This is a gripping novel about the darker side of girls boarding schools, which really shines a light on the divide between the wealthy pupils and the local community.
This novel was full of secrets, lies, and dark themes that tend to pull me in and hook me to a story.
The only thing I didn't care for was the ending. I wished it ended differently.

I was given an eARC by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Divines is fantastically written, and I never quite knew what was going to happen. I felt uncomfortable throughout (in a way that meant the book was well-written) and I got chills several times while reading.

I'll level with you, for me, this request was a total cover click. It's pink, it's pretty and actually not usually something I would normally go for, but it wasn't too long until I was hooked into the story needing answers.

The Divines follows Joe, now many years in the future, and flicks between the past, when she was at an all girls boarding school in England, to the future, where she is now married and living in America. The chapter sizes and the past-present switching helps to keep a solid and steady pace to the novel, where you need 'just one more chapter', again and again and again.

The premise of the novel was really great. It isn't comfortable, and really does make you question how girls can be so mean. The ending of the novel certainly didn't go the way I expected it to, it wasn't quite so strong as the story had started and that's where the novel lost a star for me.

I'm actually not sure how I felt about the characters, some are stronger than others, but in a way that felt more real in that, at least in the past, the girls are young and probably haven't found themselves yet. It does leave you with a few outstanding questions.

I can't believe that this is actually a debut novel, it's written beautifully and I will definitely check our more of Eaton's work in the future!

3.75 stars, rounded to 4.

Thanks to NetGalley, Hodder & Stoughton and Ellie Eaton for an eArc copy of this novel for review!

dnf after 200p pages

trigger warning
<spoiler> grief, trauma, sexual assault on minors, child rape, bullying, self harm </spoiler>

Once she is married, Josephine - or Joe, as her classmates called her - recalls her school days on an elite boarding school, and the drama that led to the closure of said institute.

I know, I know. I am dnf-ing quite a lot of books at the moment. The fun thing is that with each dnf, I am taking longer and longer for the following books to reach a decision, so in different circumstances, I'd have quit earlier.
I decided that I draw the line at explicit sex scenes between a minor and an adult.

So, we have two timelines. The one is kinda slice-of-life, a woman marrying a guy, going on a honeymoon, trying to get pregnant, being annoyed by her mother.
The other is the boarding school, before smartphones but internet was in existence and known in theory, so I guess in the late 90-ies, maybe?

An all-girls boarding school for the offspring of disgustingly wealthy parents. Mostly white, one token person of colour because in the UK, there only live people with British ancestry. Oh wait, supposedly there was an Indian pupil, too, but I guess the two Russians are white enough.

Unfortunately, the school is in the middle of the town and to reach one side of the grounds you have to cross a well-traversed street. A bridge was built, but it doesn't take much imagination to feel like the school is creeping in on the town.
Also, since the former trade has died down, the school is the only generator of jobs. The townspeople do all the dirty work and are degraded at every turn, which expplains the enmity between both camps.
You'd have that even if the girls were not the snobbish people they are.

Somehow, our protagonist got herself adopted by a "townie". Despite being told this is all about the tragedy which left one girl dead, she doesn't really feature much in the part I've read, only as the other person sleeping in her dorm room, who is seen coming and going. Who is bullied. But everybody hates her so that's okay and nobody sees any need to intervene.

Yeah, well, our protagonist is <i>very</i> self absorbed so whatever happens later must be really big, because it would have to to make her notice.

I stopped after an appaling sex scene.
<spoiler> Protagonist sleeps over at the townie friend's house, can't sleep, noses through the living room drawers and is found by her friend's big brother. She makes advances, he reacts. He tries to use a condom, it rips, she tells him it's fine, she's on the pill, despite not wanting this.
Afterwards, she's in great pain and is bleeding for a long time.
Said guy isn't even living there anymore, he just crashed there because he had a row with his girlfriend. It isn't said how old he is, but that he is a parent of the child his girlfriend brought with her.
It's <i>very</i> explicit.
I like that it's a nuanced description that doesn't just puts the blame on one person, but what the heck, I don't want to read that at all.</spoiler>

I guess I could have assumed this was going to happen, considering how sex-obsessed this whole book is. If I'd known I would not have requested this. Which, again, make me feel less bad about reviewing a book I haven't read in it's entirety. Dear publishers, we need more communication.

The arc was provided by the publisher.

“Divines could be cruel, conceited, arcane, but we were faithful to the end. We sobbed and hugged one another. Forever, we promised, always.

Set in an exclusive girls’ boarding school, St John the Divine, in which the wealthy students dubbed ‘Divines’ harassed teachers,Chain smoked and generally ran amuck.We follow Jo (or Sephine) whose last year at the school ends with a tragic accident.

She hasn’t spoken to her old school friends or set foot near the place in fifteen years when an impromptu visit brings back hazy forgotten memories. As she starts to recall the moments leading to tragedy,her life (and marriage) begins to unravel.

This enthralling debut by Ellie Eaton is an exploration into class, boarding school elitism and toxic friendships, leading us to question the reliability of memory.

I enjoyed the use of two timelines- 1990s boarding school and the present day, though I found the boarding school chapters far more interesting than the present day. However,they juxtaposed spectacularly allowing us to see how the memories of her teenage life effectively haunted her adult one.

Though I was slightly disappointed by the ending i did really enjoy it and know that I’ll certainly be reading Ellie Eaton’s future works.

Also, I just want to thank Hodder&Stoughton and Net Galley for the chance to read this book.

Sephine has escaped from her background - newly married to sculptor and working as a freelance journalist, she lives a bohemian life. Twenty years ago though Josephine was a member of the fifth form at an elite girls' boarding school, St John the Divine. These Divines were rude, arrogant and entitled but Josephine broke the mould by mixing with a 'Townie' until a scandal engulfed the school and it shut.
Josephine is not really likeable at any point in this book and is incredibly self-centred which I found irritating. However, I loved the premise of the poor working-class town dependent on the elite school for its economy whilst loathing the students. There's also an insight into the whole 'old boys club' idea. Certain sections were very long-winded, I found myself more interested in the school memories than pretentious modern day bohemian living, but I did stay engrossed to the end

"Divines could be cruel, conceited, arcane, but we were faithful to the end."

St John the Divine school is an elite English boarding school for girls with a long legacy. Divines are known for flipping their hair, harassing teachers and running wild in the local town. This coming of age story follows Josephine, where a torrent of pornographic polaroids and a tragic accident bookend her last year at the school. When she's forced to board with Gerry Lake, the school pariah, her social standing in the Divine hierarchy shifts and an unlikely friendship with Lauren, a local girl from the comprehensive school begins. Fifteen years later, Josephine is eschewed from anything and anyone Divine. But when a fleeting trip to the now closed campus brings back long supressed memories, she becomes obsessed with her time as a Divine. It begs the question can we ever really escape the scars of our past?

I first saw The Divines a few months ago in an article listing 2021 debut novels, after reading the description and seeing the beautiful cover it quickly became one of my most anticipated releases of the year and it didn't disappoint. Ellie Eaton's compelling debut explores female friendship, identity, teenage insecurity, sexuality and class. Although the characters are unlikable, teenage girls are fucking cruel, the writing is stunning and I found it captivating. Another fascinating element of the book explored is the ability we have to supress and compartmentalise things we want to forget to protect ourselves. Although slow to start, I soon found myself fully immersed in Eaton's characterisations and story.

Thank you Hodder & Stoughton for my copy to review 💕

I found this book hard to rate and review as it was quite unclear what the trajectory of the story was as I was reading it. However, the more of it I read, the more I began to enjoy it. It tells the story of Joe’s experience at boarding school and how this affected her into adulthood. I found Joe, as a character, quite difficult to relate to but by the end, as the story came together a bit better, I had a better understanding of her. The ending was quite abrupt and not particularly satisfying. Overall, it was worth a read but I wouldn’t read it again.

Ellie Eaton can certainly write, and this is a solid debut with some of the pitfalls that subsequent novels will hopefully avoid.

Sometimes a book isn't what I thought it would be and then I need to take a minute to think about it on its terms and not the terms that I thought it would be on before reading and that is the case with this book.

I expected this to be a bit more sinister and to be driven a bit more by traditional dark academia vibes than it was ultimately.

This is the story of Josephine who goes by the different parts of her name, Jo when she's young and Sephine when she's older. What is interesting is that despite thinking that she is very different on the inside when she uses the different names, it becomes clear during the novel that she is the same person all along, despite fighting against this. Also interesting is how different people view her as opposed to how she views herself.

I did feel that she overused Divines as a descriptor throughout and that this would have been stronger had it been used less.

I also felt that the twist with Lauren was too obvious and I wish she had alluded to how she obviously saw it all now but didn't then. I find this a hard line to walk when stories are told in retrospect, but her knowingness about some things and her naivety about others felt contradictory.

The end worked for me, and I would definitely read more from this this author.

Many thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

I was really excited to read this book as it was on my most anticipated 2021 list - and I've heard lots of people talking about this book - lots of hype!

Overall I really enjoyed it. It was really fast paced, yet it still felt very sinister and slow in places (I know that completely contradicts itself, but that's the only way I can describe it)
I was quite shocked by the use of the C-Word right at the start of the book, I don't like this word at the best of times - and it worries me that I've seen this book being described as YA in some places - which makes me feel a little uncomfortable.


(The audiobook narrator was great - I have listened to other books narrated by Imogen Church before and they are always very well done! I was completely swept up with her narration.)

I didn't like the ending (plot-wise) however it was very hopeful. A lot of the times you read books, or hear about news stories about bullying in school and how it ends in tragedy. This wasn't the case, it left me feeling quite positive.

I don't know if I expected too much from this book because of all the hype around it - so I don't know if that hindered my enjoyment.
In summary, I really liked this book and really enjoyed Ellie Eaton's writing - I look forward to what she does next!!

Now tell me if you have heard of this kind of story before: in the prologue, someone dies, years later our narrator for some reason looks back to the past and this 'death'. I kind of blame TSH for this 'trend'. Eaton's novel reads a lot like an amalgamation The Secret Place, The Lightness, Good Girls Lie, and All Girls. This kind of setup can be great if done right but I am afraid that in Eaton's hands it ends being a bland, and not nearly sapphic enough, affair.
I am so tired of the narrator with a "mousy" appearance and a boring personality. The writing too, in my opinion, of course, was pretty dire ("my nipples mutinous in the cold and hard as bullets. I enjoy looking at my wide, milky colored bottom"). Also, this book intend audience is an 'adult' one so why in the world does Eaton feel the need to remind her readers as if were three-year-olds, that when our narrator, who is clearly a grown woman in the 'now', is talking about her time as a pupil at this fancy school, this was in the pre-internet days ("This was preinternet remember; no one could google anyone"). Lastly, and this is something that quite a few English authors do when you have a character whose first language is not English, there is no need to throw in dozens of expressions (italicized of course) in their native tongue. Our narrator (whose name is Sephine....) is married to a guy who happens to be Austrian. While I know from my own personal experiences that sometimes some words might come to you in your mother tongue and you do not the English equivalent but here the guy is clearly fluent yet he says "Nein" and "Ja" and "Mein Gott". Come on, we get it, the guy is Austrian!
This novel offers very little to the clique/private school/someone dies subgenre. While I usually end up DNF reviews by saying that I'm sure others will enjoy this', here, I would advise readers to check out its overall score (tis' low for a reason) before committing to this.

ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Divines is a very readable novel about Josephine, a married woman with a young daughter in the present day, intercut with her formative experiences at elite English boarding school for girls in the 1990's.

The school, St John the Divine, seems a pretty horrible place. The girls are entitled and cliquey, obsessed with status but generally uninterested in being educated. The pupils call themselves the Divines and generally look down on the state school townies and local residents.

As an adult, Josephine is now looking back at her time at school, re-evaluating her experiences and perceptions of what actually happened to her and her peers. All might not be what it originally seemed - secrets will be revealed!

A recommended read, four stars.

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing a review copy in exchange for honest feedback.

The Divines is a brilliant in your face novel, encompassing the vivid brutality of youth, the mysterious ways your formative years can echo down throughout adulthood and ultimately how one change of perspective can throw everything you thought you knew into turmoil.

I loved it, it is a story of friends and perceived enemies, of privilege and lack thereof, with an engaging, broken central character whose life you fall headfirst into.

The Divines of the title are an arrogant yet intriguing group, a mish mash of authentic personality and the author has an excellent way of writing that absorbs the reader into every moment. A really terrific read. I look forward to more.

Hmmm, I didn't enjoy this as much as I thought I would. The Divines are pupils at an elite all girls boarding school, who have their own rules and traditions. Josephine is now an adult and tries to forget what happened during her school days, but the past comes back to haunt her and she can't let the traumatic events go. This started well but didn't hold my attention.

An engaging boarding school mystery, switching between the timelines and telling the interwoven story of the Divines. A beautifully written novel.

The Divines - Ellie Eaton

I enjoyed how we delve into Josephine's life through two different timelines (current day and back to her boarding school days) the writer had me feeling unsettled throughout and I was very curious to read on to find the hidden truths. Maybe I would say that it was a little slow at times and I was left wanting more (a bit more grit) for the crescendo, but overall a good concept and coming of age story. Many thanks to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for allowing me the chance to read and review this book

A light academia media novel perhaps mismarketed with its dramatic beginnings, as a reader I was set up for a larger amount of tension, and atmosphere, which in the end I was disappointed with. excellent characterisation of the social class divide between private and state school youth. Perturbed by the ableism used to describe a teacher as terrifying because they had a disfigurement in their hand, which may seem minor, but to disabled readers, is not pleasant to read.

3.5 stars

The Divines isn’t a typical mystery academia novel, it jumps between two timelines of our protagonist Josephine’s life, flashbacks to her time attending St John the Divine, a boarding school in England and a period stretching 6 years an adult in US trying to make sense of her past, whilst navigating life as a newlywed, struggles of freelance writer and a baby.

There were many elements I enjoyed in this debut novel, mainly during the boarding school chapters where Eaton explores topics such as toxic friendship, the hollowing feeling of isolation at a young age and the subtle exploration of sexuality. I enjoyed small details such as all the Divines gave themselves boy names, our protagonist is Joe and as an adult she refers to herself as Sephine – leaving the reader wondering why she doesn’t want to be fully associated with her full name. The adult chapters left me feeling ever so slightly underwhelmed, at times I felt that a lot of the detail didn’t really tie in with the story and Sephine seemed to be trapped in her head 99% of the time, which after a while felt a bit monotonous.

I can definitely see what Eaton was aiming for with this novel, and whilst I thoroughly enjoyed the writing, I do feel some of the chapters didn’t do much for the overall story which left me feeling like it was perhaps a bit lengthy and could have been a bit sharper. That being said, this was still a very enjoyable read and one I would most definitely still recommend.

This isn’t a dark academia mystery, no matter the prone body that opens the first chapter. But it is a boarding school novel, which I’ve always loved. Josephine, now in her thirties and newly married, starts to tell her husband about her childhood at an elite boarding school, but finds it too difficult to talk about. We move between chapters covering years of her current life as she unpicks what happened, and her brief last term at school.
It reminded me of Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld, and has also been compared to My Dark Vanessa – it has that same unsettling feeling throughout, of unacknowledged trauma. Well written, compelling, quite uncomfortable to read. It had me cringing at all the relatable indignities of being a teenage girl. The girls aren’t likable, but they are recognisable.

Pleasant enough,but never quite reached enough tension or drama for what I was expecting.
So the fault might lie entirely with me.
I felt it slow at times with too many sections devoted to present day Josephine that didnt always move the story forward.
Enjoyable,but I dont think overly memorable.