YA Fiction: The Diviners by Libba Bray

One of my goals for this year has been to push myself to read from a wider variety of genres, so when I stumbled across the beautiful cover of The Diviners by Libba Bray, a Young Adult and Paranormal novel I thought I would give it a try.

18 year old Evie O'Neill is packed off to New York city to live with her eccentric Uncle Will, curator of a museum dedicated to all things creepy, occult and mysterious. When a murder with occult associations leads the police to Uncle Will for help, Evie is determined to be involved. With unusual Diving powers herself (the very ones that helped her expulsion from Ohio after a party-trick gone wrong) Evie's secret will lead her into the path of danger more than she realises.

From the opening pages, I loved everything about this book. The bustling New York setting with its 1920s speakeasies and flapper showgirls was vividly brought to life. Good-times girl Evie quickly falls in with an eclectic group of friends, from Theta the stage-dancing Ziegfried girl, Henry a witty-as-they-come piano player and straight-laced Mabel, all of the characters were so richly real and likable. Evie herself has to be one of the best things about this book. I felt that Libba captured her fun-loving spirit so well especially with all of her cute and oh-so 20s sayings, yet throughout the book Evie's deeper feelings of loss for her brother who was killed in the war, and fear for her friends and Uncle as they investigate further occult killings, showed a real depth to her character.

The Diviners is one of the most enjoyable books I've read and perfectly merged a gripping story line with lovable and relatable characters. At 550 pages I absolutely flew through this book, right until the very end where I was reluctant to read the final pages and leave behind the characters and setting of 1920s New York. Luckily for me this is only Book 1 of a 3 book series (I think). With the ending and the case of the 'pentacle killer' solved there are many more elements that remain mysterious and I can't wait to read the next books so that I can join Evie on more adventures into the occult.