This debut work by Ellie Eaton is a coming of age well written book. The book tells the story of Josephine as a teenager in a private English all girl school and of her now, married with a small daughter.

The Divines are the girls at St. John the Divine, a posh private English boarding school, they have their own view of the world, one that is also shared by their mothers (who were also Divines), they were particularly notorious for flipping their hair, harassing teachers and the town locals, chasing boys and chain smoking cigarettes.

Now in her thirties, married with a child, Jo hasn’t spoken to any of the Divines in fifteen years, ever since graduation and the school closure in disgrace.

I couldn’t really connect with the character of Jo, and as a matter of fact of any of the Divines, she was very entitled, her “social status” made her feel she was allowed to bully and make life miserable for everyone around her.

The story shows that what happened to you in your youth will haunt you forever, Jo is being haunted in the present by her actions as a Divine while as the same time remembering herself as an innocent bystander to her life, while we know that she was anything but,

The ending of the book was confusing at the best.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC,

Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins for this Advanced Reader's Copy.

I didn't really know what to expect with this book! I was really engaged within the first couple of chapters and didn't want it to end!

This was a dual timeline story of Jo and her time as a Divine and the aftermath of that. She revisits the school on her honeymoon and then starts reliving the beginning of the end of the school. There are moments of bullying, exploring sexual orientation/ preferences, and boarding school drama. It was a wild ride at times and there were also moments that I questioned Jo's life choices.

Well done! Definitely a great escape from reality

Ellie Eaton makes her debut with THE DIVINES, which combines the boarding school drama of novels like THE SECRET HISTORY with the emotional grit of works like TRUE STORY. Alternating between an elite English boarding school and present-day Los Angeles, the book tells the story of Josephine, a former chain-smoking, hair-flipping posh student who as an adult grapples with the far-reaching repercussions of the tragic and abrupt ending to her life at St. John the Divine.

When we meet Josephine, she is 16 years old and caught up in all the turmoil that comes with being a teenage girl --- all of which is amplified by her attendance at an elite boarding school that breeds “Divines,” fine young women who grow up into Divine Old Girls, with rich, handsome husbands, fulfilling careers and a lifetime of opportunities available to them. The Divines are privileged, beautiful girls with long hair, trendy styles and endless funds, which makes them instant enemies of the locals who reside in the surrounding town. St. John the Divine is the largest business in town, one of the only places that hires locals in abundance, and there is a marked line between the Divines and the hardworking people who clean their rooms, wash their clothes and make their food. But none of this matters to a Divine.

At 16, Joe --- all the girls call each other by male versions of their names --- is a bit of a late bloomer. Unlike her peers, she is not sexually active or (according to her) very pretty, though she has mastered a particularly coy hair flip and matching facial expression that gives her somewhat of an edge. Though it is her fifth year at St. John, she is dealing with a quiet and terrifying end to her strongest friendship at school, and teenage girls being who they are, she walks a careful line between desperately wanting to appear cool and desired and trying to remain just aloof enough to warrant any interest --- both from her friends and from the boys they chase, gossip about and dream of marrying. Adding insult to injury, Joe has been assigned the school outcast as a roommate: Gerry Lake, or the Poison Dwarf, as the girls call her.

With these smears on her reputation, Joe seems destined to a lonely, painful year. One day, she meets a townie named Lauren who seems to take a shine to her, popping up at random intervals to share cigarettes and local gossip. Before long, Joe and Lauren become quite close, pushing Joe even further away from her former posse of popular girls and leading her into an almost certain downfall.

In alternating chapters, we meet an adult Joe, who now calls herself Sephine. She has a wonderful, handsome husband named Jurgen and some reasonable success as a journalist, but is no longer what one would consider Divine, and she hasn't spoken to another Divine in 15 years. Jurgen, finding her hesitancy to discuss her boarding school life strange, begs her to talk about her experiences at St. John, her friends and how Gerry ended up falling from a window, leaving a bloodstain on the concrete and an irreparable tear in Sephine’s life as a Divine.

As Sephine shares her story, she becomes obsessed with the past, edging closer and closer to the truth of what happened in her last year as a Divine. Through flashbacks to her controversial friendship with Lauren, her dalliances with local men, and painful, vivid memories of teenage bullying and violence, she paints a picture of a provocative world brimming with teenage sexuality, female identity and the barriers that ignite class wars. But as she circles closer to the truth, her present-day life starts to unravel as she reexamines her youth and finds that her perceptions --- both then and now --- were not always as close to reality as she thought.

Ellie Eaton is a tremendously skilled writer who is able to bring to life the double-edged sword of freedom and claustrophobia that comes with youth and examine it from a distance, highlighting the ways that our memories can lie to us. Her portrayals of teenage girls, Divine and mortal, is scorchingly crisp, unflinching and tautly written. Describing the fallout of Joe’s friendship at school, Eaton writes, “Riddled with insecurities, I had a propensity to read too much into a situation…. I tortured myself over trivial comments, a flippant remark about my clothes or hair, analyzing the exact wording for hidden criticisms, looping it in my head.” It might sound paranoid, but any woman can tell you that the hidden criticisms will always be there if you look hard enough for them. These scenes are painful but magnetic, with a “can’t look away” energy that feels raw and destructive, full of kinetic energy and smothering weight.

But even more skilled is the way that Eaton tracks these memories from the past and lays them bare against the present, forcing both Josephine and her readers to wonder about the power of perception and how we can reconcile our present with our past. The added dramas of age and insecurity (can any of us really see ourselves clearly as teens?) blur the lines even more, creating a sort of mystery and giving the book some truly compelling, suspenseful heft. As Eaton reminds us, while we are all affected and changed by our pasts, some of us are growing from them and others are haunted by them.

Provocative and full of insightful takes on toxic friendships, female sexuality and socioeconomic classism, THE DIVINES is a must-read for anyone who has ever been --- or been hurt by --- a teenage girl and lived to tell the tale.

Meh, This one didn't land for me. There are so many boarding school stories out now that I didn't feel this one stood out, except for the fact that I find it hard to believe that the girl who was "killed" was alive and the main character didn't know that.

The Divines tells us the boarding school story of Josephine and her friends. In her thirties now, Josephine thinks back and is disgusted by the behavior of her friends and herself back when they were teenagers. The story touches on how our past actions and experiences shape the way we live our lives for years to come.

They are "Divine." Girls born and bred for greatness, plucked from the upper crust of society and set above all others. Or at least, that's how they view themselves. "They" are the girls of St. John the Divine Boarding School in England; an elite bunch of young woman hellbent on destroying and humiliating anyone who doesn't fit in or cater to their every whim. Ellie Eaton's debut novel follows one of the "Divines," Josephine, as she is drawn back into her past and tries to remember a horrible incident that happened to one of the girls at her school - an event that she was, in part, responsible for.

I am a fan of "school stories," especially those that take place in elite boarding schools, which is why I picked up The Divines. However, I am left feeling disappointed after reading this novel, as I never connected to or cared about the characters, nor did I find the plot terribly compelling. I am participating in the 2021 PopSugar Reading Challenge, and had initially selected this book as my "Dark Academia" read; however, I soon found out that the ominous event hinted at in the synopsis was not really as dastardly as I anticipated. This book reads like silly schoolgirl fluff, portraying the mean girl pranks of Josephine and her friends, and the trivial musings of teenage girls. The storyline also failed to hold my attention, and in my opinion, it jumped around too much with not enough time given to the characters to invoke any sort of relationship with the reader. I just expected more from this "highly anticipated read."

Thank you to NetGalley & William Morrow for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

The Divines by Ellie Eaton is the story of a young girls' boarding school and what happens when you put young, privileged girls together away from home. Girls can be vicious, especially when they are together. They will feed off the less privileged, weaker ones. Josephine's husband begins to ask her questions about her past and how she grow up. Some things you can't out grow. Josephine tries hard but her past keeps resurfacing. Her husband can't help asking her questions. How much can she keep hidden?
Overall, the story was mediocre at best. I wanted this to be so much more than what it was. Special thanks to NetGalley, Ellie Eaton, and William Morrow-Custom House Publishing for the advanced digital copy in exchange for my honest opinion. 3.5 stars
#TheDivines #NetGalley

I’m having a harder time than normal figuring out exactly how to talk about this book. I appreciate Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a chance to read and review it. There’s something about boarding school stories that always grabs my interest although I am glad I never experienced one first hand. This book fell a little short of my expectations although it was quite well written. The story felt oddly paced and was at times too slow or too rushed, especially at the end where it felt like a lot was left unresolved. The story alternates between the narrator Josephine or Joe’s last year at the boarding school and her present as she starts her marriage. Joe’s last year as a Divine wasn’t exactly normal and ended with some odd circumstances and Joe has spent all the years since then trying not to think about her time as a Divine.

This was a disappointing entry in the campus novel genre for me. The setup and style are enticing, but in the actual reading there isn't much there there. The narrator tells you that she and her friends were called, and call each other, Divines after their school's name. And she uses that title like a hammer without ever really delving into a deeper irony, knowingness, or insight than that little wink the many, MANY, times she uses the moniker. Add to that an unsatisfying "mystery" and this was nearly a "did not finish". Wouldn't recommend it when titles like The Secret History, Prep, The Swallows, and Special Topics in Calamity Physics are out there.

Josephine attended the elite boarding school, St. John the Divine, which closed abruptly fifteen years ago due to a scandal The novel alternates between her past life at the school and the present day. A reunion visit brings back unpleasant memories and comes closer to the secret of the school’s scandal. The privileged students calling themselves the Divines were in conflict with the townies. The work deals with issues of sexuality, bullying, and class conflict. This coming of age psychological drama reveals the mystery of the scandal. Josephine was an unlikeable bully and the other characters were also unsympathetic, which affected my enjoyment of the work.

I'm a sucker for a book about boarding schools so I was really excited to read this debut novel from Ellie Eaton. I liked the general premise of the book as well as the sort of whodunit plot line but overall found The Divines to be a letdown. The twist at the end boosted my rating a bit and I wish the question of perception vs. reality had been more of a central theme throughout because Joe's story left me wanting otherwise. I did enjoy Eaton's writing, though, and will definitely read whatever she releases next.

Thanks to NetGalley, William Morrow and Custom House for a copy to review.

I do love a boarding school story, And this was a page-turning one. Toxic frenemies, sexual experimentation, mean girl cliques and the dynamic of ‘Divines’ vs ‘Townies’ kept tensions high. I was drawn in by adult Josephine’s recollections and reflections on her teen struggles. This one definitely kept me gripped.

4 1/2 stars

This was one of the best books about kids at a boarding school that I’ve read, and I’ve read several. It offers an excellent look at adolescents and the lack of self-confidence they have, the cruelty they demonstrate to each other and themselves. The biggest takeaway from this book, for me, was to show how what you are as a teen is usually very different from the person you grow into.

One seemingly inconsequential action done in anger can change your life and haunt you for the rest of your life. Yet, despite what you believe happened, you can be mistaken in your interpretation of that event. Sometimes, years later, you may learn that it didn’t play out as you thought it had.

While this book doesn’t have an open ending, it does fail to spell out how things work out between Sephina and her husband, Jurgen. The reader also never learns how she and Jurgen first met. Those both seem to be important bits of information, since Jurgen plays such a big part in getting Joe/Sephina to assess all that happened in her teens and the role she played then. It seems wrong that I know more about Stuart, her friend’s brother, than I know about Jurgen.

It was still a good book and an interesting read, part mystery, part psychological study of teenagesrs. Not having gone to boarding school, it was informative to learn how more about the life these English girls faced away from home, how little supervision they had, how much time they had on their own to get into mischief.

I received an advanced reader’s copy of this book from the publisher through Netgalley. I thank them for their generosity, but it had no effect on this review. All opinions in this review reflect my true and honest reactions to reading this book.

Oof I really struggled with this one. The bad-girls-at-a-prep-school genre feels thoroughly overdone, and the Divines doesn't add anything worthwhile. It recycles the same tropes and goes to great lengths to remind the reader how bitchy girls can be.

I definitely think the audiobook is the way to go with The Divines (I could not get through the written version at all.) I still didn't like the story as an audiobook, but the narration was well done and helped me understand two two storylines in the book. I was disappointed in this book as a whole. It's rare that I don't like a story set around a boarding school, but this one took way too long to get off the ground. There was too much set up and discussion and not enough happening to people I care about. I won't be listing this book in my 2021 book page on my site because I cannot recommend it and I only mention books I can recommend. For that reason I will also not review it on Amazon or Goodreads. I did, however, do a Instagram story with the cover. (Which is a fabulous cover.)

St. John the Divine School and the boarding school girls who are known as the Divine will be in my head for awhile. I really wanted to like this one more, but found myself just wanting a little bit more. I was really into the dual timeline and finding out what happened that fateful year. Now I want to know more about boarding school syndrome and what the heck made that ending happen?!

Thank you to Netgalley and HarperCollins for the opportunity to read this in exchange for my honest opinion.

Like many readers, I'm a sucker for a good campus novel, so when I saw the premise of "The Divines" by Ellie Eaton on NetGalley, I couldn't press request fast enough (thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for the review copy).

The book starts off well enough. In her adult years, our main character Josephine returns back to the town where her former boarding school used to stand. The passing of time has brought about a number of changes: the buildings that used to make up the school have either been flattened or repurposed and Josephine is newly married - she's actually on her honeymoon. There are some things that haven't changed however. A local to this town catches on that Josephine attended that school, St. John the Divine, and the two have a quite disconcerting encounter. The reader starts to catch on that the "townies" and the school girls, known as "Divines" didn't exactly get along back in the day. We also learn that there was a reason Josephine has been distancing herself from her past for the last 15 or so years.

Eaton splits the narrative between Josephine's new adult life with her husband and the story of what happened when she was known as "Joe" (the Divines all take boy names as nicknames). We're led to believe that there was a massive scandal at the end of the school year and that one girl - Joe's roommate, Gerry - had a tragic accident. In the meantime, there's a mystery of someone leaving lewd photos around campus for the boys to find and an unlikely friendship that develops between Joe and a "townie," Lauren.

Again, a strong premise that's assisted by some really nice writing. But as the book went along, the story got progressively weaker. The side characters - with maybe the exception of Lauren - didn't have much to them and the tension didn't really build, nor resolve into anything. In my humble opinion, the best part of a campus novel is a growing sense of dread as you get closer to the ~~bad thing that happened ~~ at the school.

But I just didn't feel it in this book and I can't figure out why the author would have made the "modern" Josephine sections so frequent, since all they did was yank me out of the boarding school story. The extreme mismatch in pacing between the school sections (which seem to take place over one semester) and the adult Josephine section (which spans actual years) was so jarring. The cherry on top was the plot twist actually being a plot hole.

I'm willing to read more from this author because it's clear she has writing skills, but this story was a mess.

I have to say for a debut novel this will knock your socks off! This book has such coming of age drama. It also focuses on how that drama can affect your life for years to come. The author also captures how you remember the past may not be how others remember it. Either that, or they made up a more pleasant memory so they could live with themselves. Girls can be mean. If you put them in a boarding school during their fragile teen years it can wreak havoc on their adult lives. I really enjoyed everything about this book. I liked the way the characters were developed and the authors style of writing. While reading this book I think I also went through a ton of emotions along with Josephine. Skipper, Lauren and Gerry. Definitely would recommend this book.

Thanks to #WilliamMorrow, #EllieEaton, #bookclubgirls and #netgalley for the ARC of this book.

This book is great! Would definitely recommend. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Every year there it seems a different theme emerges in fiction. Last year it was twins (The Grammarians, The Vanishing Half, Thin Girls), but this year, although it’s only January, I have three novels in my winter reading that are about girls’ boarding schools. What is it about that subject that entices those of us who were no more likely to attend one than go into outer space? Whatever dark psychological well holds the answer is plumbed in the novel The Divines. The first clue comes in the present-day opening pages, when the narrator, Josephine, shares

I haven’t spoken to a Divine in fourteen years, maybe more, despite there being ample online opportunities these days to reconnect with my former peers should I so wish. I don’t.

Aah. So, this isn’t going to be a wistful stroll down memory lane. It would seem the girls at St. John the Divine’s were a be a bit more divisive. Or maybe a bit more real. Either way, Josephine is the guide.

When the novel opens Josephine goes by Sephine, having dropped the name Joe as a final remnant of her years at St. John’s. All the girls at school went by male names—another clannish way to differentiate themselves from the locals. She’s now a newlywed, married to Jürgen, a kind, boisterous, decent man whom she loves, but with whom she’s shared nothing of her past. On their honeymoon she has a sudden urge to visit the town where the school used to be. It’s this side trip in her adult life that propels her back into her teen years. From that point onward, we’re pulled between the quiet accomplished writer that is Sephine and the awkward, confused teenager that is Joe.

The Divines are what the girls call themselves, but a less apt nickname is hard to imagine. The school is an elite one in England, but its students revel in being the worst at everything. Athletic ability, sportsmanship, academics, manners, compassion are of no interest. They only area where they excel is in a fierce loyalty to each other, but even that is bent to their own rules in that one of the people they despise and bully most is another student. A student who Josephine inexplicably gets paired with as her roommate. It is this new year and situation that foments all the events that follow in The Divines. Events that lead, in part, to the school being shut down.

In The Divines Ellie Eaton creates a cast that is almost uniformly dislikable, which is no small feat. Even the girl who comes in for the most abuse from the other girls is a dreadful person. All of this might lead you to believe I’m not recommending the novel, but that’s not the case. Without a single character to root for comes a welcome detachment, giving the novel an anthropological feel and, more startling, an unsettling pull of recognition. As Joe worries over a ‘feeling’ she has about her best friend it sounds familiar—who didn’t spend hours wondering if other girls still liked them? Or worry about being different?

Eaton enhances this emotional stew by introducing the issue of memory. Sephine recounts her years as a Divine with a crisp finality. There’s no wavering in her recollections, but they don’t always jibe with some of Joe’s moments or the truth of others. One of these misalignments is the crux to the novel, leading to questions about Sephine’s reliability as a narrator. It’s Eaton’s careful probing into the psyche, not just of teens, but of women in general that kept me reading The Divines. Also, an ending that made me grimly laugh out loud.