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Sunday, January 20, 2013

The Diviners by Libba Bray

published by: Little Brown and Co for Young Readers
publish date:  September 18, 2012

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.

I'm not going to go in depth about this book because its got a ton of reviews on various websites.  Overall, I liked it.  My biggest problem with it was that it was overly long.  It seemed like it was going on forever.  There were a lot of things in the book that took up a lot of time and I didn't understand the relevance they had to the story.  I think there was probably a lot of world building and setting up for future books in the series.

That said, it was a breath of fresh air.  I liked the characters and the setting was interesting.  There are a lot of YA books set in the 20s out right now, but they usually have more to do with the flappers and this book delved more into the what regular people were living like.

I'm not sure if this is a series I would keep up with or not, because paranormal isn't high on my priority list.  Libba Bray is a great writer, though that might be enough to keep me reading.

1 comment:

The Insouciant Sophisticate said...

I really want to read this one but keep putting it to the side due to its length. I probably won't have time to pick it up until the summer but I am determined to give it a try!