The future is now, and it is bright and dazzling. Divinity 36, by Gail Carriger, reads like a next-generation YA staple that will sit undiscovered for a while and make huge waves when it goes mainstream with the youth. The name of the game is divinity. There is no difference between celebrity and religion, love and belief, acolyte and alien. This is a story about a school that grooms gods of the stage and the lengths people will go to for fame.
Divinity 36 is a science fiction ‘magic school’ story where the school trains K-pop groups. An alien race of space nymphs, whose only galactic export is entertainment, functionally kidnap youths from across the cosmos and try to team them up into performative art groups. Squads are called “pantheons” and are comprised of essentially two singers, two dancers, and two people who can turn their bodies into light shows. To become a god (part of a pantheon), you must be recruited to and attend a specialized training facility where numerous aspirants are tested for aptitude, synergy, and pizzaz. If you can accrue enough popularity to make it through the numerous rounds of cuts, you might earn (literal) universal fame.
My plot summary this time is a massive oversimplification of a very complicated book, but trying to give someone the gist of this extremely fun story is quite difficult. Additionally, this is one of those books that is best experienced knowing as little as possible, as it is a story that thrives on drama, presentation, and execution. Divinity 36 understands its subject material, and the path the story takes is meticulously planned, just like the routines of the characters in the story. I went into this book with very little knowledge or understanding of idol groups, and I had a blast. We follow the perspective of a barista named Phex on a forgotten moon. He is a refugee living a relatively uneventful life until an alien hears him singing and recruits him to become a god. Phex has some of the hallmarks of typical YA protagonists: he is a little bland (so any reader can slip into his perspective), he loves to cook in order to give him a pinch of personality, and he is genetically modified to be the chosen one of singing.
Normally, these hallmarks of YA fiction would have turned me off of Divinity 36, but the book has such a strong sense of presentation and atmosphere that I was easily able to move past it and grow attached to Phex. Idol shows already seem pretty cool and flashy in our current reality, so I was very curious to see how Carriger was going to “sci-fi them up” in a written medium where she can’t add more lasers. The answer is extremely descriptive visual components that are both evocative and engrossing. At the start of Divinity 36, I was very lost in all the terminology and visual descriptions, but with time, I found myself vividly imagining the described scenes and really becoming invested in the potential careers of these potential gods.
I don’t want to spoil much more of this very unique book, and I highly recommend you check it out. Book one is very clearly just the start of the story, and there are two sequels (which I will be buying soon) that are already out. Divinity 36 reads like an endlessly entertaining breath of fresh air. I suspect that if you give it a chance, I will soon find you beside me, worshiping at the altar of the newest pantheon.
Rating: Divinity 36 – 8.5/10
-Andrew
