by Libba Bray
We’re back in New York 1927 with our old “Diviners” crew with a spooky, new case and some new faces. Will our heroes finally realize that they need to work together to save their city? Or will their secrets keep them apart? Let’s find out!
Read if you like: YA, paranormal mysteries, historical fiction, spooky stories, multiple POV narration, plot building, dynamic characters that unfold on the page, unrequited love, forbidden love, slow burn.
Evie O’Neill has outed her Diviner gift and now that she’s been dubbed “The Sweetheart Seer” her radio fame has only caused problems for her friend group. But beyond this a strange sleeping sickness is slowly spreading through the city and it appears to have no cause and no cure. Will our motley crew of Diviners be able to dream up a way to stop the sickness and decipher all the signs? Maybe. If all of them could ever be in one place at one time. It’s called communication, folks!
Now that I am familiar with the storytelling and pacing of this series, I found The Lair of Dreams to be so compelling. The chapters in this book are broken up into days and you get several if not everyone’s POV during that day, depending of course if they are directly involved with those chronological events. I really enjoy that Libba Bray keeps everything heading in the same directional timeline as she provides us with all the different character’s perspective and insights. She jams all these little tidbits that you know are going to be important either in this book or later in the series and I find myself entranced and reading so slowly because I don’t want to miss anything important.
Again, I love all the characters. We have everyone from the first book and we pick up a friend or two along the way. But no matter how much time they get on the page, I’m invested in everyone’s storyline. Everyone is compelling in their own right, dealing with their personal issues and how the social climate of the 1920s affects them. The love stories are great. Evie is a wreck and her spiral has an effect on nearly every character’s life. Even though there’s this big mystery going on I can’t wait to get bits and pieces of Evie and how she’s dealing with her new ‘Diviner’ life. I just hope everything goes well for our Sweetheart Seer.
Also, good for me. I didn’t feel like the spookiness was as spooky as book one. It was still suspenseful and full of paranormal goodness but didn’t have as many creepy religious undertones that had me in chills every time someone started spouting prophecy. ::shudder:: I’ll take regular malevolent, restless-spirit ghosts over demonically evil ghosts any day.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book and I cannot wait to see what everyone will get themselves into in the third installment of The Diviners series “Before the Devil Breaks You.”
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