First of all, let me begin by saying that this book solidified my fear of British teenagers.

The Divines is an expertly written literary novel that combines measures of hilarity, coldness, and all the trappings of teenage turmoil into one weirdly compelling and moving story. I fully intended to just be *okay* with this book, but I was pleasantly surprised. It's strange because while reading it I definitely wasn't having any fun ... moments of this book were straight-up cringe-worthy, and it had themes that I typically don't enjoy in books - academia, bullying, flashing backwards and forwards in time - and yet I couldn't stop listening. The narrator of the audiobook completely brought the characters alive and made them feel so realistic and 3D. I think if I would have read a physical copy of this book, a lot of the humor would have been completely lost on me, so hats off to the narrator!

4 stars. This book surprised me.

Although I was intrigued by the story originally, the amount of sexual references overshadowed the story of the novel. Unfortunately this was not a success for me.

The Divines, by Ellie Eaton, is a hard book for me to review. There were times while listening that I wanted to scream at Josephine and other times I felt like hugging her. It was compelling and frustrating at the same time, but in the end I realized I was completely blown away by the story. Imogen Church was the perfect narrator and I’m so glad I listened to this one. I definitely would recommend this coming of age story to anyone.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Audio for the opportunity to listen to this audiobook.

This book was the perfect escape. It was lovely and fun. It was my first book by this author and I will definitely be on the look out for more!!

For a debut novel, I’m super impressed. The writing was really great, especially for a first book. It made me feel like I was there with all of the characters and like I was experiencing what they were experiencing. The book also has a really great atmosphere, and I felt like a could physically see the landscape and feel the environment. I also feel like a author did a really great job capturing the feelings of our teenaged narrator. I felt like a lot of her insecurities and emotion were really accurate and well written.
I think my only real issue here was that I was just kind of underwhelmed by the mystery. There were little things throughout the book that I though would lead to something, but they never did. I loved reading the book and watching the mystery build, but I just don’t think it built to enough.
This book is more than just a mystery, so the big reveal being underwhelming doesn’t take too much away from the rest of it. This was still a really well written and interesting story, and I’ll recommend it to people when it comes out.

I really loved the narrator, Imogen Church. I have listened to things by her before and have always enjoyed her style. The setting for the book was very intriguing to me, as I always love a good boarding school mystery. However, the plot fell flat for me. At the end I kept thinking, I have just a short amount left - how are they going to wrap this up? Nothing felt resolved to me, nor did it feel like there was a sequel coming. The main character, Jo, was likeable enough until the last quarter or so. Then I felt like she was withdrawing from her family and not acting like herself. Overall, this was okay. I liked listening to it, but the story line wasn't great.

I got 20% of the way through this and it reminded me of The Lightness to much at the beginning, slow and I wasn't really sure where it was going. Also, I may have had premature thoughts on it since the narrator voiced 2 audiobooks I wasn't a fan of and it may have given me bad vibes because of that. (She's a great narrator, when you've cringed through 20 hours of other books with the same voice, you can't help but immediately cringe again.)

First and foremost, thank you Netgalley and William Morrow for the free audio advance copy.

Unfortunately, I was quite underwhelmed by the plot and eventual ending of this book.
Initially, I thought it would be a compelling thriller tale. Something about boarding school murders and misbehaviors draws me in. But the plot kept going round and round in circles without ever clearly revealing what happened the infamous night when a girl fell out her dorm window.

We follow Jo, or as an adult know as Josephine. One of the quirks of the young ladies who attended this boarding school was that they all called each other by male names. individually, but as a group they refer to themselves as Divine.
Josephine starts telling her husband little stories about her time at school and what it was like. The novel jumps from present day with Jo grown up and married, to her past school days. There were quite a few scandals--from girls pranking and hazing each other to a consistent stream of dick pics being left around school grounds. The story itself was compelling and these events kept me intrigued, but I wanted to know what the driving force of the novel was going to be. What was Jo trying to uncover and why were we following her adult life and her younger school days? Something is bound to link to two tales, right? Nope...

I kept plodding along hoping something would happen to start clicking the scenes of the story together. Towards the very end, I begin to realize that Jo has been a massively unreliable narrator.
She attends her school reunion and younger girls gush about how they admired her and looked up to her. Her best friend, Skipper (who was portrayed as a very mean girl) spoke to how Jo was the ring leader and The Divines looked to her for direction. Our understanding of the situation from Jo's perspective was the exact opposite. She portrayed herself as the victim in all these adolescent situations, when in fact she was more of the culprit behind the madness.
The story ends with Jo meeting up with her not dead roommate, Jerry. This awkward meeting solidifies my theory that Jo's perception of the past was completely skewed. After a drawn out conversation, finally Jo admits that she hasn't reached out to Jerry in all this time because she thought Jerry was dead. Jerry's reaction is harsh and angry, which shows me Jo left a much crueler impression on people than she lead us to believe.

I suppose the book is a commentary on human perception. How we always view ourselves as the hero when in fact we can really be the villain. We see the world around us through a lens. A lens that distorts the bad behavior and paints those actions in a better light. Jo, as a character, shows just how far we will go to accept ourselves and cope with what we have done.

This book was so good!!! I love the switching from present day and to the past. I loved learning about how the choices the main character made as a school girl really affected her whole life. I wish she had given herself grace some of those decisions but the last can’t be changed and this is a good lesson in learning from your mistakes and making better choices in the future.

3.75/5 ⭐️
This is just about a all girls boarding school and the shit they get up to and the drama and bullying ect. I did like the duo time lines tho

I picked this book up because it was compared to The Girls and I loved that book. This book deffinatly held up to that comparison. The book had a very similar vibe to that book though the writing is far less soft and lyrical. I still liked this book just as much.
I really liked the back and forth from past to present even if that is a bit over used in thrillers I felt it worked really well in this context. I liked feeling like I was jarred back and forth. Thr effect actually made the whole thing feel a little hazy and dream like.
I also liked that none of the characters were particularly likeable. When that is done right it really elevates a story for me and Eaton pulled it off nearly flawlessly. I couldn't stand any of the girls both past and present. I could feel their hatred and abject pettiness seepimg though each page.
Over all this was a solid read. I would deffinatly recommend it though probably as fiction or thriller. I would never label this as women's fiction. That is really my only issue with this book is how ot wad labeled.

*Thank you very much to the publisher for this ARC.*


Unfortunate DNF at 40%.
I felt disconnected from both the past and present versions of the narrator. I had expected some intentional disconnect as we unwound the character, but I felt like the writing was disjointed to the point where there wasn’t much to hold onto.
One of the more interesting plot points was the tension between the town folk and the boarding schoolers, which I would have liked to see the outcome of.

St John The Divine is an English boarding school for girls. The schools goal is to offer an elite selection of girls an exceptional education, and friendship for life. But in reality it produced hateful, sex obsessed, delinquent, pack mentality piranhas.
Josephine once fit in amount the Divines. Now fifteen years later, in reflection, she knows what she did was wrong. Her part in the schools scandal has haunted her for years. She has tried to forget the past, but it has a way of popping up again and again. She must face what she did and who she hurt.

Listening to Imogen Church narrate this audio book was a delight. I have heard her voice in several audiobooks, and find it to be hypnotic and versatile. She can go from posh English accent to a harsh New Yorker and a German male with obvious ease. The audio version brings life to characters. I found myself quickly immersed in the story being told, and could block out distractions.

The Divines is a different take on life in boarding school. Of course it touches on bullying, sex, drugs and scandal. But it also tells the story of regret and the PTSD that is very real for some of these girls. Living without parental supervision in the wolf pack of adolescent girls who essentially run the school, is a huge life experience. It not something you forget.
I easily related to Josephine's character, even though I never went to private school. Every girl has experienced sexual experimentation, social embarrassment and envy. I felt the hurt of her rejection, bringing up memories of girls I idolized in school.
Bouncing back and forth from school life in the 90s, to Josephine in her thirties, shows how her actions have effected her adult life. How friends you insist will be there forever, have disappeared. Its heartbreaking and so completely true.
Eaton has written an important book for teen girls and adults. Her words will ring true to both generations and hopefully force reflection and change. Bullying may have changed shape throughout the years, but it never goes away.

I read and reviewed this book as audio and a visual ebook. Of the two I would recommend the audio version, because of the extra bit it brings to the characters. The book is excellent either way.

I only got about a half an hour into this audiobook when it stopped working altogether and I could not get it to start playing again. The part I was able to hear was excellent; it sounded like the beginning of a really intriguing story.

The Divines is the nickname of the privileged, hair flicking teenage girls who attend an English boarding school called St. John the Divine in the 90s. The narrative switches between present day wife and mother Josephine and her experience as a teenage Divine student called Joe.

This story left me feeling conflicted as it was very intriguing, but uncomfortable on many levels. I loved the haunting, twisted atmosphere of the boarding school but disliked revisiting the awkwardness and cruelty of teenage girls and the toxic group mindset of the Divines. I loved Imogen Church's spirited rendition of the audio-book but I think her strong personality sometimes overpowered the author's more subtle voice. It reminded me a lot of Ruth Ware's stories, at first I thought this was due to Imogen Church's voice but I went back to the written version after finishing the audio-book and both Ellie Eaton's writing style and the dark and twisted nature of the story were reminiscent of Ruth Ware's books. I would recommend this book if you like dark, suspenseful stories!

Thank you NetGalley and Harper Audio for allowing me to listen to an advanced copy of this audio-book in exchange for an honest review.

The Divines was a gripping work of literary fiction. Fast paced and full of spice, this story revolves around boarding school girls and a disastrous event that changed them forever. The author’s raw, provocative style of writing reminded me of Colleen Hoover. The Divines was a stunning debut novel chock full of fascinating characters, propulsive plot, and heat. The audiobook was expertly narrated and highly enjoyable.

Thank you NetGalley, author, publisher, and narrator for the opportunity to listen to this audiobook. The opinions in this review are entirely my own.

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The premise of this one immediately drew me in and I was really looking forward to seeing this story playout. Unfortunately this one was a miss for me. The main character is so unlikeable. We see glimpses of her as an adult and glasses of her at boarding school and there's absolutely no personal growth.

Most importantly I have no idea who the audience for this book is.

I will say the narration was great.

Unfortunately, this book was a miss for me. I can't lie and say that the story didn't draw me in; I love the promise of a dark and twisted girls' school story. But there were key aspects about this one that really left me with a sour taste in my mouth.

Our main character was generally unlikeable, which I typically don't mind, but I was hoping for some kind of growth by the end that felt like a significant change. The fatphobia that continued throughout the book was never addressed, and intense internalized homophobia never seemed to really grow or change either. I appreciate what the author was trying to do with these elements by creating characters that exemplify the darkest parts of teen girls, but the lack of resolution within these storylines was disappointing to me personally. The story felt like it stretched out longer than it needed to and I wanted more development with the personal relationships between the main character and the people she wronged. I think this book was just not for me, but I appreciate its capacity to pull people into the story and keep them interested.

What a great book about growing up in a boarding school and all the real this that happen. I laughed so hard at some of the stories told in this book during your school days. The ending was priceless. Great read.

Oh man. This book is hard to review. I'll start with the audio narration which I thought was terrific and really brought the story alive.

Now, as for the story, this book is about Josephine as she visits the town she went to school in with her new husband and someone yells a slur at her which then propels her to tell the story of her school years to her husband. The story goes back and forth between her school days and her present day.

Here's part of the problem for me: I didn't like either of the Josephines.

I understand that not all main characters have to be likable and this is the story of a girl reckoning with her past which was far from great. But she isn't really reckoning with it. She isn't really growing. She isn't really any better in her present day as she was back then.

The parts of the story that visit the toxic female friendships and how hard it can be to try to fit in and how we can make terribly poor choices so that we don't stand out, was so accurate and so well done that it made me wince the whole time. I had a visceral reaction to some of the scenes which clearly proves it's a well-written novel.

But, in the end, this was Jo's journey and, as a reader, I felt very let down by the end of it. And maybe that's a choice the author made, too: to show that not all people grow and learn and become better adults.

with gratitude to netgalley and Harper Audio for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.