Besides the fact that I bent the cover right down the middle, from top to bottom on my last day of reading it, this book was oh so good, oh so creepy, oh so mystical! 
 Every year a book comes out that holds the attention of everyone, even if merely glimpsed at. It's a monster of a book! It's a beast of a book! And it even contains The Beast inside! But when you blind yourself from the length of the book you find a dark and mysterious story full of magical and non-magical, special and not-so-special individuals finding their way across the landscape of New York City in the 1920's - from Central Park where the Museum of American Folklore, Superstition, and the Occult is, to Harlem, to the bright lights of Broadway and its stages. New York City is a character in itself as is the time in history The Diviners and this series was set - a period where the world was growing, changing, rising up from the grounds after a time of heartache in the Great War. Libba Bray has written a truly remarkable tale that still has so much to be explored in consequent books. 
 Although The Diviners allows you to journey across New York through many characters, one character that this book centres upon is Evie O'Neill, the new girl in town. Although she finds herself as the victim so many times throughout this story, she does not dwell on that so much and becomes the heroine that this story needs so very dearly. She was reckless and impulsive, always with the hope that what she was doing would present information that would have remained in the shadows unseen if not for her actions (Evie reminded me of a young, olden-day Carrie from Homeland - reckless and impulsive). But despite her impulsivity Evie is always thinking about her friends and her uncle, even at the worst of times - always thinking about her deceased brother. The rest of the cast was simply divine to read about too and learning about each of their backstories and magical abilities (if they had any) was splendid. 
 "Naughty John, Naughty John, does his work with his apron on. Cuts your throat and takes your bones, sells 'em off for a coupla stones." 
 The Diviners is a four book series, and as it has already begun epically well and Libba Bray has introduced to us an alternate-like New York City habited by a colourful cast of characters the next books in the series can only get more epic, darker, and tantalising. After the mystery of Naughty John the occult killer and the Brethren and the unfolding of the events in The Diviners, I am unsure of what's in store for our characters that we have grown to adore and understood such as Evie, Memphis, Jericho, Sam, Mabel, Henry, Theta and dear old Uncle Will. 
 "Why is this happening now?" Evie asked. 
 Will templed his fingers again. "I don't know. Something is drawing the likes of John Hobbes. Some energy here. Spirits are attracted to seismic shifts, chaos and political upheaval, religious movements, war and invention, industry and innovation. There were said to be a great many ghost sightings and unexplained phenomena reported during the American Revolution, and again during the Civil War. This country is founded on a certain tension." He pressed his fists against each other. "There is a dualism inherent in democracy - opposing forces pushing against each other, always. Culture clashes. Different belief systems. All coming together to create this country. But this balance takes a great deal of energy - and, as I've said, spirits are attached to energy." He let his hands rest on the desk. 
 I wonder what else looms over New York... only time will tell. The Diviners has never a dull moment and Libba Bray has created a paranormal mystery like no other and a favourite of 2012. Future paranormal novels have some distance to cover, because The Diviners is surely a front-runner.