Sign in with Facebook
Tadiana ✩Night Owl�'s Reviews > The Diviners
The Diviners (The Diviners, #1)
by
by
Tadiana ✩Night Owl�'s review
bookshelves: horror, fantasy, not-my-cuppa-tea, cliffhanger-boo-hiss, your-mileage-may-vary
Jun 04, 2015
bookshelves: horror, fantasy, not-my-cuppa-tea, cliffhanger-boo-hiss, your-mileage-may-vary
*cue eerie music*
At a birthday party in New York in the 1920's, a bunch of teenagers decide to play with a Ouija board. They promptly do several things they're REALLY not supposed to do, like failing to make the spirit controlling the board say good-bye (is this really a thing?), thereby unleashing the spirit of a serial killer on the world. I'm one chapter in and already I know this book is not going to be my cuppa tea: Horror novels are just not my thing, and evil supernatural kinds of horror are really not my thing.
In the second chapter we meet our main character, Evie, and she's an insolent 17 year old who likes to party hard and drink too much gin, and thinks she's smarter than everyone else around her, including her parents. She also uses way too much 1920's slang, which, maybe it was realistic? but it just struck me as a little too try-hard on the author's part. Evie very quickly took whatever lingering interest I still had in this novel and stomped it dead.
Luckily (not for me, but for New York City) Evie and some other people are Diviners, with their own supernatural powers that can combat the evil ones. So there are gruesome murders by the evil spirit (who becomes more tangible with each killing), and investigations and quests to stop the evil spirit - sort of like Ghostbusters, except, you know, without the cool ghost-catching technology or anyone with anything remotely approaching a sense of humor - and also a little romance, just because.
So. I think this might be a great read for some people. Unfortunately it pushed all the wrong buttons for me, sort of the opposite of A Town Like Alice. I just don't care for dislikeable protagonists or creepy occult goings-on.
Initial post: Ugh. I grabbed the sequel to this on NetGalley last week and then picked this first book up at the library. I'm about 50 pages in and I don't care for the main character - a 17 year old girl who like to drink and party and has special powerz - or the whole "evil spirit escapes from a Ouija board and is clearly going to cause massive amounts of trouble" plot.
What to do? I hate to give up on a NetGalley book unread, but I don't want to wade through 575 pages of this book to get there.
Update: So I thought I'd breeze through a hundred pages a day, doing a little skimming here and there. But I got to the hundred page mark and thought, screw it, I'm getting through this one tonight. And I did, admittedly with an awful lot of skimming, but I read enough that I feel justified in giving it a rating.
At a birthday party in New York in the 1920's, a bunch of teenagers decide to play with a Ouija board. They promptly do several things they're REALLY not supposed to do, like failing to make the spirit controlling the board say good-bye (is this really a thing?), thereby unleashing the spirit of a serial killer on the world. I'm one chapter in and already I know this book is not going to be my cuppa tea: Horror novels are just not my thing, and evil supernatural kinds of horror are really not my thing.
In the second chapter we meet our main character, Evie, and she's an insolent 17 year old who likes to party hard and drink too much gin, and thinks she's smarter than everyone else around her, including her parents. She also uses way too much 1920's slang, which, maybe it was realistic? but it just struck me as a little too try-hard on the author's part. Evie very quickly took whatever lingering interest I still had in this novel and stomped it dead.
Luckily (not for me, but for New York City) Evie and some other people are Diviners, with their own supernatural powers that can combat the evil ones. So there are gruesome murders by the evil spirit (who becomes more tangible with each killing), and investigations and quests to stop the evil spirit - sort of like Ghostbusters, except, you know, without the cool ghost-catching technology or anyone with anything remotely approaching a sense of humor - and also a little romance, just because.
So. I think this might be a great read for some people. Unfortunately it pushed all the wrong buttons for me, sort of the opposite of A Town Like Alice. I just don't care for dislikeable protagonists or creepy occult goings-on.
Initial post: Ugh. I grabbed the sequel to this on NetGalley last week and then picked this first book up at the library. I'm about 50 pages in and I don't care for the main character - a 17 year old girl who like to drink and party and has special powerz - or the whole "evil spirit escapes from a Ouija board and is clearly going to cause massive amounts of trouble" plot.
What to do? I hate to give up on a NetGalley book unread, but I don't want to wade through 575 pages of this book to get there.
Update: So I thought I'd breeze through a hundred pages a day, doing a little skimming here and there. But I got to the hundred page mark and thought, screw it, I'm getting through this one tonight. And I did, admittedly with an awful lot of skimming, but I read enough that I feel justified in giving it a rating.
Sign into Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ to see if any of your friends have read
The Diviners.
Sign In »
Reading Progress
June 4, 2015
– Shelved
June 4, 2015
– Shelved as:
to-read
June 8, 2015
–
Started Reading
June 8, 2015
– Shelved as:
horror
June 8, 2015
– Shelved as:
fantasy
June 9, 2015
– Shelved as:
not-my-cuppa-tea
June 9, 2015
– Shelved as:
cliffhanger-boo-hiss
June 9, 2015
–
Finished Reading
January 23, 2020
– Shelved as:
your-mileage-may-vary
Comments Showing 1-28 of 28 (28 new)
date
newest »
newest »
message 1:
by
Melissa
(new)
Jun 08, 2015 11:35AM
Why stick with something you dislike when there are so many other great books out there? You don't have to write a review anyway, do you?
reply
|
flag
No, it's just that if you bail on a NetGalley book without reading and reviewing it, your overall percentage rating on NetGalley goes down. Some publishers hold that against you. I've only read about 10 NetGalley books so far, so each book I miss still impacts my percentage significantly. I could skim this one and give the second one a shot, see if it's any different. At least then I'd know enough to write a brief review that says "not my cuppa tea."
I hate that you aren't enjoying this series, but I LOOOOOOVE that I didn't fall into the NetGalley trap. This one didn't sound like my idea of a great time, but I really loved Beauty Queens so it took all of my willpower to just say no.
Oh, and also you just have to leave any kind of feedback on NetGalley for it not to count. You can explain that you didn't enjoy #1 and changed your mind about #2 as feedback : )
Kelly (and the Book Boar) wrote: "I hate that you aren't enjoying this series, but I LOOOOOOVE that I didn't fall into the NetGalley trap. This one didn't sound like my idea of a great time, but I really loved Beauty Queens so it ..."Exactly! I fell into the trap and now I feel stupid! I try to be choosy about what I ask for on NetGalley, and I check out GR reviews first, but this one led me astray.
Kelly (and the Book Boar) wrote: "Oh, and also you just have to leave any kind of feedback on NetGalley for it not to count. You can explain that you didn't enjoy #1 and changed your mind about #2 as feedback : )"Oooh, thanks! Good idea!
Tadiana ♕Part-Time Dictator� wrote: "Exactly! I fell into the trap and now I feel stupid! I try to be choosy about what I ask for on NetGalley, and I check out GR reviews first, but this one led me astray."Yeah I just similarly fell into the NetGalley trap of requesting a sequel before reading the first book. Fortunately the books were ok, but I don't know if I would've even read the sequel if I didn't get it from NetGalley.
Yeah, that happens to me often. I am working diligently on my NG rating this year but I'm over stressing about it. Mine is horrible lol
Oh dear, I got it from Netgalley too, without reading the first one ...
Peggy wrote: "Oh dear, I got it from Netgalley too, without reading the first one ..."Maybe you'll like the plot and characters better than I do, Peggy. Evil spirits just really aren't my thing. I'm going to persevere just a little further and see if anything changes my mind.
ETA: I just checked NetGalley and I've got an 83% ratio right now, with just this book outstanding. So I could actually bail on it and still stay above 80%. Hah!
I might like this one, I think ... I enjoy good horror without gore.
Bahahaha I requested book 2 too >.< Well, no answer for now, so I'll see^^
I actually bought this book a long time ago because I usually enjoy Libba Bray's books but I have yet to get around to actually reading it. I'm sorry it didn't connect with you. If you do make it though the second one I will be interested to see if it was similar to the first.
I just started the NetGalley thing and I am still learning how to navigate. I have only been approved for 3 books so far but I haven't requested any in a while because I know how busy my summer months get and I don't want to request something and then not have time for it.
I listened to this on audiobook and really liked it - that said, I TOTALLY understand about Evie, I could definitely see how she would push someone's buttons the wrong way.If there was one thing about this book I didn't like, it was the very heavy sequel bait. I am not a moron - I don't need a cliffhanger or sequel bait to tune in next time.
I am soooooo glad I avoided the siren call of Netgalley. I would have like a 0% rating because I am so slow at reading. I'm on Amazon Vine and since they switched to a 30 day rule to review, I haven't selected books in months.
I've given up on many NG books but I always leave feedback and say why I bailed. Book wasn't grabbing me, deadline came too fast, profanity was too strong for my taste etc. I NEVER make myself read a book I don't want to, and like others have said ANY feedback counts, so your score will continue to rise. Another easy way to get a head start on your score is reading children's books.
Kavita wrote: "I might like this one, I think ... I enjoy good horror without gore."I'm not sure about the no gore thing. With the first murder, the actual murder is closed-door, but the part where they find the dismembered corpse is pretty descriptive. :p I skipped past the details of the other murders so I don't know if that one was the worst or not.
I think NetGalley is better than what I've heard about Amazon Vine, at least since Vine changed some of its rules to be really hardnosed about GOOD feedback. The "archive" date for NG books is usually a few months out.
Casey, when I first got serious about doing NetGalley not too long ago, I picked several "read now" (auto-approved) books to get a record for my feedback. I don't have a separate blog, and I know some publishers won't approve you without one, but I still get approved for a fairly good percentage of the NetGalley books I request now.
I didn't like the horror aspect of this book, either. The thing that actually bothered me the most about the story was that you could take the whole gory murder bit out, and it would make next to no difference, since no one in the book is very affected by it. It brought Evie to the attention of the press in the end, but otherwise, it had no point at all.
It's good to know you can give up on an NG book without hurting your score. But I can't seem to find my NG ratio? Where do I find it? Thanks!Dorcas wrote: "I've given up on many NG books but I always leave feedback and say why I bailed. Book wasn't grabbing me, deadline came too fast, profanity was too strong for my taste etc. I NEVER make myself read..."
Peggy wrote: "It's good to know you can give up on an NG book without hurting your score. But I can't seem to find my NG ratio? Where do I find it? Thanks!"Go to your profile page on NetGalley, and toward the top, under your name, there should be a line item for "Feedback to Approval Ratio."
Thanks--I found it, and it's telling me I'd better read faster. :)Tadiana ♕Part-Time Dictator� wrote: "Peggy wrote: "It's good to know you can give up on an NG book without hurting your score. But I can't seem to find my NG ratio? Where do I find it? Thanks!"
Go to your profile page on NetGalley, a..."
Peggy wrote: "Thanks--I found it, and it's telling me I'd better read faster. :) "The second book I got on NetGalley could only be read on Adobe Digital Editions, which was totally new to me and took me a while to figure out. By the time I did the book had been archived and my ratio was screwed. It's taken me several months to get my ratio up to their magical 80%--I've been taking it slow, only asking for a couple of books at a time.
I just requested a new NG book yesterday and was approved--which immediately dropped my stupid ratio back down into the 70's. :p
Ah, I was in a similar predicament as you - I grabbed The Lair of Dreams when it was up for "Read Now" on NetGalley, because I'm a huge fan of Libba Bray's previous fantasy series (the Gemma Doyle trilogy). I hadn't read The Diviners, though. I ended up just forging ahead with book 2 without reading book 1, but I'm hoping to backtrack at some point. Interesting to read your perspective on this one!
Lily wrote: "Ah, I was in a similar predicament as you - I grabbed The Lair of Dreams when it was up for "Read Now" on NetGalley, because I'm a huge fan of Libba Bray's previous fantasy series (the Gemma Doyle ..."Hah! Well, the good news is I liked Lair of Dreams much better than The Diviners!
I started this last night and I really hated the main character, I don't care for the style of writing either, I was hopeful I would like it but it seems I will dnf it right now.
Sherry wrote: "I started this last night and I really hated the main character, I don't care for the style of writing either, I was hopeful I would like it but it seems I will dnf it right now."It's one of those books that isn't going to appeal to everyone. I just dnf'd Leigh Bardugo's Ninth House which had that same creepy occult thing going. Just not my kind of book.
I like the occult but have difficulty with the writing and the characters in this book. When I don't like the people in the book I can't get into it. I have the same problem with Ninth House, I just don't like Alex and the writing is not Bardugo's usual style, it's a little messy and all over the place.
Yes, saying goodbye really is a thing. Or ya know, try it sometime and lmk how it goes 😅
V. wrote: "Yes, saying goodbye really is a thing. Or ya know, try it sometime and lmk how it goes 😅"I'll pass, thanks very much!!!
