A review by leewicks
The Diviners, by Libba Bray
5.0
More like a 4.95 stars (if I'm being super picky/a pain in the ass), just because I didn't love the ending. I felt a little unsatisfied with the last few chapters, but it seems like I picked a good time to read this book, as I can dive into book two pretty soon!
So originally, I had written this book off. It didn't have the greatest rating on Goodreads, and to be honest I didn't know *that* much about it (just that it was set in 1920s America and some murders take place), and I'd heard a couple of people express annoyance towards the main character, but no...This book is so much more than that.
The word I've seen being used to describe it is "atmosphere", and I couldn't agree more. The tone of this book had me hooked, and I loved how eerie and sinister it was in places, and how easy I found it to visualise what I was reading/hearing.
That being said, I can understand why some people may say that this book is slow in pace, and how you kind of want it to hurry up and get to "the good stuff", but in my opinion it just comes down to your perspective, and (as usual) your taste as a reader.
I personally really enjoyed the amount of detail this book has to offer (I have a love for 1920s America, as I studied it for 3 months in College), and you can tell that Libba Bray spent a lot of time and effort researching the time period of this book too. However, that does result in the plot feeling a little slow in some places.
For me, this just helped me to visualise the world better, and understand the characters and their situations/backgrounds/actions more clearly, but to some readers this may result in the book feeling like it drags on in some places, I think/assume? I don't know, as I didn't experience that, but I can understand that perspective at least.
ALSO! If you do want to experience this book, BUY THE AUDIOBOOK. January LaVoy is, hands down, the best narrator of an audiobook I have ever had the pleasure of listening to, and I sincerely hope that she's the narrator for book two!
One of the best books I've read this year, and I've read a lot of good books this year, so that's certainly saying something!
So originally, I had written this book off. It didn't have the greatest rating on Goodreads, and to be honest I didn't know *that* much about it (just that it was set in 1920s America and some murders take place), and I'd heard a couple of people express annoyance towards the main character, but no...This book is so much more than that.
The word I've seen being used to describe it is "atmosphere", and I couldn't agree more. The tone of this book had me hooked, and I loved how eerie and sinister it was in places, and how easy I found it to visualise what I was reading/hearing.
That being said, I can understand why some people may say that this book is slow in pace, and how you kind of want it to hurry up and get to "the good stuff", but in my opinion it just comes down to your perspective, and (as usual) your taste as a reader.
I personally really enjoyed the amount of detail this book has to offer (I have a love for 1920s America, as I studied it for 3 months in College), and you can tell that Libba Bray spent a lot of time and effort researching the time period of this book too. However, that does result in the plot feeling a little slow in some places.
For me, this just helped me to visualise the world better, and understand the characters and their situations/backgrounds/actions more clearly, but to some readers this may result in the book feeling like it drags on in some places, I think/assume? I don't know, as I didn't experience that, but I can understand that perspective at least.
ALSO! If you do want to experience this book, BUY THE AUDIOBOOK. January LaVoy is, hands down, the best narrator of an audiobook I have ever had the pleasure of listening to, and I sincerely hope that she's the narrator for book two!
One of the best books I've read this year, and I've read a lot of good books this year, so that's certainly saying something!