3.75 rounded up to 4.

First and foremost, thank you so much to Netgalley and Headline for providing me with an early copy of this novel! It was one of my most anticipated of the year and now I’ve read it barely before the year has even began. I’m very grateful. <3

I have a lot of thoughts about this book, most of which are positive, but I had to spend some time thinking about how I wanted to review this. For context, I’m a huge fan of Maggie Stiefvater’s previous series’, The Raven Cycle and The Dreamer Trilogy, and so I had a lot of high expectations when going into this as I feel like I can safely say that Stiefvater is one of my favourite authors based on those works alone. I have not read anything else outside of those series’, and so I wasn’t really sure what to expect beyond beautifully written prose (a given for any Stiefvater venture) and an element of well-crafted magic throughout the novel. I certainly got both of these here with The Listeners.

The Listeners was clearly well-researched and more a passion project for Maggie; you can feel it in her prose, the way she tends to the setting and her characters delicately and with a fair amount of grace. Even her antagonists are handled as though we’re viewing them through rose-tinted glasses, obscuring their more vitriolic and hateful rhetoric behind language barriers and obvious, but again - delicate - symbolism.

Our protagonist, June, is the strongest element of the book from the very first page, beyond even the magic system and setting of the grand Avallon hotel which sits against the backdrop of the Appalachian mountains (a place that Maggie so obviously adores). She commands each scene with her inner monologue and a distinct personality (and aesthetic) that separates her from all of the background characters - even though everyone with a name has their own subtle appeal. Perhaps there would’ve been more to love about them if this was stretched into a duology, or given a longer page count. Regardless, it’s June Hudson that sticks out here, a wonderful blend of some of my favourite characters of Maggie’s in her previous works who makes such an impression, half of my rating could be afforded to her. She does get into a bit of a love triangle, which I could've done without, but it's nothing too egregious

I have some not-so-positive things to say, also, in regard to the glaring lack of queer characters in this novel. Now, fans of Maggie may have been expecting at least one lead or side character to have a queer arc. I believe Maggie even stated somewhere (perhaps in response to an Instagram comment) that this book would include queer representation. What we are given instead is the most subtle and, frankly, kind of insulting single-sentence confirmation that two of the characters (who are so inconsequential to the story that I don’t even know their names) are gay. Whoop-dee-doo. Congrats to us. I would’ve preferred to have no expectation whatsoever and be pleasantly surprised by their quick and fast ‘reveal’ than the author telling us to expect something that came and went like a breeze. It was disappointing, to say the least.

I have more to say and I’d be happy to talk about other elements of the book for those who might be hesitant to pick it up without more details, so please feel free to reply on Goodreads to start a (spoiler-free) dialogue. As for now, I’ll be patiently waiting for Maggie’s next endeavour, as I still adore her work and know she has it in her to do something truly extraordinary again.

2.5 stars.
First, I have to admit that I haven't read a Stiefvater book since my book-tumblr-obsession-time with the Raven Cycle about ten years ago. Of course, this isn't what one would call a "typical" Stiefvater novel.

It's supposed to be her adult debut, and I guess it is. Naively, as I requested this, I still expected ... fantasy. Storygraph tags this release as "historical fiction," but the synopsis made me think of a magical sort of hotel; whimsical, lovely, and bright, put in sharp contrast to the arrival of WW2 and the detained Axis diplomats it brings. You know, contrast. Balance, maybe? Juxtaposition, at least.

I did not get that.

The Listeners is a bleak novel. The hotel itself, supposed to be this haven of luxury built on a natural mineral water spring, feels cold and hostile even before the Nazis haunt its halls. A sort-of sentient house is a common trope in fantasy lately, but the Avallon Hotel in The Listeners is not alive, but a soulless husk, leeching out any sort of positivity out of the text. When reading, you feel as if the hotel has died several years ago, and is now just some dried-out mummified body, while everybody still pretends it's alive to keep up appearances.

Our main character, June Hudson, general manager of the Avallon, is equally soulless. This is a very character-focused novel, but unfortunately, the character it's supposed to be focused on is a blank slate. It often felt as if Stiefvater held back characterization moments for June just to keep up the mystery aspect of the book. Tucker, the main "love interest," seems to be that just because he is the other POV character of the book. He and June end up together not because they interact, talk, or have a connection and grow to genuinely like one another, but because they are the main characters in a novel and are therefore destined for each other. Tucker, at least, is a more interesting character than June, but even he feels colorless and empty.
The only characters I could feel genuine warmth towards were Sandy and Hannelore, and both of them seem to be merely catalysts for the few actual plot points that happen in the course of the novel.
The other characters are merely set dressing, sprinkled around the hotel like decoration. Fancy vases in the form of humans.

It's no secret that Maggie Stiefvater has a very unique writing style, leaning towards the poetic and purple. This works extremely well for her fantasy novels, where the lyrical prose underlines the story beats and character moments. In The Listeners, her writing style felt decidedly out of place. I can't even really explain it, but her writing carries with it this hope that something magical is about to happen, but it doesn't. Reading The Listeners feels like build-up after build-up after build-up, only to never reach a climax. Instead, it fizzles out into unimportance. What was all this for?

I found myself speculating on a lot of things. The sweetwater running through the hotel, for once. Is it a magical thing, as the text would suggest, or is it simply ordinary mineral water that June projects her hopes and dreams for her career and this hotel onto? And why does Tucker fear it so? In the end, I feel like I haven't gotten an answer that satisfied me. That might have been intentional, actually. (However, just like when I reviewed "I Who Have Never Known Men" - the intentionality of keeping of the mystery to allow for reader speculation is something that frustrates me personally. I like getting answers. I like solving mysteries. I like having conclusions. That feeling when it all comes together? Irreplaceable. I cannot deal with speculation. That may be a fault of my own, however. Others might like it.)

In conclusion: Could've been great, but it just feels cold and empty. What a shame.
Also, I can't believe that June has three dachshunds and hasn't even given them names.

Plus, annoying commentary of an English-German, German-English translator: Please, look at the German in this book again. Some of it is alright, but most is incorrect.

Maggie Stiefvater’s The Listeners is a lyrical and haunting exploration of connection, creativity, and the unseen forces that shape our lives. Blending her signature poetic prose with a sense of eerie mystery, Stiefvater crafts a narrative that feels both deeply personal and profoundly otherworldly.

The story revolves around characters bound by secrets, whose lives intersect in unexpected ways as they are drawn into a web of supernatural intrigue. Themes of belonging, obsession, and the cost of truly listening—to oneself and to others—are beautifully woven into the narrative.

Atmospheric and thought-provoking, The Listeners is a mesmerizing tale that will resonate with fans of magical realism and introspective storytelling.

Omg this book! Where do I start?!?!? The Listeners by Maggie Stiefvater is such a good story. This is so lovely... 5 stars from me. So so good.