The Diviners

The more I read of this book, the less I liked it. Before the last two hundred pages, I was mentally writing a very different review.

First of all, I don't like horror and I don't like thriller and I don't like suspense. These are things that I know I don't like - except, sometimes, the type of horror doesn't bother me. (Example: Whyborne & Griffin series by Jordan L. Hawk, which is a Lovecraftian inspired horror series. That works for me, somehow.)

This book started out delightfully creepy and atmospheric, took a sharp turn to ‘too much for me' around the third/fourth death (probably didn't help that I was reading it at night, after everyone else had already gone to bed) and then took a strong leap with both feet to the realm of ‘I physically cannot care anymore/bored now' when Jericho told about his past. It was like my level of macabre and horror had been filled and now all the stress and tension was just draining out. I literally couldn't care anymore and during the final confrontation, I was bored. There had been so much terrible up to that point, whatever new stuff was going on just didn't register for me.

(Also, up until that point, I wasn't sure if I would be continuing this series or not. I won't be, partially because of the problems that I had with this book, but also because I read the synopsis of the next three and...there are too many things I dislike just in the synopsis. For my own happiness, I need to stop here.)

Of the things I did like, at the top is the setting. Manhattan in the 1920's, how cool is that? Look, I love anything from the 20's, 30's and, possibly, the 40's. Hard work has to be put into any story like that to make me dislike it. And the research that the author did was obvious and amazing.

I also mostly like the characters, even when they aren't being exactly likable - though I wanted them to all meet up and defeat the big bad together. Because they didn't, this leaves me feeling like this is one long, (super long) extended (super extended) prologue. I mean, for me, groups are very important and in horror, non-solo is the most important. Also, the fact that, really, only Evie's group dealt with the coming anti-Christ...it kind of left the other people's stories bland.

Finally, I just think this book was too long. I thought that even when I was enjoying it, because everything moves so slow.