Review: The Diviners (The Diviners #1) by Libba Bray

Publication Date: September 18th 2012 Publisher: Little Brown Books for Young Readers 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.

My Thoughts 

I remember reading Libba Bray's Gemma Doyle series years ago when it was newly released and how I was hooked into it until I had finished all three books. It didn't turn out to be one of my favorite reads but there is something about the way she writes that makes the story seem real even in its fantastical settings. I wouldn't have picked this up if not for the blurb that I posted above. A paranormal creepy mystery set in New York during the roaring twenties! It was too good to pass up.

October is all about Halloween and all things spooky! If there are summer reads, then there are also Halloween reads! The Diviners definitely belongs in the creepy category. It wasn't scary, but the things Libba Bray describe will make your hair stand on end or maybe just make you a little bit green in the face, especially the gruesome murders found scattered all over this whole book! 

I admire how she is able to give voice to multiple characters yet I find that with every detail that we find out about someone, the more I have questions about him/her. Who is he really? And how does he fit in the grand scheme of this nearly 600page book. It's so long yet so much is still left to be known about the plot.

My favorite character would have to be Evie O'Neill, who isn't a hard character to like. Sure she can be selfish and impulsive, but the she's also brave, caring, smart and liberated. The other ones like Will (Evie's uncle and curator of the "Museum of the Creepy Crawlies"),  Jericho, Memphis, Theta, Mabel, Sister Walker... I could go on and on! We're only given a glimpse of their thoughts from here and there, some darker than most. So I like Evie best because she somehow lightens up the mood whenever she's around. Oh, and about Jericho, I knew there was something 'steampunk' going on around him!

I can see how much research Libba Bray has put into writing this book and have so much to thank her for it. I did a little research myself and found out more about the facts from that time period that she mentioned in the story. I've never really had a big interest in the twenties but as I said, the combination of all those themes I mentioned earlier were just too intriguing.