Tag: mabel

Lair of Dreams (The Diviners, #2) by Libba Bray

Lair of Dreams (The Diviners, #2) by Libba Bray

Something is attacking sleepers during their dreams. They enter another realm, tempted by their deepest desires and then become haunted by their greatest fears, and never wake up.

“For dreams, too, are ghosts, desires chased in sleep, gone by morning. The longing of dreams draws the dead, and this city holds many dreams.” pg 9, ebook.

Photo by Francesca Zama on Pexels.com

All of your favorite characters from The Diviners are back on the case while dealing with drama in their personal lives. And readers are introduced to a new diviner, a talented dream walker named Ling.

“Ling often spoke to the dead in dreams, but these men weren’t like any dead she had known. ‘What do you want?’ she’d asked them, afraid. ‘Help us,’ they said, and then the sky exploded with light.” pg 19, ebook

Even as the characters face the menace in their dreams, something even bigger and darker is on the horizon, threatening the future of the entire country.

Lair of Dreams is a story by itself, but it leads to a bigger story arc and the third book in the series.

Libby Bray has created a richly detailed world of Prohibition-era New York with flappers, flasks and speak-easys. She effortlessly transports the reader from Harlem to Chinatown and back again.

Photo by Guilherme Rossi on Pexels.com

Evie O’Neill, now “America’s Sweetheart Seer”, is just as sassy as she’s always been. But she’s come a long way since the last book and stepping into her power has given her a smidgen of gravitas.

“Evie only told the object holder what he or she wanted to hear. People wanted entertainment, yes, but mostly they wanted hope.”pg 23, ebook

Fans of Henry get to learn more of his backstory. Theta and Memphis continue to develop their relationship, while Memphis’ brother, Isaiah, faces a shadowy menace of his own. Mabel and Jericho receive less attention in this installment, but they do have some development too.

My complaint with Lair of Dreams is that I found the dream sequences repetitive. It slowed the forward motion of the plot to a plodding pace. Other than that, the characters are fantastic and the dialogue is snappy.

Photo by Ena Marinkovic on Pexels.com

It is a fun historical fiction and fantasy novel for young adults, but readers have to practice some patience during its reveal.

Check out my review of the first book in the series: The Diviners (The Diviners, #1) by Libba Bray

And thanks for reading!

The Diviners (The Diviners, #1) by Libba Bray

The Diviners (The Diviners, #1) by Libba Bray

The Diviners is a surprisingly complex young adult novel about a returned evil, supernatural powers, secrets and mystery. It is set during the Prohibition Era in New York.

“A faint glow emanates from that dark, foul-smelling earthen tomb. Yes, something moves again in the shadows. A harbinger of much greater evil to come.” pg 10, ebook.

Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com

Evie, the heroine of our tale, has the ability to read people, emotions and past events from objects. She is a diviner, a snappy dresser and one of the most delightful characters I’ve read about this year. And how!

After an unfortunate reading of an object from one of the most powerful families in her hometown, Evie is sent to be with her uncle Will in New York. He runs a museum of the occult and supernatural. Jericho, his ward, lives in the museum with Evie’s uncle. Jericho has a, you guessed it, secret past.

“Last but not least, here is the place where we spend most of our time: the library.” Jericho opened a set of mahogany pocket doors, and Evie let out a whistle. She’d never seen such a room. It was as if it had been transported here from some spooky fairy-tale castle.” pg 34, ebook.

Photo by Suzy Hazelwood on Pexels.com

Evie’s best friend, Mabel, has a major crush on Jericho. Evie attempts to play matchmaker, help her uncle’s museum succeed and help solve the occult-related murders that are occurring all over New York City.

Meanwhile, Memphis is a numbers runner for the top man in Harlem. He has a secret past as well and a nightmare that haunts him each night.

Theta, a showgirl for the Ziegfeld follies, is running away from her dark past and towards the bright lights of New York. Her roommate has, gasp, secrets too.

Photo by Bob Ward on Pexels.com

As the characters’ lives begin to intertwine, they race to stop a killer and, potentially, the end of the world.

Highly recommended for fans of young adult fantasy. The Diviners is a magical trip through the past and a world where ghosts and supernatural powers are real.

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

A beautiful, magic-tinged tale of an aging couple, the bleak Alaskan wilderness and a child who appears one day in the wood.

Mabel and Jack always wanted a child, but after suffering a miscarriage, they begin to lose hope of ever conceiving. Mabel suffers in female society without a child of her own.

She begs Jack to take her to Alaska for a fresh start. He agrees. But it doesn’t work.

The weather is dark and freezing. The ground is hard and takes more effort than Jack can give. They aren’t thriving.

“All her life she had believed in something more, in the mystery that shape-shifted at the edge of her senses. It was the flutter of moth wings on glass and the promise of river nymphs in the dappled creek beds. … Mabel could not remember the last time she caught such a flicker.” pg 6, ebook.

Photo by Sara Loeffler on Pexels.com

Then, out of the blue, a child magically appears during a snow storm.

She is so light on her feet and silent, Jack and Mabel don’t at first believe their eyes. The child travels with a fox and barely leaves prints to follow on the snow.

“What did he expect to find? A fairy-tale beast that holds young girls captive in a mountain cave? … Or nothing at all, no child, no tracks, no door, only insanity bared in the untouched snow? That is perhaps what he feared the most, that he would discover he had followed nothing more than an illusion.” pg 72, ebook.

Mabel remembers a Russian fairy tale from her childhood, of a couple who builds a girl out of snow. In the story within the story, the girl becomes real.

Photo by Ramirez Cooper on Pexels.com

Could Jack and Mabel have created the child they have always dreamed of?

“I am sorry to say no matter which version, the story ends badly. The little snow girl comes and goes with winter, but in the end she always melts.” pg 96, ebook.

How will Jack and Mabel’s story end?

Recommended for fans of historical fiction and tales that contain magical realism.

Photo by Gantas Vaiu010diulu0117nas on Pexels.com

“In my old age, I see that life itself is often more fantastic and terrible than the stories we believed as children, and that perhaps there is no harm in finding magic among the trees.” pg 189, ebook.

I thought The Snow Child was beautiful and well-told. Highly recommended.

I don’t think The Snow Child has been made into a film, yet, but it has been staged as a musical play.

Thanks for reading!