Guest Review: The Diviners by Libba Bray

Hello everyone!  So today I'm going to be doing something a bit different.  Today I will have one of my bookish friends do a guest review!  So please, by all means, read on!!! :)



Intro:

Hi! My name is Hailee. I am blessed to serve as a Youth Services Librarian in a public library. I LOVE MY JOB! I'm currently in grad school to get my Masters in Library and Information Sciences and am looking forward to a long career as a Youth Services Librarian. Even though I'm not a teenager anymore, YA books are still my passion and my favorite genres to read are horror, suspense, supernatural (though not so much Vampires and Werewolves), dystopian and realistic fiction.

The Diviners
by Libba Bray
Series: The Diviners #1
Pages: 578
Release Date: September 18, 2012
by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Goodreads / Purchase

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.

The Diviners is told in alternating points of view from a rich cast of characters including a numbers runner by day, poet by night in Harlem and a glamorous Ziegfeld dancer with a dark secret. Bray does a fantastic job of building a complete backstory for each character, who all have secrets or supernatural powers of their own, without weighing the story down or making the story daunting for the reader. Each is fully fleshed and easy to connect with.

Evie is a marvel of a heroine, strong-willed, sassy and intelligent to boot, she sure is one "Sheba" of a girl. She craves the spotlight, but not in a pretentious way that might make you dislike her. There are simply so many glamours things happening that Evie has to be a part of, and she can't help it if she sometimes steals the show! Her yearning for fame does not make her a shallow character, in fact she is completely multi-layered and three-dimensional. Still grieving the death of her brother and questioning whether her mother wishes she were the one dead instead of him make her authentically real. Her insistence to urge shy, demure friend Mabel out of her shell and into the eyes of Museum Assistant Jethro (whom Mabel is sweet on) as well as clandestine meetings with a sketchy news reporter create relatable flaws and present problems for those closest to her, but Evie always seems to fix things in the end.

Printz award winner Bray brings the world of 1920s Manhattan to life while weaving a mysterious and scary tale sure to stick with you long after you’ve read the last page and many are sure to eagerly anticipate the sequel. You can tell this is a novel that was meticulously researched and the 20s historical references are inserted so effortlessly that you are completely immersed in the setting, slang and all. Fans of historical fiction and paranormal will find a lot to like here and returning fans of Bray will not be disappointed.

THANKS FOR STOPPING BY HAILEE!!!!