The Diviners by Libba Bray
Mar. 17th, 2013 12:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
Flappers and follies.
Murder and mystery.
Jazz and gin.
Evie O’Neill has been exiled from her boring old hometown. Shipped off to the neon-drenched streets of New York City, Evie thinks it’ll be the perfect place to show just how daring and modern she truly is.
An aspiring poet, Memphis has a true talent with words. But that’s not the only place his talent lies. He can do things no one else can. Things that are making the city – from uptown Harlem to the downtown clubs – an increasingly dangerously place for him to be.
Queen of the flapper, jazziest of all the babies, Theta couldn’t be happier with her new best friend on one arm and her new best guy n the other. But now something is coming for them all.
Deep in the underbelly of the city, something is moving in the shadows. Naughty John has come home. And he has work to do.
17-year-old Evie can discover a person’s secrets just by holding an object that belongs to them. When she reveals something about the son of one of the town’s finest families, her parents send her to her uncle Will in New York until the scandal passes. Evie’s delighted - it’s 1926 and New York is everything exciting and modern. She plans to become the toast of the city.
Sampling speakeasies and parties she and her best friend Mabel try to win over her uncle’s assistant Jericho, who Mabel has a hopeless crush on and fend off Sam Lloyd, a conman and thief who thinks he’s irresistible. They meet Theta, a dancer at the Ziegfield Follies and her song-writing brother, Henry, who are looking for a break to the big-time and who have secret abilities of their own. They take Evie and Mabel to Harlem where they meet Memphis, a numbers runner and poet who’s coping with the loss of healing abilities that made him a local legend.
But something else is stirring in New York. Naughty John has woken and has a project to complete by the night Solomon’s comet passes over Earth. Evie and her friends are the only people who can stop him …
Libba Bray’s novel, the first in a YA historical fantasy trilogy, is an epic story with an almost pitch-perfect period feel and some genuinely chilling moments. However the large cast makes for a lot of build-up and world building, which in turn slows the plot and results in a rushed ending that didn’t quite satisfy but gives a great set-up for the remaining books.
I loved Evie’s speech patterns and her can-do, ambition and occasional vulnerability. She knows she’s unthinking of others including her friend Mabel who lacks her courage and willingness to go for what she wants but who calls Evie on her selfishness. There’s an inevitable love triangle, but Jericho’s an interesting character in his own right with a fascinating secret that I look forward to seeing developed.
Memphis, Theta, Henry and Sam have more side role in this book, but Bray is careful to show their set-up and I look forward to reading more. Although Bray handles the different threads well, the sheer number inevitably affects the pacing while the development of the Naughty John story lacked momentum and had a rushed ending. Nevertheless, I’ll definitely be reading on.
The Verdict:
Libba Bray’s novel, the first in a YA historical fantasy trilogy, is an epic story with an almost pitch-perfect period feel and some genuinely chilling moments. However the large cast makes for a lot of build-up and world building, which in turn slows the plot and results in a rushed ending that didn’t quite satisfy but gives a great set-up for the remaining books and I will definitely be reading on.
Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the free copy of this book.
Murder and mystery.
Jazz and gin.
Evie O’Neill has been exiled from her boring old hometown. Shipped off to the neon-drenched streets of New York City, Evie thinks it’ll be the perfect place to show just how daring and modern she truly is.
An aspiring poet, Memphis has a true talent with words. But that’s not the only place his talent lies. He can do things no one else can. Things that are making the city – from uptown Harlem to the downtown clubs – an increasingly dangerously place for him to be.
Queen of the flapper, jazziest of all the babies, Theta couldn’t be happier with her new best friend on one arm and her new best guy n the other. But now something is coming for them all.
Deep in the underbelly of the city, something is moving in the shadows. Naughty John has come home. And he has work to do.
17-year-old Evie can discover a person’s secrets just by holding an object that belongs to them. When she reveals something about the son of one of the town’s finest families, her parents send her to her uncle Will in New York until the scandal passes. Evie’s delighted - it’s 1926 and New York is everything exciting and modern. She plans to become the toast of the city.
Sampling speakeasies and parties she and her best friend Mabel try to win over her uncle’s assistant Jericho, who Mabel has a hopeless crush on and fend off Sam Lloyd, a conman and thief who thinks he’s irresistible. They meet Theta, a dancer at the Ziegfield Follies and her song-writing brother, Henry, who are looking for a break to the big-time and who have secret abilities of their own. They take Evie and Mabel to Harlem where they meet Memphis, a numbers runner and poet who’s coping with the loss of healing abilities that made him a local legend.
But something else is stirring in New York. Naughty John has woken and has a project to complete by the night Solomon’s comet passes over Earth. Evie and her friends are the only people who can stop him …
Libba Bray’s novel, the first in a YA historical fantasy trilogy, is an epic story with an almost pitch-perfect period feel and some genuinely chilling moments. However the large cast makes for a lot of build-up and world building, which in turn slows the plot and results in a rushed ending that didn’t quite satisfy but gives a great set-up for the remaining books.
I loved Evie’s speech patterns and her can-do, ambition and occasional vulnerability. She knows she’s unthinking of others including her friend Mabel who lacks her courage and willingness to go for what she wants but who calls Evie on her selfishness. There’s an inevitable love triangle, but Jericho’s an interesting character in his own right with a fascinating secret that I look forward to seeing developed.
Memphis, Theta, Henry and Sam have more side role in this book, but Bray is careful to show their set-up and I look forward to reading more. Although Bray handles the different threads well, the sheer number inevitably affects the pacing while the development of the Naughty John story lacked momentum and had a rushed ending. Nevertheless, I’ll definitely be reading on.
The Verdict:
Libba Bray’s novel, the first in a YA historical fantasy trilogy, is an epic story with an almost pitch-perfect period feel and some genuinely chilling moments. However the large cast makes for a lot of build-up and world building, which in turn slows the plot and results in a rushed ending that didn’t quite satisfy but gives a great set-up for the remaining books and I will definitely be reading on.
Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the free copy of this book.
