Reviews with content warning for Grief - The Diviners

A fun book that I got through surprisingly quickly. Great audio narration and great storytelling.

I really appreciated the diversity of settings and characters, and learning about their struggles. It greatly strengthened the historical element of the story for me.

The characters themselves were lovable - well, mostly. Evie had me po-si-tutely annoyed sometimes, but she grew on me, and I also think her behaviour is actually realistic for a teenager in her position, which was refreshing. (But yes: too much slang. I agree with everyone on this).
I also absolutely loved the different friend/sibling/family dynamics. Theta/Henry and Memphis/Isaiah have my heart.

I do think it was a shame that Mable was kind of dropped 3/4 through the story. It didn’t make sense, and I also just liked following her pov. Hope this gets remedied in the next book.

Regarding the ending,

I did think the final fight was surprisingly quick. It felt a bit anticlimactic.

Regarding the romance,

is it really meant to be romance? I think it’s very clear Jericho likes Evie. I think it’s also clear she just sees him as a distraction, with a bit of shared scary experiences/teenage horniness to sort the sexual tension. Will be interesting to see how this develops. Definitely think we have a love triangle incoming.

Overall a fun read. Almost too spooky for me. But looking forward to the next book.

Content Warnings

charleyyyyy's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.0

💜I first read this book when I was 12 years old, and I remember absolutely loving it. I wanted some good ✨️escapism✨️, so I decided to re-read this book.
💫It's clear that, had I read this book for the first time now, I really wouldn't have enjoyed it as much. But because of the nostalgia and my already existing love for the charicters, I had fun.
💜My favourite aspects of this book are the charicters and the setting.
The cast are all so vibrant and full of life, they also have great banter with each other that I very much enjoyed.
💫Evie is a very unlikeable protagonist, she is spoilt, annoying and selfish, but I've always loved her. I sympathise with her feeling like she's never enough, and that she just wants to be something special and have people like her. She is meant to be unlikeable, and thats part of her charm, i think. I enjoyed her development throughout the book.
💫I also remembered how much I love ✨️Henry!✨️ Henry is the best charicter in this whole series.
💜I appreciate that this cast of charicters is quite diverse, with queer charicters and BIPOC charicters and charicters with different religious beliefs.
💜The setting is very well writen, you really feel like you're in ✨️1920s New York✨️ because of the slang, the references, and the descriptions. It creates a great atmosphere.
💜This book was too long, it could have been cut down a lot, especially in the beginning.
💫The mystery developed very slowly, it felt like everytime we got a new piece of information about the murders, we then went dillydallying with the charicters doing nothing for the next 30 pages.
✨️Once the mystery realy got going though, it was fun.
💫This whole book did feel like a long prologue for the rest of the series, to introduce the charicters, their backstorys and the magic, before the story properly starts.
💜But I realy enjoyed being back with these charicters in this world.

Content Warnings

guessgreenleaf's review

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

maddiereadswords's review against another edition

Go to review page

5.0

This series has been literally my all-time favorite series since I first read it years ago, and after getting hit with a random urge to reread it, I'm thrilled to report that it still holds up!! This is a series that rewards careful rereading, and I'm biting drywall at some of the things I only just realized this time around. There's so much history and research packed into every page (which I concede could make it feel like a slog to anyone who's not into or used to reading dense historical fiction, but that's a selling point to me tbh), all of the characters are so unique and fun, and the spooky ghost-story vibes of this first installment in particular are just unmatched. I've read this book countless times before, and I'll likely read it so many more in the future.

This whole series is just so criminally underrated, I am frothing at the mouth, please come read these totally normal books that I am totally and completely normal about. ~~Also people need to stop being so mean to Evie; on god I'm gonna get that girl some grief counseling and an ADHD diagnosis and then you'll all be sorry!!~~

Content Warnings

queerseer's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book is thrilling, lovely, terrifying, sad, and diverse. It explores a society beyond the standard straight white rich viewpoints so prevalent early 20th century New York City, and has a lot to offer in terms of religious, supernatural and occult mystery and history. You’ll learn period-accurate slang, references and daily activities and it makes the setting that much richer. In fact, there’s SO much in the way of intrigue and fast-paced terror and brilliant characters…that I was kind of disappointed to reach the end and realize it was set up for a series. I, personally, feel exhausted from the adventure I just read and wish that the book had either been longer or gone differently to tie in all the backstory at once. Great standalone story, but not one I have any interest in learning more about afterward.

Content Warnings