The Diviners (Libba Bray)

Title: The Diviners

Author: Libba Bray

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

Length: 578

Rating: 3.5/5

It’s 1926 and seventeen year old Evie O’Neill is sent to live with her uncle Will in New York after a parlor trick in Ohio goes wrong. Evie is used to hiding her supernatural talent (until she gets to drunk on illegal booze, hence the trouble in Ohio). But after a girl is murdered and branded with a cryptic symbol, the police involve Will, and Evie finds that her talent might be the only way to solve the evil that has awakened with each new murder.

I love Libba Bray. Her stories always have the craziest twists, and she does a great job of blending genres together. The Diviners was a mix between historical fiction, the supernatural, and steampunk.

Sometimes it felt as if the book was doing too much to involve all these elements though. There were so many storylines and characters to keep track of with secondary characters all hiding weird secrets and secret talents like Evie’s. The book almost seemed a prequel or just a set-up to another book, which should have been called The Diviners, because the reader learns little about what the Diviners actually are in this book. I loved the detail, but the book is so long, and way too much to reread to remember all the detail before a sequel comes out. So my main complaint is that perhaps the editor should have been a little more heavy handed to make it an easier read (and then reread, because I’m definitely interested in the sequel).

However much wading through the storylines I had to do, I loved the scenes painted of the Roaring Twenties. The language and the setting in this book were amazing, and Bray clearly did her research to paint an accurate (but also supernatural) picture of New York in the 1920s. Who knew being a flapper could be so dangerous! Worth a read if you’ve got a little time on your hands!

Beauty Queens (Libba Bray)

Title: Beauty Queens

Author: Libba Bray

Publisher: Scholastic

Length: 390 pages

Rating: 3.5/5

A plane full of beauty queens crashes on a deserted island. Seems simple enough. But is the island really deserted? Is each beauty queen really who she says she is? Where do the hot pirates who land on the island halfway through the book come from? Which is more important: working on your perfect pageant answers or building a hut for survival? Nothing is as it seems, and beauty takes on a whole new slew of meanings in this book.

The book is presented as if it were a propaganda television show, presented by The Corporation, an American company that does it all, from selling hair remover to sponsoring the Miss Teen Dream Pageant. Hilarious footnotes and commercial breaks throughout the book tote the benefits of all of The Corporation’s best products, which are all the most ridiculous things ever, yet eerily similar to many of the absurd things sold today. (Example: “Feast for the Fishermen, the ultimate emo band. Said to be sold with a complimentary prescription for antidepressants and a free flatiron.”) The book has some things to say about our present consumer culture and feminism as well, but all in rather funny ways.

This book was enjoyable, and funny, and absurd, but it was also a lot to wade through at points. So many products thrown at the reader, and so many different characters to follow, all with their own life-defining story-arcs (although to be honest, quite like a tv show in these aspects). Also, quite the diverse cast for a group of beauty pageant contestants. Okay, I shouldn’t really be complaining about the unrealistic-ness of the book, but with all the characters coming to slowly accept themselves for who they are, it felt a little preachy/cliche sometimes. Just a little too teen special for my tastes, but I did like that just about anyone could read this book and find someone they related to. Plus, who doesn’t like hot pirates?