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The Diviners Libba Bray 12020K 2023-08-31

"How do you invent a religion?" Evie asked

Will looked over the top of his spectacles "You say, ‘God told n up"

Evie hadn’t given religion ht before Her parents were Catholics turned Episcopalian They attended services on Sunday, but it was all pretty rote, like brushing your teeth and bathing Just so you did because it was expected Evie hadn’t always felt that way For a year after James had died, she’d cupped his half-dollar pendant between her pressed palram that would say GOOD NEWS! IT WAS A TERRIBLE MISTAKE, AND PRIVATE JAMES XAVIER O’NEILL HAS BEEN FOUND, SAFE, IN A FARMHOUSE IN FRANCE But no such telegraht have bloomed in Evie withered and died Now she saw it as just another advertiseeneration and held nofor hers

"We haven’t answered the most basic question of all: Why? What purpose is served by these hts

"He’s a monster," Evie said "Isn’t he?"

Will reached into a bowl of bridgethe is done without purpose, however twisted that purpose may be"

"Why did he take her eyes?" Evie asked

"Hethem as souvenirs"

Evie made a face "A pinwheel from Coney Island is a souvenir, Unc"

"To us, yes To a ht need theesting the flesh of your victihori of India eat the flesh of the dead in the belief that it confers supernatural powers, whereas onquin tribe believe that anyone who eats huo"

Evie’s sto in the Bible about holy cannibalism"

"Transubstantiation?" Jericho said " ‘Eat of ht," Evie conceded "I’ll certainly never feel the saain"

"As I’ve said before--A all sorts of people Beliefs converge and becoarette and Evie could see his fingers twitching for a third, which, thankfully, he resisted The cigarette s thickly in the air as it was