Lair of Dreams: A Diviners Novel (The Diviners Book 2) Kindle Edition

I had the perfect plan, I started the audio book right at the beginning of September, and since a 20 hour audioboook usually takes me a month to listen to, the timing of me finishing this would be perfectly timed for when the 3rd book came out. Well, it is only September 6th, and I have already finished it. As far as being a sequel, I can say that I enjoyed this one almost as much, if not just as much, and the first book. There were definitely things I liked more about this book and there were things that I enjoyed more in the first book.The thing that disappointed me a little about Lair of Dreams was that the plot/big mystery/the villain of this book was far less interesting than Naughty John. Pretty early on I was able to figure out who the villain was, and the fact that the our main characters couldn't figure it out just made me frustrated, because it was SO obvious. Also, The dream world was far less interesting to me than a serial killer.What I did love more about this book that The Diviners was that we got more Evie and Sam. I just love those two so much, and one of my favorite tropes in the fake relationship one, so I was living every time I read their parts. Like I was at the end of The Diviners, I am still worried that Libba Bray might make the whole love triangle a huger part in the next book, which while it wouldn't completely ruin the book, it would definitely knock it down a start or two.One thing that I loved about the first book that carried on into this book was the atmosphere of the 1920's. Libba Bray continued to just be amazing and make the reader actually feel like you are in that time period. I also, well I wouldn't say enjoyed, but appreciated the emphasis on immigrants in this book and the prejudice/racism during the time period. The one part that got me the most angry was "The Wolf Among Us" chapter with Sarah Snow. I had to stop listening for a second, because I was so angry that people once (and some still do) think like that. While it was hard to listen to parts like those, I think they are important, and the impact is important.One final thing because I am pretty sure I forgot to put this in my Diviners review, CHECK OUT THE AUDIOBOOK. Libba Brays writing with January LaVoy reading it is just AMAZING.

"For dreams, too, are ghosts, desire chased in sleep, gone by morning. The longing of dreams draws the dead, and this city holds many dreams."</i></b>This book is the sequel to The Diviners series. This takes play about several months to a year after The Diviners ended where Evie is now a big shot star for WGI reading objects and telling people things they want to know. But something is brewing beneath the city's surface in the dreams of many and keeping people asleep until they die. This sleeping sickness is met with with woman in a veil in the dreams of her captor and only the Diviners can stop it.We got a lot of more Asian rep in this as we are introduced to Ling Chan, who is a dream walker that lives in China Town. This is our first time really having more interaction in this book series with the 1920s Asian culture. Which was really nice to see that.But the sleeping sickness was also being deemed in Asian disease by the media in this book, so there was a lot more blatant racism and prejudice. There was even mention of Klu Klux Klan members protesting Asians in this book.This book really added to the first one and continues to allude to and foreshadow the coming ghosts that we will most likely be seeing more of in the books to come. There is something much greater and much more evil lurking behind the scenes we have only been getting glimpses of. These book are playing the long game.My biggest complaint about this book is how easily it seemed to resolve itself. How easy things were solved after everyone came together and the work up to the final conflict was way longer than the resolution of the conflict. It's not as though I expect it to be half the book, just a few more chapters of action.This was a really fun read with alot of really colorful and interesting characters. I was completely immersed in this book and adored it so much. I cannot wait to continue with the series.

I think it’s safe to say that Libba Bray is on her way to becoming one of my favourite authors, and this series is on its ways to becoming one of my favourites, too.If I thought Libba Bray’s research for The Diviners was good, it absolutely shines in this book. The establishment of Chinatown in New York, and the general history of America’s Asian American communities, isn’t something I’ve thought much about before and I don’t think it’s something that’s very well known, but Bray tackles all of that in this second instalment in her YA historical paranormal series.After Evie outed herself as a Diviner, she’s now become something of a celebrity in New York City with her very own radio show, and she’s living the life she’s always wanted. Kind of. She goes to parties and hangs out with the popular crowd, but it’s clear from the start that part of her almost constant drunkenness in this book is down to her struggling to cope with the events of the previous book.Away from Evie, though, an illness known as the ‘sleeping sickness’ is spreading from Chinatown, in which people fall asleep and simply don’t wake up. They start to develop rashes, almost like they’re being burned, and then they die.It’s through this sickness that we finally meet Ling, who appeared very briefly in the previous book, a mixed race girl of Irish and Chinese descent who has the ability to dreamwalk. It’s an ability she shares with Henry, Theta’s close friend from the previous book, and while we do have plenty of scenes with Evie, Theta, Memphis and Sam, it’s safe to say that Lair of Dreams is very much Ling and Henry’s book. And I loved it.The friendship that develops between Ling and Henry is wonderful. They’re the kind of people that shouldn’t get along, in fact they’re very aware that they’re very different people, and yet they bond through their shared gift which they end up putting to use trying to find a way to cure the sleeping sickness.It was so lovely to get to know Henry properly, and to discover his backstory, and to finally meet Ling. While The Diviners is very much about Evie, what I love about this series is how clear it is that this is a series with an ensemble cast, where no one character is more important or valued than the other and they’re all allowed to have strengths and foibles. Plus the banter between them all is brilliant – particularly Evie and Sam, whose scenes together are like striking a match.What made me love this book so much more than The Diviners, and I already loved The Diviners a great deal, was the antagonist’s story and the very sad realisation that the societal issues Bray focuses on are still relevant today. There are encounters with the KKK and the gross idea of ‘keeping America white’, and the kind of toxic nationalism we can currently see going on both in the USA and here in the UK. There’s so much packed into this book, but it never feels like an information overload or like Bray is preaching at us. I’d love to have a history lesson on the 1920s as taught by Libba Bray.Each book in this series so far has felt like the new season of a TV show, and considering we’re now in the ’20s again I’d really like this series to be picked up for television. It would be a fantastic TV show in the right hands, and I would love to watch these characters on screen.Until then, I can’t wait to read the rest of the series!

I really really enjoyed this! Again, like the first book, it seemed a bit too long and dragged out, but that was the only thing I'd say I didn't like about it.After nearly being killed by a supernatural serial killer, Evie O'Neill has told the world that she is in fact, a Diviner. She has her own radio show, reading peoples' objects and telling them their secrets. But while she is living the high life, fellow Diviners Henry DuBois and Ling Chan will stop at nothing to keep their powers a secret. In New York City, there is a malevolent force at large, hiding in peoples' dreams and claiming victims while they sleep. And to top everything off, at the edge of it all lurks a man in a stovepipe hat who has plans of nightmare proportions...Most of the characters from book one return, and just as I did reading that book, I loved them just as much. I loved that we got to learn more about them, particularly Sam and Henry. I did at times wish we had seen more of Jericho after what happened at the end of the first book, as he, along with Mabel and Will, are not present very much. When the love triangle sprung up, I thought it was going to spoil the book as a whole for me, but it really didn't. I actually rooted for an outcome that I wouldn't have at the end of book one. It was really well developed. New characters such as Ling were also really well written, and her storyline with Henry was one of my favourites in the book.The setting - 1920s New York - was done really well, like in book one, and like in book one, Evie's constant use of slang bugged me for the entire book, but in a way I thought this made the setting more believable.The only thing that has stopped me giving this 5 stars was the pacing. For the first three quarters of the book I felt like NOTHING happened. However, although this was the case, there was something really satisfying just reading about these characters going about their daily lives, even though it wasn't that exciting. It was never really boring; sometimes I wished I could be living these characters lives, until I remembered that in this book they were in danger of catching a sleeping sickness and never waking up.I'm definitely going to read book three, but I think I'll take a break and read something else first. I read this this and the first one back to back and haven't had much time to read them, so I feel like it took me forever to read them and that I've been with the same characters forever. I am really looking forward to book three though.4.5 stars.

My feelings towards this sequel are still incredibly mixed. To begin with the positive, I still can't express just how well Bray recreates the feel of the Roaring 20s. While the previous novel primarily focused on the brightest aspects of Manhattan at the time, this novel takes a look at the underside of the city. Through the book's focus on Ling, we see the under current of racism at work. Life may be grand for the Evie's of the world, but it's less great for the minority groups who are seen as lesser citizens. Although the story is set in the 1920s, its message is still very poignant today.However, a lot of the problems that I had with the first book are also present here. The cast of this story is massive and Bray's need to flit between them really bogs down the story. Lair of Dreams is even longer than The Diviners, and it's story takes a long time to feel as though it really gets moving. This is a problem as it kind of deadens its impact. The story is a little predictable and lacked the mystery element of its prequel.It also did not really end well. While the last eighty pages built to a climax of sorts, it lacked the tension of The Diviners. There are hints thrown in about a bigger picture - more sightings of the man in the stovepipe hat and indications that Project Buffalo is more sinister than it first appeared - but these merely tease and nothing concrete is revealed in this novel.However, the thing that made me prefer this novel over The Diviners was its characterisation. Evie, mercifully, took a back seat in this story. I say mercifully as she shed all pretence of likeability this time around, becoming particularly unbearable during the climax. I was really glad of this, as her character arc is becoming increasingly tiresome, dragging in both a love triangle with Jericho and Sam and an alcohol problem.In Evie's place, this novel focused on Henry and Ling. Really, I was glad to see Henry get some focus as he was shunted to one side in the previous story. He is a really sweet character and the story of his relationship with Louis was surprisingly moving. Ling also allowed the story to widen its focus, bringing in a new perspective filled with its own experiences and superstitions. While characters like Theta and Memphis still didn't get a lot of development, it was nice to see that Bray was focusing on some characters who were a bit more complex than Evie.Anyhow, I think that about sums it up. Lair of Dreams still had a lot of problems but it was infinitely more readable than The Diviners. I am very curious to see where the series will go from here.

I love these books. I'm going to get the final part of the trilogy very soon. I can't wait to see how all these characters stories work out.

The problems with Diviners are exacerbated here. Slow, bogged down, uninteresting characters (with terrible representation of marginalised people), etc, etc.