I am Divine.
My mother was Divine and her mother before that, which isn’t uncommon.
Although that was at a time when being Divine meant something . . .
The girls of elite English boarding school, St. John the Divine, were notorious for flipping their hair, harassing teachers, chasing boys and chain-smoking cigarettes. They were fiercely loyal, sharp-tongued, and cutting in the way that only teenage girls can be. But for Josephine, now in her thirties, her time at St. John feels like a lifetime ago. She hasn’t spoken to another Divine in fifteen years, not since the day the school shut its doors in disgrace . . .
But an impromptu visit reawakens blurry recollections of those doomed final weeks that rocked the community. With each memory that resurfaces, she circles closer to the ugly secret at the heart of the school’s scandal. But the more Josephine recalls, the further her life unravels, derailing not just her marriage and career, but her entire sense of self.
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.
You can purchase The Divines (Hodder) Here.
Happy reading!