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Stephaniemiller

Stephanie's books and other things

I like books. I like art. I have opinions.....you've been warned.

Currently reading

A Clash of Kings
George R.R. Martin
The Rich and the Rest of Us: A Poverty Manifesto
Tavis Smiley, Cornel West
The Wind Through the Keyhole (The Dark Tower, #4.5)
Stephen King, Jae Lee
Master Strokes: Watercolor: A Step-By-Step Guide to Using the Techniques of the Masters
Hazel Harrison
The Mad Art of Caricature!: A Serious Guide to Drawing Funny Faces
Tom Richmond (Illustrator)
The Diviners - Libba Bray This book irritated the crap out of me.

I gave it 3 stars, but it hovers around the 2.5 mark for me. While I enjoyed the story and it held my interest throughout, the cutesy vernacular made me insane and ruined it for me.

This book is set in the 1920’s when prohibition was in full swing and you couldn’t swing a cat without hitting a bobbed haired flapper girl. Evie (said flapper) was sent away from her fake Ohio town of Zenith to New York City, after a party game showing off her divining power angered the wrong people, to stay with her Uncle Will. But did she call him Uncle Will or just Will or just Uncle? Nope, she insisted on “Unck”. Her uncle asked he if she would “not call him that” (and I cheered) but the annoying little brat refused and every time she called him “Unck” (which was every other sentence) I wanted to reach into the book and pos-i-toot-ly (another frequently used annoying word) grab her by her bobbed hair, look her in the eye and yell “STOP IT”!

*sigh*

Evie isn’t the only Diviner as it turns out, there are several that all end up meeting each other quite conveniently, none as grating as little Evie. One of them, Memphis, is very likable.

Libba, I know this is New York in the 1920’s. I realize that is the way people spoke then, but you really didn’t need to hit the reader in the head with it over and over and over again.

List of annoying words…..

Unck
Doll
Pie face
Pos-i-toot-ly
Jake (apparently this means “everything is alright”)
Sheba

I have read most of what Libba bray has written and I have enjoyed everything up to this point. And I liked the story of the Diviners, but I couldn’t get past them words……