Vendor
	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Sebastian Ritscher
Categories
Children’s, Teenage & Educational

DIVAH

Susannah Appelbaum

Eloise meets Rosemary's Baby in New York City’s very own Carlyle hotel.

Seventeen-year-old Itzy Nash is spending the summer at the exclusive Carlyle hotel in New York City. But the hotel harbors more than the rich and privileged; it is host to a gorgeous fallen angel, reclusive movie stars, and—Itzy soon learns—demons of the worst sort. When the Queen of the Damned checks in, all Hell breaks loose. Itzy is called upon to save herself—and all of humanity—from the ravages of the Underworld. There’s only one problem: Itzy’s possessed. Part gothic thriller, part historical fiction, the novel straddles the Upper East Side and the lush trappings of the Carlyle hotel, and Paris during the Reign of Terror in 1789. Marie Antoinette is the Queen of the Damned. Marilyn Monroe is an expert demon hunter. To kill a demon, Hermès scarves, Evian water, and a guillotine are the weapons of choice. For anyone who loved Daughter of Smoke and Bone, this has an epic battle between angels and demons with a doomed love story at its core. But it’s also darkly funny, for fans of Hold Me Closer, Necromancer, and more than anything it’s something original—dark, funny, clever, and glamorous. Susannah Appelbaum realized at an early age that the world contains both good and evil—and she wanted nothing more than to write about it. She is the critically acclaimed author of the Poisons of Caux series. By day, she dabbles in gardening. By night, she keeps the world safe from pernicious shadows and repugnant demons. She has lived for years in both Paris and the Carlyle hotel, where the room service is really quite delicious. Susannah resides in New Paltz, New York.

Available products
Book Published 2016-03-15 by Sky Pony Press

Comments

Appelbaum threads her story with enough playful details to keep readers enticed—who knew that guillotines and well-tied Hermés scarves were such useful tools when fighting demons?

Sky Pony has also had a couple of great posts: http://www.bustle.com/articles/138295-13-spooky-ya-novels-for-when-you-want-more-than-just-the-cold-to-give-you http://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/teen/12-of-our-most-anticipated-indie-books-of-2016/

Combining equal parts sly humor, cosmopolitan glamour, and white-knuckled danger, Divah is a page-turner par excellence. And not only does it feature a cast of truly sexy heroes and revolting villains—if Buffy the Vampire Slayer edited Vogue, Divah’s heroine Itzy Nash would be its first cover girl.

Susannah Appelbaum's Divah is a creepy, fun, demonic romp through the Upper East Side of Manhattan and French Revolution Paris, and I want to be Itzy Nash when I grow up. Read this book, but never place your bag on the floor. Trust me.

In Divah, Susannah Appelbaum creates a mythic romp, exposing a world where evil slithers along gilded corridors and angels and demons are never exactly what they seem. With rich imagery and playful plotting, Appelbaum conjures a beautiful grotesquerie where Botox is demon food, where Marilyn Monroe was once the world’s most dangerous demon-hunter, and where beneath every glittering surface there lurks a different monster. Appelbaum’s crisp, delightful prose draws the reader through this fast-paced tale that is at once wildly inventive and uproariously fun.

What a shimmering fever dream this is, replete with hunky angels, slavering hellhounds, and twenty-four-hour room service! And here's something else: you'll never be able to look at an Hermès scarf—or Marilyn Monroe—quite the same way ever again.

Hermès, Evian, the French Revolution, and the Carlyle hotel—I'll never look at any of these without thoughts of epic battles, earwigs, angels, and demons. Everything you thought you knew about divas is old and outdated. Divah is the must-have handbook for the contemporary demon hunter.

Divided into two parts, the novel seamlessly blends characters from the past and present as Itzy becomes embroiled in the eternal fight of good versus evil. Told from a third-person point of view in short chapters, the story is fast and suspenseful but not predictable. While there is a love story, it is not overly emphasized, and the focus of the story remains on Itzy’s transformation as she searches for the truth of what is happening to her and why --- This book is recommended for higher level readers of either gender with a fondness for gothic fantasy and historical fiction, as well as horror similar to Beautiful Creatures or City of Bones.

Susannah Appelbaum has written a story so full of high fashion, high society, humor, horror, history, romance, and magic, you might not stop to notice the beautiful writing, but you should. It's all there.