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A review by jess_mango
The Divines by Ellie Eaton
3.0
Josephine is newly married and visits the ground of her old boarding school, St. John the Divine, in the UK while on her honeymoon. While in a dentist office that was the former school chapel, Josephine gets called a nasty word by a local woman when that woman realizes Josephine used to attend the school. This starts Josephine down the path of reflecting on her time at the school. She hasn't spoken to her fellow Divines (what the girls called themselves) in 15 years. There is hazy foreshadowing that something bad happened there in Josephine's final year.
The novel switches back and forth from a semester at school in the 1990s and current day where Josephine is making her life with her husband in California working as a freelance writer. The parts set at the boarding school were more interesting to me than the ones set in present day. We learn that St John the Divine is a posh boarding school and that the girls that go there don't quite get along with the working class townies. Josephine feels isolated from her best friends when she is assigned to room with a girl who is seen as an outsider. Joe, as her friends call her, ends up making friends with a local girls, Lauren, and develops a crush on her old brother who works at the school.
The book is structured as Josephine's present day downwards spiral as she remembers her time at the school. There are messages in the book about bullying, the divide between the upper and working class, and sexuality. The flashbacks were the stronger storyline in this book for me. Jospehine's realizations in the "present day" were a bit perplexing. Years passed by between different present day scenes and she still seems stuck in her reflection rut. The whole thing left me in a bit of a haze, and perhaps that was the point. The author shows promise but I feel like this book was not as well executed as it could have been. It is definitely told from Josephine's perspective with HER biases, so maybe that is why things aren't as well defined as they could have been. I will keep my eye out for future releases by Eaton so that I can give them a read.
I listened to the book on audio and the narrator had a pleasant British accent that helped bring Josephine to life. It's worth a listen if you like boarding school stories or books set in academia.
3.5 stars
Thank you to the publisher for the audio book in exchange for an honest review!
The novel switches back and forth from a semester at school in the 1990s and current day where Josephine is making her life with her husband in California working as a freelance writer. The parts set at the boarding school were more interesting to me than the ones set in present day. We learn that St John the Divine is a posh boarding school and that the girls that go there don't quite get along with the working class townies. Josephine feels isolated from her best friends when she is assigned to room with a girl who is seen as an outsider. Joe, as her friends call her, ends up making friends with a local girls, Lauren, and develops a crush on her old brother who works at the school.
The book is structured as Josephine's present day downwards spiral as she remembers her time at the school. There are messages in the book about bullying, the divide between the upper and working class, and sexuality. The flashbacks were the stronger storyline in this book for me. Jospehine's realizations in the "present day" were a bit perplexing. Years passed by between different present day scenes and she still seems stuck in her reflection rut. The whole thing left me in a bit of a haze, and perhaps that was the point. The author shows promise but I feel like this book was not as well executed as it could have been. It is definitely told from Josephine's perspective with HER biases, so maybe that is why things aren't as well defined as they could have been. I will keep my eye out for future releases by Eaton so that I can give them a read.
I listened to the book on audio and the narrator had a pleasant British accent that helped bring Josephine to life. It's worth a listen if you like boarding school stories or books set in academia.
3.5 stars
Thank you to the publisher for the audio book in exchange for an honest review!