti-Christ...it kind of left the other people's stories bland.
Finally, I just think this book was too long. I thought that even when I was enjoying it, because everything moves so slow.
Whoa. I am wholeheartedly invested in this story AND these characters, and I cannot wait to read the next book in this series. Libba Bray has some great suspense writing, plot development, and character growth in this book, so I'm stoked to see how this all progresses in the next one!
I loved this book. I thought the story was captivating. I read it via audiobook and the narrator was PHENOMENAL!!! 100% highly suggest reading with the audiobook!
For so long I felt like I was watching a movie or tv show. At some points early on I was thinking the book reminded me of a distant cousin to Buffy or Scream, and was very, very in and curious to see where the book was headed. I would not suggest this for readers who don't care about reading a whole series. I don't recall when, but something happened that seemed incredibly out of place and took me aback and out of the book. Knowing there were more books after this one, the more I read the more I realized so much of what I was consuming was not part of this book's plot. I see so many people enjoyed this book and that's wonderful, but in the end I felt conned and I don't read to feel jarred to reality. So much of this book could have been left for the next for the sake of creating a solid book. But alas the whole book is a setup and I can't rate it higher.
I liked it.
It was really scary and Libba managed to raise questions. I'm going to read the next book. I'm especially curious about Theta and the green eyed girl...
Wow, what a book. This comes the closest to filling the void in my heart after finishing Maggie Stiefvater's Raven Cycle series, but it's not really all that similar?
There's a supernatural serial killer trying to bring on the apocalypse, the slow assembly of a magical scooby gang, and some poor decision making with a ouja board. There's also some excellent commentary on bigotry, police corruption, and religious cults. It's always chilling to get to the end of a book and read an author's note explaining that yes, most of the darker content of the story is taken straight from history.
All in all this was an incredible read, and I'll be looking up as much of Libba Bray's work as I can. It also confirms that January LaVoy is one of my all time favorite audio narrators.
Well thank you Libba Bray got getting me out of my reading slump! That was five stars of pure fun. Just what I needed.
This one was a no brainer for me; paranormal murder mystery set in the 1920s?? Yes, please! Sign me up immediately. This was my first 5 star read of the year. It was so, so good!
This is a re-read now that the series is over. It holds up! All the characters are amazing! I love how Bray brings up social issues and doesn't pull any punches. So many are still relevant to today.
Maybe I will actually continue with the series now! xD
I still really, really like this chonky book.
4.75 - that_part_in_the_heathers_musical_at_the_beginning_of_fight_for_me_when_they_sing_HOLY_SHIT_over_and_over.mp3
WHY did no one put this in my hands sooner
I listened to the audiobook of this, and the story and the narrator were a terrific match, January LaVoy did a great job with the various voices and accents, both the female and male characters. This was just plain fun with the setting of 1920s New York, and the slang, combined with the expert narration. And, of course, it was a bit creepy as well. A lot of future story lines were set up in The Diviners, and I plan to listen t0 – of course, in this case, listen to – the rest of the series. This made dull work at my business go a lot faster!
Lovely and terrifying. This well-researched and creative novel travels beyond the norm, and the audiobook will make you quiver. Guaranteed.
I LOVED THIS BOOK SO MUCH! I LOVED THE PLOT AND THE CHARACTERS! THE SCENES WHEREIN NAUGHTY JOHN STRIKES WERE MY FAVORITE! ONLY THING I HATED WAS THE FACT THAT EVIE ENDED UP WITH JERICHO AND NOT SAM LLOYD! SAM LLOYD!!!