Release Date: September 18th, 2012
Published By: Atom
Pages: 592
Goodreads: Add it to your reading list

Rating: 5 out of 5

Synopsis: 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.

Review: Wow!!! The Diviners has left me reeling, such an intense and engaging book! At first I was a little put off by the amount of pages in this book - almost 600, but I had heard so much buzz about this book that I looked beyond it and just jumped in. Honestly, you’ll be so drawn into what is happening that (at least for me), the pages just seemed to fly.

The only other book of Libba Bray’s that I’ve read is Beauty Queens, and I adored that book also, but The Diviners is completely different in genre and style to Beauty Queens which was a reality comedy style book. You can just see from reading this story just how much work and effort has gone into the study of the 1920s, as Libba pours a lot of accurate facts into her work from this time. As someone that loves the flapper era and the 20’s I truly appreciated the amount of sheer research she put into telling this story, she did an amazing job as far as that is concerned.

The characters themselves were fantastic. I absolutely adored the main character Evie, I thought she was just great. Very outgoing and doesn’t take no for an answer (which back in the days was frowned upon). She is what you would call a go-getter. Very inquisitive. Sometimes to her own deteriment for that matter. I felt like the character development was solid, for Evie as well as Memphis, Mabel, Jericho, Will and the background characters like Blind Bill. By the end of the book, I felt like I’d been through 2 books worth of a journey with them, and they resonated with me well after the time I finished reading it!

The plot itself is just awesome. I love a good murder mystery, and so this was really entertaining. I also thought it was really clever how Libba wrote some chapters (although they’re more like scenes really) from the perspective of some of the murder victims in their moments leading up to and including the time they encounter death. So well done, and really spiced the story line up even more having read the “other” side of the tale also.

Overall, read this. I’m going to say it…. it was my favourite read of 2012. I honestly, truly, really can’t think of a bad thing to say about The Diviners. Loved it, and I am looking forward to reading the next book!!

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