The Divines

A Novel

By: Ellie Eaton

Narrated by: Imogen Church

Length: 11 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's Summary

Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2021 by Entertainment Weekly * CNN * Harper's BAZAAR * E! Online * Refinery 29 * Bustle * Shondaland * Vulture * The Millions * Lit Hub * Electric Literature * Parade * MSN * and more! 

“The Divines is a cool, chilling and elegant novel.” (Sarah Perry, internationally best-selling author of The Essex Serpent) 

“A scintillating coming-of-age story.” (Susie Yang, New York Times best-selling author of White Ivy)

With the emotional power of Normal People and the reflective haze of The Girls, a magnetic novel that moves between present-day Los Angeles and a British boarding school in the 1990s, exploring the destructive relationships between teenage girls. 

Can we ever really escape our past?

The girls of St John the Divine, an elite English boarding school, were notorious for flipping their hair, harassing teachers, chasing boys, and chain-smoking cigarettes. They were fiercely loyal, sharp-tongued, and cuttingly humorous in the way that only teenage girls can be. For Josephine, now in her 30s, the years at St John were a lifetime ago. She hasn’t spoken to another Divine in 15 years, not since the day the school shuttered its doors in disgrace.

Yet now Josephine inexplicably finds herself returning to her old stomping grounds. The visit provokes blurry recollections of those doomed final weeks that rocked the community. Ruminating on the past, Josephine becomes obsessed with her teenage identity and the forgotten girls of her one-time orbit. With each memory that resurfaces, she circles closer to the violent secret at the heart of the school’s scandal. But the more Josephine recalls, the further her life unravels, derailing not just her marriage and career, but her entire sense of self. 

Suspenseful, provocative, and enthralling, The Divines is a scorching examination of the power of adolescent sexuality, female identity, and the destructive class divide. Exposing the tension between the lives we lead as adults and the experiences that form us, Eaton probes us to consider how our memories as adults compel us to reexamine our pasts.

©2021 Ellie Eaton (P)2021 HarperCollins Publishers

no no no

I was looking so forward to this. I have listened, rewound, listened again. Tried three times! I for the life of me can not figure out what is going on. Look at my profile, I very rarely give bad stars or have to return a book. Narrator is horrid too!

my first read of the year and it’s a 5 star read for me!

i patiently (not really all that patient tbh) waited for this to release so i could finally get my hands on it. something about stories of past secrets coming back to haunt you later on that always make me keep reading to find out just how terrible it really is. i’m a bit sad with the ending though , it was great but when it was over i still had unanswered questions. i wish we could have just a few more chapters on what happened next etc. guess we will never know. i rarely write reviews but this one is well worth a read. i was skeptical because of the review on here but honestly this book really surprised me.

at times the audio was a bit unbearable but the narrator did such an impressive job at reading with the correct tones, it really amazed me. would love to listen to more from this narrator!!

Imogen is always great

I usually love coming of age novels but this one really dragged on and there wasn’t enough conflict to make it interesting. I finished it because Imogen Church is such a wonderful narrator she made my time listening to this rather dull story ok.

An Okay Read

Although quite detailed I found I was forcing myself to finish the book. I didn’t find the story very compelling and thought the reader was a bit over-dramatic.