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The Diviners (The Diviners, #1)

Libba Bray

Start date: October 1, 2018

Finish date: October 31, 2018

Discussion: Series

Why we're reading this: Won the poll for the theme BOTM
Theme: Horror
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Theme: Horror

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Series

* Continuing Series- Nightbane
By Bailey · 4 posts · 30 views

last updated Aug 12, 2025 07:32AM

* New Series- The Princess Trials
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last updated Aug 27, 2025 04:41PM

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What Members Thought

Oct 03, 2014 Rachel rated it really liked it

This is really a 3.5....no, 3.75...or a 3.25? ARGH! I can't decide. If it had been about a 100 fewer pages, no question this would be a 5 for me. I was instantly wed with the description, a supernatural murder mystery set in the roaring twenties in Manhattan. It honestly doesn't get any better than that, and the beginning (after the little intro) was incredible. We have Evie, a modern, bright young thing sent to live with her uncle because she used her secret power of divining to embarrass the s This is really a 3.5....no, 3.75...or a 3.25? ARGH! I can't decide. If it had been about a 100 fewer pages, no question this would be a 5 for me. I was instantly wed with the description, a supernatural murder mystery set in the roaring twenties in Manhattan. It honestly doesn't get any better than that, and the beginning (after the little intro) was incredible. We have Evie, a modern, bright young thing sent to live with her uncle because she used her secret power of divining to embarrass the son of a local bigwig. YES! But from there, we sort of remain stagnant until 300 pages in.

Usually my complaint is that authors don't do enough world-building. Not so with The Diviners. In fact, it was the complete opposite. Ms. Bray covered every single aspect of life in the 1920's, and a good chunk of it was unnecessary to the story. Did we really need to have the Eugenics scene or the one in Chinatown? I couldn't find any other purpose for them except to unleash a bit of history on us. But on the contradictory side,having a large amount of history in the story made the implausible elements that much more believable. Because Ms. Bray wove fact with fiction so neatly, it all felt real, right down to the vernacular.

Okay, so I could have lived with a bit of extra history. But that wasn't it. The story is told from about twenty characters' perspectives, most of which is backstory on them we don't really need. This is Evie's story, and it should have been EVIE's story. I loved Evie. I loved that she was spunky, a little bit selfish, longing for her brother, and a loyal friend. I loved the growth she went through during the course of the novel, but still stuck to her plan to be young and vibrant and live every minute. By about three-quarters of the novel through, I would roll my eyes when the book would switch to a segment that wasn't about Evie, because nothing happened in them, or at least nothing new. There are at least 10 parts that end with, "it was the omen of something bad to come." OK, we get it. We also know it. Bad stuff is already happening.

I also wished the intro had been left out completely. If we hadn't had it, it would have been much more of a shock to find out John was a ghost later in the story. I also wished Ms. Bray had done something different with the murders. They get a little predictable when we meet a new character and they end up dead. I think it would have jazzed things up if we'd found the new bodies in some other way.

So is it possible to have too much of a good thing? YES! Every piece of this was so incredibly well written, it was just too much. I'm still on the fence about reading the next one. I'd like to see more of Evie and the development of (view spoiler) But I'm just not sure I can wade through everything else to get there.
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