The Diviners: ★★★.5
Lair of Dreams: ★★★★
Before the Devil Breaks You: ★★★
The King of Crows:

I was really expecting to like this a lot more, to be honest. I definitely didn't dislike it, but it wasn't as good as the hype lead me to think it would be.

So what's going on here?
When Evie is sent away from her parent's home in Ohio for being too much to handle, she's expecting to have the time of her life staying with her uncle in the heart of Manhattan. And that she does, with her old friend Mabel, and new friends Theta, Henry, Sam, and Jericho. But what they don't see coming is the ghost of Naughty John come to rise again and destroy the world as they know it. The lives of these teens will tangle in unexpected ways as they fight to uncover the impossible mystery of Naught John before it's too late.

What I loved
I've always been in love with the idea of 1920s New York (just the aesthetic obviously, not the sexism, racism, etc.), as I'm sure a lot of people who read this book are. Bray did a fantastic job at making me feel like I was in this time period, with all the slang and the fashion and the descriptive beauty of her writing, I really enjoyed the whole setting and atmosphere. The spook level was almost perfect too, there was some moments where I was genuinely freaked out, although I wish there were more of those moments. I absolutely adored the majority of the characters, especially Will, Jericho, Sam, Henry, and Memphis. I wasn't huge on Evie, but more on that later. I found the friendships to be really solid, I liked the banter and this little found family inside a dusty museum. I definitely want to read more of that in the next books. My favourite thing about this book though is the writing style! This is my first Libba Bray book and I couldn't be happier that I finally picked this up. I was hooked on her writing right from the prologue, it's just *chef's kiss* perfection!

What I didn't love
My main issue with this novel was Evie, which is why I gave it such a low rating. Her being the main character, I found it difficult to want to pick this up pretty often because I really didn't want to deal with her. She did get better towards the end, but not nearly enough for me to say that I liked her. She is extremely childish, selfish, privileged, and just plain annoying. The only part of her that I liked was the banter between her and Sam, it was pretty funny. But otherwise I found her nearly intolerable. If literally anyone else had been the main character this would have been aa 4 or 4.5 star book for me. I also found the pacing to be a wee bit off, but in all honesty that may have been because I was so tired of dealing with Evie that this book felt like it was draaaaagging lmfao

Overall thoughts
I really did enjoy The Diviners and absolutely plan on continuing this series, despite the complaints I have about Evie. At least for the next books I can go into them knowing that I'm not going to like the main character and can prepare myself ahead of time. And I really really hope Memphis is in the next one more! I adore him