Review: The Diviners

The Diviners by Libba Bray
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Look.

This was okay to start with, then really interesting, then kinda slow ... and by the end of it I was just eager for it to be over! It dragged on for SO LONG!

It's a YA horror story about strange occult rituals, paranormal occurrences and sadistic murder. It's set in the 1920s and is obnoxious with this detail. And the lead protagonist, Evie, is ANNOYING AF.

I had to Google what a 'flapper' was, to be honest. That should be telling of how little I care about the 1920s.

The short version: the horror aspect was cool but the pacing was off, Evie was a frustrating protagonist and the 1920s references drove me up the wall.

Evie, Evie, Evie.

She's a drama queen, essentially. Selfish and spoiled, and very #notlikeothergirls because she wants to party and be famous. She's rebellious and inserts herself into everyone's lives because she's convinced she's the only one that can handle anything. I got frustrated with her quickly and that sense of annoyance continued throughout the entire book. She has some suggestion of character growth but the reality is, by the end of the story she hasn't really changed.

I didn't understand the point of Sam, but I did really like Memphis and Theta. In fact, their stories were more interesting to me than the main plot, I think.

I realise now that so much of this book was setting up for sequels, and I think that's why it began to drag so much. There was so much extra detail that wasn't necessary and I couldn't really see the point to it. I don't see myself reading a sequel so it was mostly wasted on me.

The murder/occult storyline was premium, but again there was too much extra running around to help it flow cohesively. I was really fascinated by it but had to wade through all the extra drama to get to the good stuff until finally I just wanted it to all be over. The finale was pretty predictable and then afterwards we're given MORE to help set up the next book. ENOUGH ALREADY.

So yep the last 200-odd pages were a frustrating drag.

Now, the setting.

Controversial, but I hated it. I thought it was brilliantly done, sure. The writing did a great job of transporting you to that time. The language, the behaviours, the outdated concepts ... it was all very on trend for the '20s. But sweet cheeses did that lingo do my head in. The discrimination was awful, too. Predictable, again, in how people would be treated. I was just really not feeling it. But again, this time period just does not interest me. So this is more a me complaint than any actual criticism of the book itself. Those with an interest in 1920s USA should actually get a kick out of it.

It wasn't a bad read at all, and I was actually quite captivated at one stage, but once that wore off the book just seemed to take forever to finish. It was all over the place. I liked it, but I won't be looking for the sequel any time soon.

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