Review: The Diviners

Title: The Diviners
Author: Libba Bray
Category/Genre: YA, Fantasy/Paranormal

See it at Goodreads


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-toot-ly thrilled. New York is the city of speakeasies, shopping, and movie palaces! Soon enough, Evie is running with glamorous Ziegfield girls and rakish pickpockets. The only catch is Evie has to live with her Uncle Will, curator of The Museum of American Folklore, Superstition, and the Occult--also known as "The Museum of the Creepy Crawlies."

When a rash of occult-based murders comes to light, Evie and her uncle are right in the thick of the investigation. And through it all, Evie has a secret: a mysterious power that could help catch the killer--if he doesn't catch her first.


What a monster of a book! I like big books (and I cannot lie). The Diviners interested me from the moment I’d heard about it. Then some of my blogging friends were continuously giving it high praises. So I knew I just had to have this book as soon as possible.

It felt incredibly good reading something so fresh. At least for me. Until this book, I really hadn’t read anything that has taken place during the Roaring 20’s. It was great and now I feel like this is one of those fashion time periods that should be brought back. I have to say though that the blurb for The Diviners doesn’t really give it justice. I was going into it expecting something fluffy and fun, and instead I received an intense dark story, heavy with creep factor, and an in-depth read full of WOW.

I’d read Bray before, several years ago with Great and Terrible Beauty, and while that particular story didn’t blow me away, I’d always known that I would like more of Bray’s work. She has a crazy talented writing skill that displays so much characterization, story-building, and details. Maybe my biggest qualm with The Diviners was reading a lot of the 20’s slang--often times just wanting to see more normal dialogue--and sometimes it felt a bit bogged down with too much information or details. It has a bit of a slow start. As I said, it’s a long book, so there were some moments where I did get a bit bored with too much of it tossed in. Not necessarily bad, because it progressed the story, but I thoroughly enjoyed it by the end. It is worth the time to sit and read. Before I knew it, the pages were flying from my fingers until the last page was turned.

Extremely glad I read this--now I want more Bray!