The Listeners by Maggie Stiefvater – Book Review

Book Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ .5

Genre: Adult Historical Fantasy

Spice: Medium

Summary:

It’s January of 1942, just a month after the attack on Pearl Harbor that drew America into another World War. But at the Avallon Hotel deep in the wilderness of West Virginia, they plan to weather this challenge just as they have all the others: by continuing to offer their high-end clientele a perfect getaway. The hotel is managed by local girl June Porter Hudson, an unlikely manager on the surface, but a confident and capable one that has already been steering the hotel successfully. But her greatest challenge comes when the hotel’s recent heir makes a deal with the State Department to use the luxury hotel to house Axis diplomats and the federal agents who will monitor them.

June has kept the hotel happy and functioning for years, but that will be challenging when the staff, guests, and federal agents all have animosities toward each other. For part of June’s job has always been to keep the mystical waters that feed the hotel happy, and agitated guests will agitate the waters as well. As tensions continue to rise, and June’s luxurious environment is touched by the animosity and scarcity of war, she will have to decide whether luxury is a moral goal to achieve after all.

Reaction:

I really enjoyed reading The Listeners. The writing is mysterious and beautiful, the characters unique and well-developed, and the plot and structure build tension so nicely. A great historical book with a hint of paranormal and horror elements.

I could gush over the writing in this book forever. From the very start, I was pulled into the story and settings. Stiefvater has an amazing way of bringing mysticism to a story without overtly saying words like magic. Her writing also has a pace and measure to it that makes it easy to read and feel the atmosphere.

I really enjoyed June’s character. She was smart and controlled, which I related to. She’s uber successful, and well respected in her spaces, but still must contend with the expectations of society on a woman, which I thought was a great way to make her relatable to modern women. Her relationship to the sweetwater added so many levels to her character and the story. It’s a dysfunctional relationship that’s colored by those unique feelings you have for the place that built you: you both are fond of it and resent it at the same time.

The presence of the sweetwater really made the book for me. It is its own character with thoughts, feelings, and expressions that June, Tucker, and Hannelore all interact with. It presents a mystical, and even horror, element to the story. As the tensions rise in the hotel, June’s relationship with the sweetwater becomes more strained, driving the tension as the plot rose to its climax.  It also communicates a main theme in the novel: entities are shaped by the environments that surround them.

There is a romantic subplot in the novel as June reunites with her childhood flame and the heir of the hotel, Gilfoyle, and meets the no-nonsense, mysterious FBI Agent Tucker. I’m not usually a fan of a love triangle, but this one was entertaining and provided a nice counter tension to the very real and high stakes arena of Axis diplomats.

I’d recommend this to anyone who enjoys their fantasy with a dose of realism, and a strong but reserved female protagonist who isn’t a teenager or young adult. Overall, this was an interesting read, and while completely different than what I’ve read of Maggie Stiefvater before, I still found her usual style engaging and mystical.