Title: Lair of Dreams (Diviners #2)
Author: Libba Bray
Genre: Young Adult // Historical // Paranormal
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: August 25, 2015
Format: Physical
Source: Purchased (Amazon)
After a supernatural showdown with a serial killer, Evie O'Neill has outed herself as a Diviner. Now that the world knows of her ability to "read" objects, and therefore, read the past, she has become a media darling, earning the title, "America's Sweetheart Seer." But not everyone is so accepting of the Diviners' abilities...
Meanwhile, mysterious deaths have been turning up in the city, victims of an unknown sleeping sickness. Can the Diviners descend into the dreamworld and catch a killer (goodreads)?
FINALLY. I've been awaiting the sequel to The Diviners for a year, and I'm happy to say that Lair of Dreams did not disappoint!
Plot: The struggle with all sequels is not being able to remember what happened in the first book. Luckily, Libba Bray thinks of everything and feeds the reader small snippets of what happened in The Diviners to help jog memory.
Libba Bray introduces a new paranormal mystery that unravels little by little. Libba Bray never fails to get me invested in one of her unique mysteries and the tale of the Sleeping Sickness is no different. I will say that Lair of Dreams lacks the creeptastic gore that I came to love in The Diviners. Instead, I connected with Lair of Dreams on a more emotional level.
Along with the Sleeping Sickness mystery, Lair of Dreams hints at the overall conflict which leaves the reader with nothing but questions as the novel concludes.
Characters: Everyone that you know and love from The Diviners is back, and then some! We are introduced to Ling Chan, the Chinese-Irish-American girl with a love for science and a knack for dream walking. I abso-tive-ly adored her spunk and the amount of love and attention that Libba Bray put into her character.
Along with some new faces, the gang reunites and digs deeper into their Diviner gifts. While The Diviners was Evie-centric, I felt that Evie was barely present in Lair in Dreams. Instead, we follow Henry's desire to become a musician and explore his emotional past. My main obsession with this series is Bray's dedication to her characters. Each person that makes an appearance in Lair of Dreams is breathed into life with enough backstory to make you empathize or want to learn more. Evie is clearly going through a rough patch after the events of The Diviners and we are able to see how Naughty Jon affected her and her relationships with others.
The love triangle that played second fiddle in The Diviners comes more to light in Lair of Dreams and rips my soul into little pieces. I lost a lot of hope for my ship, but I'm not giving up! NEVER.
World Building: While reading this book, I had to actively stop myself from using 1920s slang when talking to family and friends. This world is so engulfing that I physically had to pull myself back to the 21st century. One thing that makes Libba Bray's 1920s so perfect is that she doesn't shy from its brutal history. The KKK rears its ugly head, the Chinese citizens are threatened with deportation, and African Americans have to watch their music stolen from the streets of Harlem and paraded as a White invention. It is also fascinating that the characters remark on The Great American Future and Exceptionalism while damning minorities in the same breath.
Short N Sweet: Lair of Dreams is posi-tut-tely thrilling and will have you obsessively refreshing GoodReads for an update on the third installment.
Labels: 4.5 stars, book review, brown books for young readers, lair of dreams, libba bray, little, review, the diviners
