The Diviners

Libba Bray
Young Adult FantasyParanormal MysteryHistorical Fantasy
Cover image for The Diviners series
Young Adult FantasyParanormal MysteryHistorical Fantasy

Summary

Within the bustling streets of 1920s New York, Evie O'Neill discovers her uncanny ability to glimpse the secrets concealed beneath people's surface. Forced into the Department of Occult Crime, she begins her fight against a series of enigmatic murders linked to an ancient evil lurking in the city’s shadows. As the city’s Jazz Age glamour clashes with sinister mysteries, Evie must grapple with her own troubled past and the dangerous power she has awakened. With each clue, she gets closer to the truth, risking her life and sanity in a quest that could save the city — or doom everyone to darkness.

'The Diviners' marks a significant departure from Bray's earlier works, showcasing her sophisticated blend of supernatural mystery, historical detail, and rich character development. Although it has not garnered the same level of mainstream awards as some contemporary fantasy series, it is highly acclaimed within YA circles for its atmospheric setting and compelling portrayal of 1920s New York City. Critics praise its careful research and layered storytelling, though some note that its darker tone and mature themes may not make it suitable for all younger readers. Overall, it holds a special place in Bray's oeuvre as her breakout series that introduced her talent for weaving historical context with paranormal intrigue.

Main Titles

1
The Diviners
Book cover for The Diviners
Evie O'Neill is a restless twenty-year-old transplanted from a small Ohio town to the dizzy, dangerous lights of 1920s New York. She has a secret talent: when she touches objects she can read the...
Evie O'Neill is a restless twenty-year-old transplanted from a small Ohio town to the dizzy, dangerous lights of 1920s New York. She has a secret talent: when she touches objects she can read the memories braided into them. Sent by her guardian to live with relatives, Evie intends to enjoy the jazz, flappers, and freedom, but the city wants more than her dancing feet. When a string of ritualistic murders stains the tabloids, Evie is pulled into an investigation that will demand everything she thought she knew about herself. Drawn into a web of occultists, con-men, and supernatural traces, Evie joins a scattered, haunted circle of gifted young people and survivors—each carrying their own scars and strange abilities. As her power illuminates fragments of the killer's cruelty, she must face the cost of seeing too much. Loyalties, secrets, and a growing darkness converge, and Evie realizes the city itself is alive with forces that won't let her go.
2012 Year
8 Publications
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2
Lair of Dreams
Book cover for Lair of Dreams
The city still trembles from the murders that introduced Evie to its underbelly, but a new and subtler threat stalks sleeping New Yorkers. A charmer named Henry introduces a hypnotic, intoxicating...
The city still trembles from the murders that introduced Evie to its underbelly, but a new and subtler threat stalks sleeping New Yorkers. A charmer named Henry introduces a hypnotic, intoxicating dream drug that blurs the line between desire and delusion. Evie cannot ignore reports of residents slipping into violent, prophetic sleep—dreams that leave dark marks in waking life. As she probes, her own nighttime visions begin to shift, pulling personal memories into the public myths of the city. Evie must join forces with the same ragged constellation of diviners and outsiders, whose powers respond unpredictably to the dream contagion. Friendships are tested as private longings are exposed and new betrayals surface. The hunt moves from the alleys into the private rooms of dreamers, and Evie must learn to tell where her own heart ends and the city's dreams begin if she hopes to keep anyone she loves from being swallowed whole.
2015 Year
6 Publications
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3
Before the Devil Breaks You
Book cover for Before the Devil Breaks You
The fragile calm after the dreamwave fractures into something more personal and more lethal. Evie finds herself forced to confront not only the monsters that haunt the city but also the ghosts...
The fragile calm after the dreamwave fractures into something more personal and more lethal. Evie finds herself forced to confront not only the monsters that haunt the city but also the ghosts within her circle—secrets and rivalries that have grown sharp as knives. A charismatic new figure promises protection at a terrible cost, and old alliances strain under the weight of revenge. The killings accelerate and become more intimate, pulling each of the diviners toward choices that will mark them forever. Evie's investigative gifts are pushed past their limits as family histories and hidden powers surface, revealing that the violence is woven into the city’s very foundations. Trust erodes as suspects wear familiar faces, and Evie must decide whom to save and what she will sacrifice. Every clue uncovers another wound, and the stakes grow: victory may mean losing everything she once called home.
2017 Year
2 Publications
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4
The King of Crows
Book cover for The King of Crows
A darker, more ruthless presence settles over the city, and Evie can feel its weight in objects and in the shifting souls of those she loves. The conspiracies that hooked her in from the beginning...
A darker, more ruthless presence settles over the city, and Evie can feel its weight in objects and in the shifting souls of those she loves. The conspiracies that hooked her in from the beginning begin to converge, revealing a chilling architecture of power and vengeance. As bodies pile up and the line between life and afterlife blurs, Evie must marshal every skill and ally she has left, including estranged friends whose methods she can't fully trust. As the net tightens, Evie faces a final, intimate reckoning: to outwit an enemy who knows her better than she knows herself, she must expose her deepest truths and let others do the same. Loyalties fracture, sacrifices are demanded, and the city’s undercurrent of grief and rage threatens to overturn all they've fought for. In the end, Evie must choose what kind of person she will be when the crows circle and the music stops.
2020 Year
3 Publications
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