Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

Well, first of all, I cannot believe this is a debut!
I really loved the prose and I am partial to a boarding school book (not sure why, but I do love them!)
I also enjoyed the different timelines!
I would definitely recommend this one!

The pupils of elite girls' boarding school St John the Divine were wealthy, influential and privileged, living in a world far removed from the local "townies". They are something special. They called themselves Divine. Discipline and education were lax among the arrogant cliques of teenage girls and in a series of dramatic events including explicit photographs and bullying a final night of chaosand excess closes the school forever with a violent accident.

Years later Sephine, eschewing the school tradition of boys nicknames tries to think of the school at little as possible but a chance visit on her honeymoon brings the memories flooding back. Her curious husband and a looking reunion force her to look again that everything that happened in those final weeks, the cruel relationships, the bullying, the ostracism, the immaturity of those almost-adult girls educated far from the realities of the world. Most of all she must assess her role in the events that led to one unpopular girl falling from a window with catastrophic consequences.

Eaton does an excellent job of capturing the attitudes and environment of an elite institution where the company is that more important than the education. Their affected mannerisms create the sense of a school cut off from the real world except for the often unpleasant interactions that pupils have with the local town. Sephine's reluctant narration builds tension as does the breakdown of her friendships when she is unexpectedly roomed with Gerry, a highly-strung skating champion who, rumour has it, is sleeping with her coach.
For some reason when the full details of Gerry's accident emerged, it felt like an anticlimax, not quite dark or dramatic enough.

I would have liked to see some of Gerry's POV, or at least had more attention paid to her uncomfortable relationships with the shots in her life. There are many hints but few details. The same for Lauren, the townie Sephine unexpectedly befriends. Perhaps the point is that Gerry and Lauren both have lives more worthy of the navel-gazing of Sephine. But it was a brooding, enjoyable read, well-paced and plotted

The writing in this was good and i liked the story it explored but it felt like this was a little too aimless in places for me. The story was interesting but i didn't really warm to Jo and found her to be quite unlikeable and a bit of a wet blanket. This has done similar things to other books were adults look back on their childhood years but it just didn't hit the right mark for me. I was frustrated by her action and wished she was able to communicate to those around her properly instead of being sneaky and gaslighting those around her.

I have to say, I was not expecting to relate to this book or Josephine, the protagonist, as much as I did! I really liked the whole dynamic of the book, being thrown straight into school life and the intense friendships of boarding-school teenage 'Joe', and then the contrast with 'Sephine' and her adulthood relationship with her husband. This coming-of-age novel was told exceptionally well by Eaton, especially seeing Josephine's struggle between her identity as a "Divine" and her blossoming friendship with a "townie". Josephine made for a really relatable main character, and despite initial reservations, her teenage experiences are ones I think most could understand. The ending was very fitting, I found, in showing the difference between how you perceive yourself and how others perceive you. I thought this was a great debut novel, one of the best I've read in a while, and I'm excited to see what Eaton writes next.

I enjoyed parts of this book, especially the 1990’s private school setting with it’s unique internal rules. Like all the girls have boys name and their traditions which have been followed by generations of pupils. Crazy eye rolling traditions which is exactly what I expect from a posh boarding school.

The main character though…I absolutely hated her. I don’t need to like a main character to enjoy the book, but I was just uncomfortable tracking back through her school days. She was both bullied and a bully and I thought she was so self absorbed that she totally lacked any empathy for anyone else around her.

The theme was darkish, the characters well sketched but ultimately I just needed more plot to really sink my teeth into.

It's one of those "It's me not the book" case.
I read too many books featuring female boarding school and read this at the wrong moment.
It's well written but it's not my cup of tea.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

St. John the Divine is an English, all-girls boarding school brimming with pampered adolescents and a smattering of harried nuns who attempt to control them. These untamable creatures put on an united front to all those in authority, as well as to the wider world. Together they are the Divines and the Divines are an unstoppable force when they put their minds to achieving something. Or destructing it.

This was a far quieter story than the one I had anticipated, but I liked it no less for that. It begun with a horrifying scene and the novel then revealed all the events that led up to that calamitous moment. Interspersed were chapters from the protagonist's adult self, which I appreciated far less and took not as much from. Those chapters that were set on campus provided a continuous chain of intriguing and emotional revelation, however.

Jospehine, as our protagonist, was a very interesting character and I went through the full range of emotions, whilst reading her story: some parts had me with tears in my eyes and in others I actively disliked her. She held me at a distance, which I believe is a byproduct of her upbringing, teenage insecurities, and the woman she grew to be rather than the author's inability to craft an emotional bond between reader and protagonist. She was sometimes aloof and other times wholly vulnerable; sometimes I couldn't trust her story and other times I whole-heartedly empathised with her suffering. These shifting emotions and reactions all ensured I was engaged throughout, as her story was slowly unveiled.

The ending left me reeling, not due to some unforeseen twist or grand reveal but due to the side-characters reactions to Josephine's confrontations. She forced them to face up to the antics from their adolescent selves and it put a question mark over much of what had been previously revealed when they did not react in a fashion that Josephine or the reader was anticipating. I wasn't sure how to feel following this and when the novel ended it left me with a furrowed brow and much to ponder.

I was lured in by the pretty cover and the promise of a scandal at a boarding school. After reading it, I'm just left with one question: what was the point of this?

The book starts promising, with a group of girls finding a fellow student lying in the grass, dressed in a figure skating outfit. There are twisted limbs, maybe some blood, but then an ambulance comes and the girls are ushered away. Fast-forward some fifteen years, to Josephine's honeymoon and her desire to revisit her old boarding school, which brings back a lot of memories. From there on, the perspective alternates between the adult Sephine navigating marriage and career and family, and teenaged Joe (all the girls at boarding school went by boys' names) navigating the cruelties of puberty.

The writing is very strong, and the teenage characters sound believable enough at first, but as the story progresses the plot weakens and the characters end up not having all that much substance to them. One notable exception to this might be Lauren, who gets treated horribly in the story at all times. Whatever tension was created in that first chapter, the author never builds on it, nor is it ever really resolved. And then the major plot twist becomes a plot hole and source of frustration, ruining the reading experience even more.

The story handles classism very well, although Sephine might be a tad too self-aware of the story to make certain interactions believable. There's a lot of homophobia in this, which reads as true for its time and place, but it's never really condemned within the story. I suppose the juxtaposition of two particular scenes near the end of both timelines was meant as a commentary on how much society has progressed in the past few decades, but it just falls flat. The fatphobia is never really challenged however, which seems like a missed opportunity.

All in all, this was rather a disappointing read. I expected more from it, and I felt cheated by the ending. But the writing was amazing. I can definitely imagine picking up another Eaton book in the future.

Judging by the reviews, this seems to be a marmite book: you either love it or hate it. Sadly I was in the latter camp. The characters ran the gamut from irritating to unpleasant to downright awful, and neither the privileged private school girls nor the badly stereotyped working class 'townies' ever seemed wholly realised.

Unfortunately I really struggled to connect with this book. The premise is great and the flashbacks to the boarding school were great and very dark academia. I felt the present day narrative did not really add much to the story, and pulled me away from the main plot line really. The ending wasn’t what I expected either. It’s clear this author is a great writer, unfortunately the story just wasn’t for me at this time.

I love a boarding school book! The Divines is set at St John the Divine, a claustrophobic, elitist and cliquey school, and explores female friendships, class and memory. An unsettling read from the very start, the book is told over two time periods – Josephine’s school days and the present day where she is still haunted by her experiences as a teen. Until the very end of the book with the reunion (where some of the most interesting reflections on memory and trauma came to the fore), I found that I enjoyed the school sections most and was itching to get back to the younger Josephine’s story. However, it was a really engaging read throughout and I loved the interactions between the Divines and the ‘townies’. Lauren, in particular, was a breath of fresh air compared to the Divine girls.

At the elite boarding school, St John the Divine, the Divines were known for being sassy, confident and popular. 20 years later, Sephine now lives in LA with her handsome husband and she hasn’t revisited her past for years. But on a brief visit to the school while on honeymoon, memories of her eventful final days as a Divine re-surface. The Divines has a slight dark academia feel to it in the vein of The Secret History or Heathers. It deals with typical teen girl clique issues in a rather chilling manner with class clashes also at play. I found that I kept turning the pages and became thoroughly absorbed in this unsettling, nostalgic haze of a novel.

I enjoyed this book. At first I thought it wasn't my thing as I wasn't sold on the dual timelines, but the author handled it very deftly and I was impressed. Cover is ace too.

I cannot believe this is a debut novel, it is written beautifully! This was a great coming of age novel that discussed so many issues including sexuality, the morning after pill and alcohol. I really enjoyed the way the book prompted reflection on the readers part to consider any mistakes you have made and not learnt from. Great book!

Not sure whether I enjoyed this or not. I thought there would be more of a mystery but it seems to be a story about teenage girls and the value of memory...

I love a boarding tale story as much as the next person and The Divines was a good read. A chance meeting between some former pupils of St John the Divine 15 years after leaving leads to old memories being unearthed, and unfinished arguments being rehashed. Realistic portrayals of angst-ridden teenagers dealing with All The Feelings, interspersed with updates of their lives now.
An interesting read, thanks to netgalley and the publishers for the chance to read it!

Book Review – The Divines

In the 90’s, the protagonist Josephine attended a British boarding school ‘St John the Divine’. Whilst Josephine’s time at the boarding school seems a lifetime ago, she cannot seem to let go of her past. She hasn’t spoken to another Divine in fifteen years, since the doors were shuttered after a terrible incident occurred there.

The Divines focuses on themes of female identity, sexuality and class boundaries, which Eaton depicted by comparing and contrasting the upper class girls to the working class townies that the Divine girls looked down upon.

I think Ellie Eaton hit the mark with this book, particularly with the portrayal of teenage girls attending a boarding school. Whilst I never attended a boarding school, I did go to an all girl’s school and the experiences Josephine had seemed so familiar to me.

I really related to this book, as Josephine’s character as a teenager was so coy and insecure, which is how a lot of teenage girls feel in relation to their appearance, their friendship groups and boys. Eaton created a character so shy and vulnerable, and one that could easily be pushed around, which was actually rather sad to read; I’m sure a lot of young girls have experienced this.

The only downside, was that I thought the ending was going to be a big reveal regarding the scandal at the school all those years ago, which I didn’t really get. I’m also still thinking about some of the characters. What happened to them? Did Josephine get in touch? I need ANSWERS!!

Overall, this was a pretty good read, I think I just wanted a bit more out of the ending!

3.5 rating.

Jo recounts her time at an exclusive boarding school to her new husband.

The concept was intriguing but unfortunately I found this book a little dull.

This debut author obviously has talent. 'The Devines' is beautifully written. However, the plot just wasn't strong enough to sustain it.

Thank you #NetGalley and Hodder and Stoughton for the free copy in exchange for an honest review.

I’m a sucker for a good dark academia novel so I snapped this one up straight away. The Divines follows Josephine as she revisits her old town and recounts her days at the local boarding school to her new husband. We’re lead to believe the school closed down due to a huge scandal that happened at the end of Josephine's school year. The story starts well but just gets weaker throughout. The ending was the biggest disappointment, there’s no big secret or twist and is just a bit anticlimactic..