The Divines by Ellie Eaton – A Book Review

Happy Publication Day to The Divines by Ellie Eaton! This book is a powerful look at what happens when one woman reflects upon her time spent in an English boarding school as her twentieth reunion approaches.

Plot Summary

The Divines are the girls of St. John the Divines, an elite English boarding school. The Divines were famous for their hair flipping, chain smoking and harassment of teachers. Josephine, now in her thirties, spent five years at the school and receives an invitation to the upcoming reunion of former students of the institution that was closed in disgrace with her graduating class. Now married with a daughter of her own and living in California, Josephine is undecided on whether or not to attend. She hasn’t even spoken to any of her former classmates in fifteen years. The invitation evokes a strong need, however, to reflect upon her time as a Divine. The story is told from multiple timeframes – as a student, as a newlywed and the present. As the memories surface , Josephine’s life begins to change: she begins having difficulties with her marriage, she can’t concentrate on her work and most importantly her self identity is challenged.

Book Review

I enjoyed reading this book. The character development was excellent. I appreciated the insight Josephine gleamed from others when they spoke of how she was perceived while at school. Where the book excels to me, however, is in observing Josephine’s personal insight into her true identity as the book progresses. On a more critical note, while I found the antics of The Divines were at times humorous, there was also evidence that some of these girls could be unkind to the point of bullying. The way they treated the staff and town’s residents was abhorrent, strongly suggestive of a pretentious upbringing likely fuelled by their time at the school. As a result, I found the characters were not likeable – a must have for me in order to be fully invested in a book. Additionally, the story felt a little long in parts and I found myself wanting to return to Josephine’s current storyline.

Audiobook Review

I listened to the audiobook edition of the book which was narrated by Imogen Church who gives a very good performance. I appreciated her ability to voice several characters and found her pacing to be excellent. I listened to the book at my usual 1.25x speed which I found to be comfortable. I would not hesitate to recommend the audiobook format to those readers who enjoy this format.

What I Liked About The Divines

• The development of the characters
• Josephine’s change in self identity
• The way that Josephine eventually gained insight

What I Would Have Like to be Different

• Likeability of at least one character
• A faster pace to the book to keep the reader’s interest.

I Recommend This Book To:

Fans of Literary Fiction or Women’s Fiction.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Netgalley and Harper Audio for the ARC of this audiobook in exchange for the honest review provided here.

My rating: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️/5.

Add The Divines by Ellie Eaton to your Goodreads shelf

Similar Books I’ve Reviewed:

Notes on a Silencing by Lacy Crawford
All the Acorns on the Forest Floor by Kim Hooper
The End of the Day by Bill Clegg
Better Luck Next Time by Julia Claiborne Johnson