The Listeners

A Novel

NATIONAL BESTSELLER· An Oprah Daily Best Summer Read · A Christian Science Monitor Best Book · Kirkus Reviews Best Fiction of the Year

“Wonderfully observed—actually, flat-out wonderful.” —The Wall Street Journal

“Richly imagined . . . Stiefvater’s prose is as pungent as the sweetwater, with a snap that suggests the whimsy of a veteran storyteller.” —The New York Times

#1 New York Times bestselling novelist Maggie Stiefvater dazzles in this mesmerizing portrait of an irresistible heroine, an unlikely romance, and a hotel—and a world—in peril.

January 1942. The Avallon Hotel & Spa has always offered elegant luxury in the wilds of West Virginia, its mountain sweetwater washing away all of high society’s troubles.

Local girl-turned-general manager June Porter Hudson has guided the Avallon skillfully through the first pangs of war. The Gilfoyles, the hotel’s aristocratic owners, have trained her well. But when the family heir makes a secret deal with the State Department to fill the hotel with captured Axis diplomats, June must persuade her staff—many of whom have sons and husbands heading to the front lines—to offer luxury to Nazis. With a smile.

Meanwhile FBI Agent Tucker Minnick, whose coal tattoo hints at an Appalachian past, presses his ears to the hotel’s walls, listening for the diplomats’ secrets. He has one of his own, which is how he knows that June’s balancing act can have dangerous consequences: the sweetwater beneath the hotel can threaten as well as heal.

June has never met a guest she couldn’t delight, but the diplomats are different. Without firing a single shot, they have brought the war directly to her. As clashing loyalties crack the Avallon’s polished veneer, June must calculate the true cost of luxury.

Engaging

Great voice of the reader and engaging historical fiction! An aspect of the war I’ve never learned about before.

Wonderful characterization. Great narrator!

My favorite thing about The Listeners is that it is a story about a woman’s journey of discovering that she’s spent her entire life shaping herself into something acceptable, only to find out that acceptance was only ever because she was useful.
And June doesn’t let that crush her. Instead, she becomes.
More.
Herself.
Someone worth loving.
Beloved.
A lot of people will say this is a book about neurodivergence. Or wartime polarization. Or eugenics. And that’s not wrong.
But the closer look, the story beneath the words, is the deeper current of what it takes to love yourself when no one wants to see the truth of who you are.
The Listeners doesn’t preach. It doesn’t have to. It’s literary fiction in a historical narrative wrapper. Very well done.
Will I read it again and again like The Raven Cycle/ Dreamers/ All The Crooked Saints? Maybe not.
But I know I’ll keep thinking about it for a long time.
And that means it’s another Stiefvater masterpiece. A book that gave me something more, even though I have little interest in historical fiction, especially Nazi-themed stories.
The magic: like her other books, this isn’t a crunchy magic system people can learn. It’s magical realism to the extreme of becoming fantasy. I’m starting to think of it as trademark Stiefvater style: it’s nature magic that feels so real it isn’t actually fantasy.
What I didn’t like? Hannalore’s scene where she strikes herself. The explanation that it’s a cause-effect behavior with a motive: “I’m punishing myself.” Rather than a person spinning out of control because of overwhelming overstimulation and all other routes of soothing themselves have been forbidden. At least, that’s my personal experience informing that scene.
I hope Maggie keeps writing because every time I read one of her books, I feel like there’s someone else out there who longs for a different world. Thanks for that.

Stiefvater knocks it out of the park as always

This book is beautifully written and narrated. You can tell the effort the author went to for accuracy while still adding a quiet magic at the center of the story. This is definitely a book I will return to again and again.

The interaction with June and the people in the hotel

I didn’t really care about the love trilogy between June and the two men but I really enjoyed her interaction with June. This read like historical fiction and I thought that this real and then there is a not that June is made up. I enjoyed reading this book and see it build up. The coding part with the wolfs really shocked me but it made sense looking back at Mrs Wolfs reaction.

A Wonderful Fiction Steeped in History

The story kept me coming back, the characters felt real. While some parts felt a little slow, it was fun to hear the historically-based details that helped bring the plot and setting to life. A fun listen for fans of history.