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Audiobook Review: The Divines by Ellie Eaton



Blurb from Goodreads:
CAN WE EVER REALLY ESCAPE OUR PAST?

The girls of St John the Divine, an elite English boarding school, were notorious for flipping their hair, harassing teachers, chasing boys, and chain-smoking cigarettes. They were fiercely loyal, sharp-tongued, and cuttingly humorous in the way that only teenage girls can be. For Josephine, now in her thirties, the years at St John were a lifetime ago. She hasn’t spoken to another Divine in fifteen years, not since the day the school shuttered its doors in disgrace.

Yet now Josephine inexplicably finds herself returning to her old stomping grounds. The visit provokes blurry recollections of those doomed final weeks that rocked the community. Ruminating on the past, Josephine becomes obsessed with her teenage identity and the forgotten girls of her one-time orbit. With each memory that resurfaces, she circles closer to the violent secret at the heart of the school’s scandal. But the more Josephine recalls, the further her life unravels, derailing not just her marriage and career, but her entire sense of self.

Moving between present-day Los Angeles and 1990s Britain, 'THE DIVINES' is a scorching examination of the power of adolescent sexuality, female identity, and the destructive class divide. Exposing the tension between the lives we lead as adults and the experiences that form us, Eaton probes us to consider how our memories as adults compel us to reexamine our pasts.
My Review:
 
As you know, I generally love books set in boarding schools, and this one was sufficiently dark that I enjoyed it a lot.  The narrator was good, and the novel weaved seamlessly between past and present. The characters were interesting and I couldn't have predicted what ended up happened either in the past or the present. This book also reminded me a little of Megan Abbott, an author that I love. 

The Divines came out this week on January 19, 2021, and you can purchase HERE.  I think Imogen Church is a great audiobook narrator and I enjoyed this book!

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