#the diviners

[destroyersopera]

Some pictures I found yesterday of Jeff in his theater days. Truly lots of breakthroughs happening in the field of Jeffrey Combs studies recently! Many of these had to be heavily cropped and I have the sources saved, so feel free to reach out for more info :)

[derangedthoughtssideblog]

it's me and the same old ships I've loved since 2018 against the world i guess

[autumnsaesthetics]

🍁 Books for Autumn & Halloween 🎃

Part One!

(Row One) 🍁

Mooncakes by Wendy Xu & Suzanne Walker

The Witch Boy by Molly Knox Ostertag

Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldtree

(Row Two) 🎃

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

A Dowry Of Blood by S.T Gibson

Burn Down, Rise Up by Vincent Tirado

(Row Three) 🍁

The Taking Of Jake Livingston by Ryan Douglass

A Lesson In Vengeance by Victoria Lee

The Diviners by Libba Bray

[marzipanandminutiae]

Did anybody ever ask Libba Bray about the fact that, in the book Beauty Queens, of the three couples established on the screen the two hetero ones are still together AS ADULTS but the sapphic one has a messy breakup that takes up fully half their story within the actual plot (let alone staying together for years afterward)?

Like I get it, you don’t always stay with the person that you are with in high school when you grow up. But it just seems kind of strange that the other two are, and the one she chose to illustrate this principle was the gay couple. Paired with her track record at the time, given the whole Pippa and Felicity story, it kind of led me to think that “when sapphists stay together in a Libba Bray book“ could be the new “When Pigs Fly“

(yes, Kartik also died. But there was not subsequently ANOTHER book right after that where ANOTHER hetero couple had a messy and unpleasant split; you see my point right?)

I haven’t finished the Diviners so maybe the ace/sapphic girl gets a love interest to stay? But I’m not holding my breath

[aroaessidhe]

Aro & ace Books: Historical & historical fantasy (1900s)

The Reckless Kind (set in 1904) - aroacespec MC

The Murder Next Door (set in 1912) - ace lesbian MC

The Diviners (set in 1926) - ace lesbian major character (later in series)

Fire Becomes Her (1920s insp fantasy) demidemi MC, ace 'love interest' (QPR)

Moonshine (1920s insp fantasy) - bi ace man major character

Foul Lady Fortune (set in 1931) - demisexual MC, aroace side character

The Spy With The Red Balloon (set in 1940s) - demisexual mlm MC

Innsmouth Legacy duology (Winter Tide) (set in 1948) - aroace coded / word-of-god MC

The Society For Soulless Girls (set in 1990s) - ace-spec wlw MC (questioning/vague about it) (90s is not quite the same vibe as the rest of these but I could not think of another one lol)

#aspec books / aspec database / tumblr masterpost

[fortunatefires]

I will never not be mad about the fact that the diviners is severely underrated. It's stunning. The characters are likable and layered. The plot is engaging and suspenseful. The setting is so fucking immersive! And yet nobody ever knows what I'm talkimg about when I mention it

[magicalbookwyvern]

This dynamic >>>

[bywandandsword]

I finally finished the Diviners by Libba Bray and 1) This book hasn't gotten nearly the amount of fandom interaction that it deserves and 2) Libba Bray does not pull any fucking punches when it comes to the uncomfortable parts of history, good lord

It's so so good. She's clearly done so much research and it makes my history nerd heart so full. And then the story! I want to know what the fuck Uncle Will is hiding and where all these character's paths will lead. Where's Sam's mom? Is Isiah really ok? What's going to happen now that Evie has gone public with her power?

Also, I'm hereby adopting Memphis Campbell. That boy is getting a warm blanket, cocoa, and therapy starting immediately. And I'll personally kick the shit out of Bill Johnson if he comes anywhere near either of the Campbell boys again. I don't care that he's an old, mostly blind man, I'll fucking do it

[lottiesoka]

The Diviners

(In order: Evie, Sam, Theta, Memphis, Isaiah, Mabel, Henry, Ling)

[imgoingtoeatyourknees]

"There will come a poet whose weapon is his word / he will slay you with his tongue"

"I was here. I exist. I'm alive, because I bleed"

"you know how they say you only hurt the ones you love? Well it goes both ways"

"you're so alive simon snow. you got my share of it"

"I am not feeling nothing"

"There is no greater power on this earth than a story"

"for men were born the pray and save"

'Soldier, Poet, King' by the Oh Hellos / Blue Lily Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater / Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk / Carry On by Rainbow Rowell / Aurora Burning by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff / The Diviners by Libba Bray / Easter 1916 by W.B Yeats

[bruiselikeviolets]

read in 2022: the diviners by libba bray

Why does anyone do anything? Belief. A belief that they are right and just in their actions. Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son, Isaac, because he believed that God had commanded it. To kill your son is unthinkable. A crime. But if you are acting in the belief that your God, your supreme deity whom you must obey, has demanded it of you, is it still a crime?

[beforeviolets]

okay I just finished Before the Devil Knows You’re Here and now I’m CRAVING more books that center American folklore! (especially diverse ones please!)

the only other ones I can think of right now are:

Thistlefoot by GennaRose Nethercott: adult magical realism, reimagining of Baba Yaga as a Jewish mother in Russian pogroms, modern day queer siblings, a cross country road trip in a house on chicken legs, puppet shows, Americana and American folklore, sapphic golem-ish character

The Diviners by Libba Bray: YA, historical horror, 20’s setting, diverse cast, mysteries abound, American folklore, what values are the American Dream built on anyways?, occult and mystical elements

and of course

Before the Devil Knows You’re Here by Autumn Krause: YA, historical horror, Paul Bunyan and Johnny Appleseed, apple folklore, Mexican-American MC, creepy forests, Faustian deals

any other recs? 🙏🏻

[wonderfuday]

Art by  Nica Galvez

[gay-disabled-characters-showdown]

LGBTQ+ Disabled Characters Showdown Round 1, Wave 5, Poll 6

A character being totally canon LGBTQ+ and disabled was not required to be in this competition. Please check qualifications and propaganda before asking why a character is included.

Check out the other polls in this wave and prior here.

Art of Ling Chan by @ace-artemis-fanartist

Ling Chan-The Diviners

Qualifications:

Canonically, she is an asexual lesbian who is partially paralyzed in her legs. She uses crutches for her mobility aids. For her queerness, discovering that part of herself is a major part of her journey, first realizing slowly that she loves women, and then realizing the challenges of being ace in a queer relationship at a time when asexuality isn't widely understood.

Ling contracted "infantile paralysis" (polio) as a child, being that she was born in 1920s New York City before a vaccine was available. As such, she uses crutches and leg braces in order to walk. She is explicitly an asexual lesbian who struggles to balance both of these when neither is well-understood in her time, on top of being Chinese during the period of exclusion.

Propaganda:

She's a very cool, physically disabled ace lesbian who loves science and magic and learns the joys of friendship. She's a dreamwalker who communicates with (and sometimes fights) ghosts, and when another person with a similar power reaches out to her on that basis, and he tries to befriend her moreso than most anyone had before, they become close companions and her world expands. Also, queer solidarity--he's gay and that helps her realize she is too, since she'd had limited exposure to the idea of queerness before that.

My absolute baby. A grumpy gal who can only walk when in dreams. She falls in love with a girl who she thinks is a dreamwalker like her but turns out to be a vengeful ghost. She struggles to be with her chorus girl girlfriend because she's sexual but Ling isn't. Canon dialogue > "Which actor would you like to be with?" "Mae West." "No, romantically." "Yes." An icon with good taste Mae West is hot

Henry ‘Monty’ Montague-The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue

Qualifications:

Canonically bisexual, and, from the end of the first book, deaf in one ear. (More precisely, he only has one ear, there's no other one to be deaf in since it got basically blown off by cannon fire, but regardless he only has functional hearing on one side.)

Propaganda:

Canonically bi, and deaf/hard-of-hearing since near the end of the first book; if I remember correctly, gets more disabled as the series goes on. If you don't know him and you think one of your faves is the ultimate bi disaster, think again. My god is he a loser. And a jerk, at the start. But despite all that, or perhaps through all that, he can be genuinely meaningful representation. Starts out as a miserable nobleman trying to survive his father's homophobic abuse, ends up unattached from his rich parents and living his best queer, disabled life with his boyfriend in freedom.

[rosedubh]

without fail, every single time I reread the Gemma Doyle trilogy, I turn into this meme, trying to find any and all connections between the two series because they are connected, canonically, because Gemma shows up multiple times in the Diviners books