To kick off my second summer of book reviews, I read The Diviners by Libba Bray. It probably isn't a surprise to anyone that I would start by reading a novel from the Young Adult fiction genre (given last summer's selections), but this one definitely stands out in the crowd. The Diviners is the tale of Evie O'Neill, a seventeen year old girl growing up in the prohibition era of the US. After revealing the secrets of a popular local young man by 'reading' his belongings at a party, Evie is sent to live in New York City with her Uncle Will. The Big Apple in the Jazz Age turns out to be just the place for Evie (even if her uncle's job as a professor and curator of the Museum of American Folklore, Superstition and Occult isn't) and the reader is introduced to a cast of lively characters, including a sly pickpocket named Sam Lloyd, a numbers runner named Memphis Campbell, the beautiful dancer Theta Knight and her 'brother' Henry, the awkward Jericho, and Evie's best friend Mabel whose parents constantly neglect her for their political commitments. At first, it seems as though Evie's stay in New York is going to be just swell--that is, until a young Polish woman is murdered and found with a pentacle carved into her chest. Uncle Will is asked to consult on the investigation and soon Evie finds herself drawn into the race to catch the 'Pentacle Killer' and learn more about her powers before it's too late for all of humanity.Bray's research into this particular historical era is evident from the first page of the novel, and it is definitely one of my favourite aspects of The Diviners. The novel is bursting with slang and cultural references from the 1920's and it makes the narrative robust and realistic, even if the subject matter is obviously fantastical. I appreciated all of the background on John Hobbes and the various religious organizations which Bray provides and how the main conflict of the story was contextualized within the larger ideological struggles during the 1920's (for example, the creationism vs. evolution debate of the infamous Scopes Trial, the Eugenics movement, and racial and ethnic tensions). Balancing all of this historical detail with the different narrative and literary elements is perilous, and, while at times I felt a bit overwhelmed by the amount of information that was being thrown at me, overall, Bray is able to keep these various balls in the air. On the topic of style, I also want to mention that I was surprised by the fact that this book actually made me scared, which is a first. The villain is genuinely terrifying, and the suspense of the plot kept me up late into the night reading.
(Warning: The rest of the review is a bit spoiler-y, so you may want to avoid it if you plan on reading the book)
Although when she is introduced, Evie's character seems quite unoriginal, I really liked the ways she develops throughout the course of the novel. Surprisingly, the fact that Evie has a supernatural gift is actually quite a small part of her character, and it doesn't wholly shape her as a person, which was refreshing for a protagonist of this type. Evie sometimes feels like an outsider, but this is because of her exuberance, self-indulgence and recklessness rather than her ability as a Diviner. I was relieved to see that Evie doesn't fall for Sam despite his repeated attempts to woo her, and that their initial (forced) kiss in the train station is not romanticized in any way (see here). Instead, the romantic subplot is unique in that Evie does not initially fall for Jericho. He is not presented as an especially alluring figure, and just like her supernatural power, the desire to fall in love with someone is not a big part of Evie's character. I actually thought that Theta and Memphis' relationship would be the only romantic aspect of the novel (and, surely, theirs is more typical relationship for a YA novel), but eventually Evie does come to see Jericho as a possible romantic partner, although this is complicated by her knowledge that Mabel has been in love with Jericho for years. The build-up is not filled with angst, but rather a natural, matter-of-fact kind of attraction, and the final kiss is not some triumphant moment (at least from Evie's point of view), but a rather complicated and sad one.
With so many interesting characters and historical tidbits, there are so many things I could discuss in this review, but I'll end by saying that Bray has sufficiently intrigued me with The Diviners, and I will be waiting to see what future books hold for Evie and her friends. While the villain may have been defeated, there is something far more sinister lurking in New York (and beyond), and many questions still to be answered about the mysterious Diviners and Project Buffalo.
Genre: YA Fiction (Fantasy/Historical/Mystery)
Recommended To: Fans of The Great Gatsby; fans of mystery or historical fiction, specifically with a YA focus
Rating: 8.5/10
Favourite Quote: "People think boundaries and borders build nations. Nonsense-- words do. Beliefs, declarations, constitutions-words. Stories. Myths. Lies. Promises. History.”
