Book Review: The Diviners by Libba Bray

Title: The Diviners
Series: The Diviners book 1
Author: Libba Bray
Publisher: Little, Brown Books
Date of Publication: Sept. 18, 2012
Source: It was a gift from the family, hardcover, 592 pages
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Goodreads Summary:

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

My Thoughts:

I was intrigued by this book the moment I seen the cover.  It is mysterious, a little dark, and very creepy.  And at a whopping almost 600 pages, I seen a challenge.
As I got started reading it, though, I noticed the main protagonist, Evie O'Neill, really grated my nerves.  She is fancy free, greedy, and annoying as hell to me.  There are times she has this sincere personality about her, but it isn't very much throughout the book.
I personally, don't think this character grew very much in the end.  I just felt like she was too much into the partying and not more into the actually living.

So I wasn't too keen on Evie.

Luckily, there were a lot more gifted characters in the book to keep my interest still piqued.  In fact, I was very happy that there were quite a few individuals that are privy to the plot.   These characters, like Memphis, Theta, Jericho, and even Evie's uncle, are interesting people that you will fall for and follow everything they do.  Theta is a little bit of a party girl, but she is a woman of the world.  Yeah, she parties, but she knows the bad side too-in fact I think she has seen it - and it just doesn't seem like she looks through rose colored glasses like Evie does.

It seems like everyone in this book, no matter how small, has a part to play in this story.  That can keep you hooked all alone, just trying to figure out how everyone fits in with everyone else.
I was a little let down that this isn't a stand alone; but instead it is the beginning of a series.  I feel like with the length of this book, it could have been a great standalone.  Oh well.

I absolutely must talk about the villain though.  Naughty John.  Usually book villains don't get too scared; but with this one I had trouble reading it at night time.  Oh and the poem that goes along with him: totally creeped me out too!  I think it was a combination of this very freaky character mixed with all these strange occult like killings that did it for me.  I will give the author huge thumbs up for the massive research she must have had to do to understand all of these different beliefs and then work it into a creative plot.

There is a lot going on in this book that will keep you entertained.  At first, I thought it was too much and I wouldn't be able to follow along, but this wasn't the case at all.  I loved all the different chapters that were really short; they gave us a small glimpse in the other characters' powers.

Overall, The Diviners is a book that will pull you in with the authentic phrasing that is used during that time period, the very descriptive and creative plot building that Ms. Bray gives us, as well as the intense mystery that grips us about the "storm" that is coming.

I don't do halves on my reviews so I gave this three stars..
If you like a tad scary, mixed with historical, and occult like things then I think you would get a kick out of The Diviners.