The Sassy Librarian: Libba Bray

Libba Bray

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The Diviners (The Diviners #1) by Libba Bray

It's not a gigantic secret that I love Libba Bray. Like "light candles to her image" kind of love. She's brainy, funny and a brilliant writer, as evidenced by not only her kick-ass historical paranormal Gemma Doyle series, but also such amazing books as Beauty Queens and Going Bovine. I loved Libba Bray before Libba Bray was cool.

So when I heard over a year ago that she was writing a new series, inspired by 1920s icons like Zelda Fitzgerald and Dorothy Parker, I practically wept with happiness. If anyone could capture the zeitgeist of the era and employ her brand of funny and poignant, it was Libba.

Why did it take me until page 180 to really begin to like this book then?

There were a couple of reasons. First, this book is dark and I mean DARK. No one is a happy person in this book and Libba Bray does the best job of capturing the frenetic attitude and sense of doom which characterized the Lost Generation since F. Scott Fitzgerald.

But these brittle, jaded, impossibly sad people don't make it easy to connect with them. Evie, the main character, jangles the nerves with her flippant flapper slang and odor of desperation as she tries to drink herself into oblivion, succumbing to the need for attention with her "gift" of reading objects which reveal their owner's secrets to her. It got her kicked out of her hometown in Ohio, and she's much more content to be spending her exile in Manhattan with a preoccupied uncle who runs an unsuccessful museum of the occult.

The U.K. version of the cover

While I struggled to like Evie (I finally warmed up to her around that page 180 when she started to show she had a brain investigating the mystery), I was also initally distracted by all the other characters in the book. Once again, you have to patiently wade through the first 200 pages before we begin to see below their surface, but the three-dimensional quality Bray endows them with is worth it. Memphis, the Harlem numbers runner trying to care for his younger brother; Theta, the stunning Ziegfield girl who lives in the same building as Evie and has a violent past; Uncle Will, a professor running a strange museum who seems to understand all too well the mysterious happenings going on; Mabel, the neglected daughter of radicals who tries to be good but is tempted by Evie and Theta's jazz baby ways; Jericho, Uncle Will's faithful assistant whose stolid demeanor hides an incredible secret; and Sam, the pickpocket fascinated by Evie who has an agenda of his own, namely finding the mother stolen from him as a boy.

Because all of these people, and many of the equally as well-drawn secondary characters, are "diviners" or people with supernatural abilities who will be crucial in the upcoming conflict, although we really don't know what form that storm will take, even after almost 600 pages. The last 400 pages of the book contain a real rip-snorter of a mystery (now that the foundation for the time period and character basics are laid) and, since I imagine that this series is at least a trilogy, that first third of the book is probably a reasonable dedication of resources.

Spanish language version

Let me tell you, there is some kind of a creepy mystery involved. A cult, gruesome murders described in detail, and the further unraveling of each characters abilities send nonstop chills down your spine. Alongside the mystery, we finally go in depth with each character, getting a sense of what makes them tick and, as in all her books, Libba Bray does not shy away from reality for her YA audience.

Theta's abuse is clearly detailed and as the attraction between her and Memphis ramps up, it's clear in this era that this budding romance could end in tremendous racial violence. The distrust of government - as seen through the eyes of Sam, whose mother is part of the mysterious Project Buffalo (to be explained in more detail in a future book) and Jericho who was literally made a human experiment, as well as the sinister blind man, Bill, who seems to have had repeated exposure to an early version of "Men in Black" - actually fits the tone of the Lost Generation post-WWI era perfectly.

Librarians: this book is going to be a hot property when the new The Great Gatsby film comes out in 2013 and everything twenties becomes new again. Libba Bray's research is meticulous and exhaustive and it shows - every detail is so pitch-perfect for this era that I just sat there, utterly dazzled reading all these amazing references. The afterword in the book says that the companion website to the series would have a bibliography, but I couldn't find one at this point on there.

This book possesses Libba Bray's usual writing skill, particularly in the historical details and slow reveal of character depths, and I'm going to definitely read the next book in the series, particularly after seeing how the book progressed in pacing. The story arc laid is sufficiently fascinating that I think this series has a lot of potential to live up to her reputation. I'm glad I stuck it out through those first 200 pages!

Book trailer from Little, Brown & Co

Libba Bray is a genius as anyone who has bothered reading her blog would know. But for those people who read Going Bovine and still might be on the fence (seriously...after that?) then the final nail in the coffin of your conjecture will be a good read of Beauty Queens.

That is, if you like satire. I do although it's rare that I get to read it in a book geared toward young adults. I would say, on the satire spectrum, that Beauty Queens is somewhere between Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock and The Simpsons. Probably a shade closer to The Simpsons actually, because a) they are funny and b) for other stuff that will become evident as I write this blog post.

Before I go into the plot blah blah, can we take a moment to admire the cover??? The smudged sash (there was a plane wreck, duh) and the bandolier of red and pink lipstick (which looks cool but I imagine is really unhygenic, put those caps on, girlie!) - is awesome and gripping (although a subset of reader will be attracted to the tanned blond in the bikini. Whatever. I can't live your life for you.)

Okay, to the actual novel. As we discover in Libba's introduction, in the not too distant future a group of contestants for the Miss Teen Dream pageant has had a plane wreck on an island in the middle of nowhere (but not as nowhere as we first believe). Only a handful of them survive, and despite believing that they will be imminently rescued, they spin their talent portion into figuring out the basics of food, safety, and shelter while sizing up the competition.

Amid all of this, in a world heavily run by "The Corporation" and rife with reality television shows (yes, more than now, which I realize is hard to believe), a group of non-government affiliated agents are inhabiting the island's volcano (I know...Libba Bray is a big James Bond fan, read the acknowledgments at the end of the book, it's like a bonus chapter) and determining how best to rid themselves of the girls so they can get on with their nefarious plot. No, I am not telling what that is. You have to read the book.

Not to sound hokey, but at the center of the humor, the girls discover who they are - this amazing group of young women wrestle more than the psycho gigantic snakes and hallucinogenic fruit to figure out what they like and don't like about their lives, making real friends in the process. All this amid an avalanche of funny. The self-esteem message is subtle enough to be cool and not after-school-special-ey, going down real easy while you're laughing at the snappy dialogue and funny commercials (yes, I said commercials. This book has commercials and they are hilarious.) Oh, and there are hot, oiled teen pirates. Enough said *wink, wink*!

Did you know there was a cool contest for readers ages 13 to 18? Yeah-huh! You need to enter before July 1, 2011 but you could win an Amex gift card or Sephora gift card for $250. She really knows her audience! Check out the video (remember, Libba makes great videos - don't you remember the Going Bovine video where she wore a cow costume, complete with a...rather prominent...udder?):

So grab your tiara (don't act like there's not one in the house, we can all see it RIGHT THERE) and a copy of the Beauty Queens and get ready for a special in-flight entertainment. (Disclaimer: the hardcover copy is not a flotation device.)

Image via Wikipedia

Folks, if you don't already know of my writer-crush on Libba Bray (yes, I am, as far as I know it, inventing this term of "writer-crush": (n) when you are insanely in love with the writing of a given author and obsessed with making other people see their genius), you will after this post. I was pretty smug when Going Bovine won the Printz award because I had been yakking about it for months as I boasted in this blog, so you can imagine how much I was looking forward to watching her speech. Sadly, I couldn't stay at ALA Annual 2010 for the Printz Award dinner, but I knew my trusty and technologically savvy YALSA wouldn't let me down (hello, AASL? Why don't we see video of the NSLMPY winners? Hint, hint).

So I was ready with the popcorn when I saw that YALSA had posted the link to the blip.tv video of her accepting her award. Be warned: it is long and it is funny and poignant, a lot like reading Going Bovine, so if you're a crier like me (acid test, do you do a lot sniffing at the new iPhone 4 commercials?) you will need tissues. Also of note, but not quite as spectacular as hearing Libba, is the excellent School Library Journal article on her, published in the latest issue. Enjoy!