The Diviners

By: Libba Bray

Narrated by: January LaVoy

Length: 18 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's summary

Audie Award Nominee, Best Teens Category, 2013

Something dark and evil has awakened....

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-tute-ly ecstatic. It's 1926, and New York is filled with speakeasies, Ziegfeld girls, and rakish pickpockets. The only catch is that she has to live with her uncle Will and his unhealthy obsession with the occult.

Evie worries her uncle will discover her darkest secret: a supernatural power that has only brought her trouble so far. But when the police find a murdered girl branded with a cryptic symbol and Will is called to the scene, Evie realizes her gift could help catch a serial killer.

As Evie jumps headlong into a dance with a murderer, other stories unfold in the city that never sleeps. A young man named Memphis is caught between two worlds. A chorus girl named Theta is running from her past. A student named Jericho is hiding a shocking secret. And unknown to all, something dark and evil has awakened....

This audiobook includes an introduction read by Libba Bray.

©2012 Libba Bray (P)2012 Listening Library

Gets better after the first half!

Please do not be deterred by the annoying protagonist. I agree with many reviewers that Evie is a total brat. I almost reached a breaking point with her attention-junkie antics until I reached the mid-point of the story when she gets knocked on her butt and is forced to act like a decent human being. I'm not promising that you will come to like her later in the book but she becomes much more tolerable when she decides to become useful. Aside from the main character, this book is worth an audible credit. The paranormal mystery and world-building can't be beat! Guess I'll have to endure Evie in the next book since I'm hooked into the series.

Read this book

I've been hopping along from one book to another this past year. I'd run out of books by most of my favorite contemporary authors like Leanne Moriarty and Ken Follet, stumbling from readers lists to kindle recommendations until a badge popped up on my audible app. Before the first chapter was over I was hooked and before the end I was delighted, not only with the story but the setup to a series. I'm getting on Amazon right now to download the next two books. The performance was good overall but I couldn't help but feel like I was missing something special while listening to the reader's voices for characters like Jericho and Nasty John. You'll love this book. Try it out with Audible if you are in the middle of a different book or like to listen in the car (if only to get you a started ).

Distracting Slang

The story took awhile to get interesting but moved pretty fast once it did. I felt the flapper slang detracted quite a bit from the story. We get it, it's set in the 20's. With so much emphasis on setting the feel of the era, it was irksome that Evie kept casually slipping $20 into her pocket, which would be worth about $250 in today's currency. $5 drinks were mentioned at one point, which would equate to $62. A minor quibble-ski to be sure; I may just be cranky after having to hear the word "positootley" a million times.

A book you can get lost into

I really really enjoyed this book! The story line had purpose and suspense. Great charters and narration. All you have to do is sit back and enjoy.

Most likely the best audiobook I've ever read!

What did you love best about The Diviners?

The story is captivating and keeps you on the edge of your seat. I love the characterization and layered personas, I adore the era it takes place in (1920s) and add the paranormal aspect to all of it -- it's a total winner!

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Diviners?

Evie's arrival to 1920's NYC will never fail to amuse me. I adored pretty much everything about this book, so there are a lot of memorable moments.

What does January LaVoy bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Absolutely EVERYTHING? I hadn't read a book narrated by her before this one, but it sure won't be my last! She sang, made wonderful intonations, knew her accents well and gave every character their own voice which is a hard task seeing as there are A LOT of POVs and a lot of characters. It was simply magnificent! Hello to my new favorite narrator <3

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Hmmmmm, yes? There are vulnerable moments for every character, but the ones that moved me the most were between Memphis & his little brother and Theta & Henry. Those relationships hit me something fierce.

Any additional comments?

If you doubt that audiobooks could be your thing, PICK THIS BOOK UP! You will rarely find a book that well produced and narrated. It was an amazing experience and I am 10/10 sure that I would not have enjoyed this book AS much if I hadn't read it on audio. It's by far my favorite audiobook and I will continue to recommend it time and time again.

Amazing Narrator

The book itself is fantastic. But goodness, is the narrator amazing. The characters each have completely different, distinctive voices. Quite a bit of that is likely the writing itself, but it seriously sounds like there is a cast reading this the majority of the time.

Aaaaand the narrator seems to have tracked down the tunes for most of the songs. Not all of them are well known, I’m pretty sure, since I tend to track down old timey songs for fun. I think the narrator may have even just improvised one of the songs.

I’m into the second book and she, the narrator, even made me tear up when one of the characters started crying. Poor little guy.

Again, much of this is likely due to stellar writing and characterization that lets the narrator really sink her teeth into the voices, but holy crap is she amazing.

Narrator should not try to sing

The story is fabulous and wonderfully true to its time period. The narrator not so much. The tone deaf singing happens often enough to annoy me as well as some of her accent choices. The character Sam’s accent varies throughout the book too. I think I’m just going to read the rest of the books in the series.

I love this book

I have a hard copy of this book and read it in high school but stopped at the second in the series. I revised the series with Audible to keep me company while I work. Great speaker and the story is so well written. Great read.

Finally!!!

I have waited for a sinister spooky story set in the era when mystery, ghosts, government cover-up, and seers sparked society's entertainment. I couldn't stop listening. I wanted to know the rest. So excited there's a second book and anxiously waiting. Libba Bray has never failed and this is another notch for her better of wonderfulness. (yea wonderfulness!)

Delightful!

This was a great listen! The narrator truly made the story come alive with spot on character and atmosphere representation. January LaVoy made every character an individual, and I felt like I was in the 1920's experiencing everything with them. The story was a refreshing plot line in YA literature and set up for the upcoming books nicely. I have listened to more than a hundred audiobooks at this point, and this one is easily one of favorites. &quot;Audible 20 Review Sweepstakes Entry&quot;