At first glance a story about the upheaval of a hotel that is forced to swap its luxury residents for enemy diplomats in the Second World War.

At a deeper level it considers the sacrifice that certain people make for the happiness of the wider group and the difficulty of balancing that with a path that leads to their happiness. The tug of war between ought and want…

In this novel, the author channels the whimsical yet dark energy of The Grand Budapest Hotel, setting the stage in a peculiar Appalachian town during the 1940s amidst the backdrop of World War II. What follows is a delightful and intricate tale of sentient sweet water and an ensemble of eccentric, compelling characters, each adding their own flavor to the story.

At the heart of it all is June, a complex and fiercely determined protagonist. With the weight of the hotel’s future resting on her shoulders, June must navigate the tense and dangerous political climate of wartime America.

The plot itself is a dizzying whirlwind of twists and turns, keeping readers on their toes with every page. True to Maggie Stiefvater's signature style, the writing is both captivating and hauntingly beautiful, effortlessly drawing the reader into a world that's as rich and unpredictable as the characters within it.

Stiefvater writes best when she's building a new world and exploring the crevices of her characters.
Hudson and Tucker were interesting and fleshed out characters with strong ideals that would have been interesting to see develop if the plot was stronger.

The story thrives when it's examining interpersonal relationships and dynamics of wealth and class but it struggles to match the enormity and tensions of of WWII. There were interesting moral questions the characters had to face but felt a bit hurried.

Stiefvater writes with such a wonderful style and detailed care that its flaws in plot can be mostly overlooked.

This is probably a case of "It's not you, it's me," but this book definitely was not for me. I've read all of Maggie Stiefvater's books and she's one of my favorite authors, so I didn't hesitate to request The Listeners, even though historical fiction isn't one of my go-to genres. This book gets an extra star because Stiefvater's prose is excellent as usual, but the plot fell flat for me. I kept waiting for things to get interesting, but they never did. I didn't connect with any of the characters, and overall just found the story boring. I do hope this book finds its audience, but it's just not going to be me.

This was one of my most anticipated books as I love Maggie Stiefvaters YA books. However, I did not like this book. I should've realised sooner with it being a heavily historical novel with a little fantasy. I personally need more fantasy in historical books.

I generally avoid historical novels but the setting and the period were perfect for this story. I fell in love with the Avalon Hotel and the staff keeping it running smoothly in the most difficult of circumstances, and was intrigued to understand the mystery of the sweetwater.

A gentle paced novel this is perfect to relax and immerse yourself in the location, characters and twist and turns of the politics around foreign nationals during WW2.

Much of my disappointment with The Listeners stemmed from its inability to follow through on its initial setup. The pacing dragged, making it difficult to stay engaged, and the plot never seemed to find a clear direction. While the characters started off intriguing, they didn’t evolve in a way that deepened my investment. I kept waiting for something to click, but it never quite did.

Though primarily historical fiction, the book weaves in other elements that never fully materialize. It doesn’t firmly land as speculative fiction, literary fiction, or magical realism, leaving it feeling unmoored and uncertain of its own identity.

The autism theme is present but underdeveloped, more of a passing idea than a fully explored aspect of the story. It’s there, but it doesn’t add much depth or significance to the narrative.

In the end, The Listeners had a promising start but lost its grip as it went on. While some readers might appreciate its atmosphere and historical backdrop, for me, the sluggish pacing, unclear genre, and underwhelming themes made it a frustrating read.

Peark Harbour was the shocking event that catapulted America so suddenly into war that many of the diplomatic niceties had had no time to be enacted. In consequence, diplomats on both sides were held as hostages, to be traded for one another. German , Italian and Japanese delegation were, in fact, held in American country hotels, commandeered, just as the Avallon, by the state department.
This fascinating novel imagines a such a scenario and sets it in the luxurious and mysterious Avallon, presided over by the extraordinarily, and also mysterious, talented General Manager, June "Hoss" Hudson.
The many stories woven through the days and weeks the diplomats stay within the Avallon's walls concern both staff and guests alike.
Maggie Stiefvater has written a novel at once firmly rooted in solid historical research yet at the same time full of fantastical mystery, There is an almost traditional Grimms fairy story element to the tale which makes categorising this book so difficult. That's no bad thing either ,because, how refreshing to have a book that can't be pigeonholed. Like the sweet water which runs through, around and under the hotel, Stiefvater has produced a narrative which defies a description of simply an historical novel, but equally, is too firmly linked to actual events, and indeed, actual people, that it cannot simply be categorised as fantasy.
What it is though, in my honest opinion, is utterly absorbing and vivid. Like an hotel, the narrative has many facets, each as different as those who inhabit it's rooms.
I loved it, and, what's more, it prompted me to look up the historical facts surrounding the story, learning about a part of WW2 diplomacy which became strangely relevant at the time of writing this review, as hostages returned to Israel in return for Palestinian prisoners held in Israel. None, I suspect, held in such opulent surroundings as the Axis diplomats in The Listeners.
Headline and NetGalley supplied an earc of this title in return for this review.
As a postscript, congratulations to Headline on their far better cover, than that posted on Goodreads!

I have given three stars as I’m not sure if it was me or the book, however, I just could not get into this. I can’t quite put my finger on what it was and I’m not sure whether I just misunderstood what the book was supposed to be about but I DNF about a third of the way in. Thank you to the writer, publisher, and NetGalley for allowing me to review this book.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for this advanced reader's copy and the opportunity to this early. Review has been posted on Waterstones and Amazon.

This is very different from The Raven Cycle.

June Hudson is the general manager of the luxury hotel the Avallon. When WWII ,8’ea to America, their guests become diplomats and Nazi sympathisers.

Jane is such a strong character. She stands out by being a woman, a mountaineer, having an accent in a place where the wealthy accept a certain image.
Yet, she listens and sees and acts. She loves her staff and they trust her. She knows how to sell a story.

What to expect:
The romance is verryyyy background and slow burn.
This lacked the banter from her YA series.
This was still as atmospheric and intimate as the Raven Cycle.
This is full of complicated interactions, relationships, and dynamics.

<b>Tucker wondered why it was that humans were drawn to natural beauty. It wasn’t for them. Here, in fact, it actively opposed them. Everything that made the landscape beautiful–the remote location, the steeply pitched slopes, the rushing rapids–was dangerous. And yet, like mice before snakes, deer before hunters, a certain type of gentle woman before a certain type of brutal man, humans pined and longed for these vistas.
</b>
This was kind of magical realism, but I also hesitate to define it as that. I thought this would have more magic to do with the sweet water brought up the premise.

This was left very wishy washy and honestly, I wasn’t entirely sure of the purpose of the water to the story.

I think this was a case of missed expectations.
This is a slow moving historical fiction.

<b>They say youth is wasted on the young. Why do we hate the foolishness that made us unfoolish?</b>

Arc gifted by Headline.

This book is interesting historically rather than a gripping read. There is a very upmarket hotel in West Virginia which belongs to a family which rescued it from being a mess. They restored and upgraded it and passed the management of it to an employee, June. The Avallon is full,of rich guests. However, war has broken out after Pear Harbour and the FBI and State Department are taking the hotel over to house enemy embassy staff. The mix of departmental officials and embassy staff from .Germany, Italy and Japan does not make an easy mix. The enemy staff are on edge hoping they will be transported home. In the meantime the reader is treated to all the comings and goings during their incarceration. Eventually the time comes for the foreign nationals to leave. Historically, this book has some interesting reminders but it does not make a gripping read.

Check in The Avallon for a poetic experience in which the beauty of luxury and the ugliness of World War II intertwin with each other. A charming cast of characters will lead you into a story of magic realism and romance and the unreality of war times far from the war.

I wonder if Stiefvater would have ever suspected how well timed this book release would be. History tends to rhyme, after all.

Having read Stiefvater's little article/essay before requesting this book, I knew I was getting into story that wasn't guided by actions scene or immersive plot (in the sense that "telling" has a greater hold in this genre of books compared to "showing").

And indeed, it is the case. I would even go further and say that the secrets foretold in the blurb aren't very central to the story, or that interesting, for a reader used to more gripping stories. Sure, secrets are present, of all kind. But they do not shape the plot or the story as much as I expected or hoped. Does that mean the story doesn't hold up to its promise? Well, it's a difficult question. I am aware enough of my preferences to be cautious with my opinion here. I love fantasy, mystery and romance. Sometimes historical fiction. Generally, I don"t go for general or literary fiction, because I don't find them interesting enough, despite their good writing and their aim to examine things that makes us human. It's too obvious for my taste.

"The listeners" is a good story, but I feel like it could have been better. I know Stiefvater's prose from the Raven Boys, and I think her style of writing would have suited a story who relied more heavily on magical elements (a bit in the magical realism, even though this genre is very specific and linked to south america and deconolonisation). Sure, the descriptions are great, the sense of place s great, and the idea of dealing with diplomats as the USA join WW2 is promising. June's relationship with the water was, too. The promise of having all kind of love, too. But in the end, it fell flat for me. Probably a genre thing, too much distance from the characters even though we are in their head all along. Seemingly complex characters who feel flat in the end, going through a phase in their life without having much to change for it. Sure, decisions are taken, but it didn't feel like something important. I need to care about the characters to care about a story, and here I just couldn't. Too much telling, not enough showing, not enough shifting of scenes to make things interesting. The story could have fit into a novella and be more punchy without changing much of its form here.

Is it a bad book? No. Was it appealing and emotionnally impactful? No, either. And I must say I am a bit on edge about how some of the themes concerning June and a young girl (clearly depicted as autistic) was treated. There was an undertone of... getting better? Changing, to be more socially adapted, rather than finding ways to have a comfortable life. I didn't like that very much, but I might be wrong in my interpretation.

thank you to netgalley for my arc of this book!

sadly this was simply not a good book. i was excited when i saw the author and the premise i figured if anyone can pull this off maggie can but sadly thats not how it turned out. the book was just boring, the characters were boring, the relationships save 1 or 2 were also boring. i didn’t like the way the autism rep was handled in this book at all it felt as if hannelore only existed to further things for june and she consisted of a lot of stereotypes. overall i can think of few things i liked such as the setting and some of the relationships between june and her workers. for the most part i can think of more things i didn’t like which is a disappointing.

*I received an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for the free book.*

When I received the email that my Netgalley wish had been granted, I was a few days away from handing in my doctoral thesis about Nan Shepherd. I wanted to just drop everything and start reading, but I kept the ARC until after I had handed in the book I had written. I was in a reading slump, my brain tired from academia. But "The Listeners" was amazing, I loved every single sentence of it and it transported me to a mysterious hotel in America shortly after Pearl Harbour happened.

The Avallon is a luxury hotel and June is the GM. Just as June has her secrets, the hotel has secrets. When the hotel is used to home people from Germany, Japan, Italy, June has to keep up the peace, she has to appease the Sweetwater, the guests, the Buero, ponder her old love and life, possible new love, her past and her future. She is June, she is Hoss, she can talk to the water, yet she is not part of the rich family that owns the hotel. She can also see kinship with the autistic-coded daughter of a German diplomat, mistreated, prone to be a victim of euthanasia if she is to return to Germany. Nationality, ethnicity, gender, ablebodiness, class, love and everything is part of the hotel's ecosystem. It lives and breathes, the hotel is weirdly alive.

The novel raises more questions than it answers. But that is the Stiefvater beauty of it, something I already loved in the Raven Cycle. The ending is both open and closed, the past is both a mystery and explained, just like the magic of the water is never truly explained. Does it need to be? A constant song while reading was "What the water gave me" by Florence and the Machine. The grand hotel, the bathhouses, the toll to keep the hotel running - both worldly and otherworldly. I really enjoyed this book, I even wish it could have been longer.

There were a few things that did not work for me however:
- As a German native speaker, I couldn't help but find fault with the German in the novel. I have read books from the 1930s and 1940s, I have watched movies from that era. The spelling mistakes or words that make no sense whatsoever will hopefully be picked up by an editor before publication
- Even though Hannelore was autistic-coded and June could relate to her, I found the plottwists surrounding her a bit much. I found the idea that the water can heal both wonderful and unsuitable.
- I am sad that I didn't learn more about the dachshunds. They were very cute and they deserve more attention.

After all an interesting book and I can see why Maggie Stiefvater spent so much time researching and writing it. It was quite wonderful and I also learned a lot.

A random thing though -- and this connects the ending of this review with the beginning -- I kinda imagined June to be a bit like Nan Shepherd. Both are 'of the mountain', go beyond conventions, have a connection to the water and nature that is uncanny. I know that this is pure projection born from my intense engagement with this Scottish author, but I just couldn't help it. Robert Burns recitals in the hotel? A woman going against convention and running a hotel?

I'm very happy to have been able to read this book in advance. What a wonderful treat for me to read after handing in a 380 page manuscript. I can't wait to see what Maggie Stiefvater is writing next.

This was a whimsical book about a hotel during the war and is guests, diplomats possibly spies during World War Two. There was a lots of information, names and stories in this book.

3.5 stars. My first Stiefvater and I enjoyed it. It's a solid book with some great worldbuilding and character development.

Maggie never misses. By far one of my favorite reads in January, Stiefvater has written a beautiful story about the human condition. It’s stuck with me and I can’t wait for the official release.

Over a decade has passed since I was transported by Maggie Stiefvater's writing in Shiver. While a lot of the finer details of Shiver might be lost to me, Maggie Stiefvater was imprinted on my brain as an author that could really transport you through their writing. For this reason, The Listeners was one of my most anticipated reads for 2025.

From its first chapter, I was fascinated by the Avallon Hotel & Spa and my attention was demanded by each new character introduced. The plot is character-driven with countless deviations from the central story. However, each pivot provides meticulous detail to characters no matter how minor they may seem. The story slowly ticks along and is held together by references to a mystic force - sweetwater. I really loved this mythical element, and the complexity it gave to the character of June. My only wish was to have more insight into the mystery of the fourth bathhouse and June’s relationship with it.

I found myself simultaneously not wanting the story to end, and still so satisfied with its clever, though predictable ending. The tension built particularly well in Part 4. Finally, I loved that when I really started to doubt the realism and faithfulness to historical fiction, the Author’s Note really put me in my place. An incredible amount of research and accuracy has been poured into this novel. I can’t wait to tell everyone I know to read this book in June!