Tag Archives: The Diviners

Bedtime Stories: The Diviners

Post by Mark T. Locker.

The Diviners by Libba Bray.

Hold on to your cloche hats and strings of beads, people! A nasty murderer from beyond the grave named Naughty John is terrorizing 1920’s New York!

Seventeen-year-old Evie O’Neill is more than her small Ohio town can handle, so when her “punishment” is to stay with her uncle in Manhattan, she couldn’t be more pleased. Unfortunately, her trip coincides with a string of grisly and symbolic murders being carried out. Unfortunately for Evie, she has a newly-discovered gift which enables her to “read” peoples’ personal objects and from which she can divine secret information. So when she accidentally comes in contact with a poor murdered girl’s shoe, she learns more than she’s like about Naughty John, accidentally summoned from Hell to carry out his gruesome business.

Uptown in Harlem is another kid, a boy named Memphis has discovered the mixed blessing of his own powers, which can heal but can also do harm.

The newest novel by Printz-winning author Libba Bray is full of the vibrant imagery and language of the world of Ziegfeld girls, bootleg gin, and peacock feather-adorned headdresses. It’s funny, it’s scary, and it’s fascinating. Clearly Libba Bray has done her homework with this one. Her 1920s New York is so elaborately created, it’s hard not to get completely swept up in it. Unfortunately, that goes for the creepy, maniacal butcher as well. Eep.

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