The Listeners

by Maggie Stiefvater

Reviewed by Margaret Donsbach Tomlinson

Set in 1942 as the US entered WWII, The Listeners is about a woman who runs the Avallon, a prestigious hotel in the mountains of West Virginia. June Hudson is a mountain woman who was taken in as a girl by the Gilfoyle family, the hotel’s owners. Because of her talent in catering to individual guests’ comfort, interests and peculiarities, she has been promoted to general manager. Her other talent, her sensitivity to the mineral spring water, “sweetwater,” that is a central feature of the hotel, is key to her success in making it a beloved destination for the wealthy people who return year after year as guests.

So June is shocked to learn, at the last minute, that the government has arranged to use the hotel to securely hold German and Japanese diplomats while negotiations take place to return them to their home countries. Her relations with the FBI and other government agents stationed at the hotel begin on a sour note as they inform her she must immediately remove all of the pampered current guests and make arrangements for the FBI to spy on the men and women who will replace them. June especially resents Tucker Minnick, the FBI agent in charge. She notices a “coal tattoo” on his neck that reveals his own history in the mountains and makes her all the more suspicious of the way he has submerged himself in his new profession. She knows something, after all, about submerging oneself in a profession.

Although June’s on-again off-again romance with Edgar Gilfoyle and a dawning attraction to Tucker Minnick add warmth, the heart of The Listeners is June’s relationship with the sweetwater. “The water wasn’t named for the taste—it was named for what it did to the body…. Medical journals and medical guests debated the springs’ potency, but June didn’t pay them much mind. She just started and finished her day the same way, never missing those four glasses of mineral water.” She paid close attention to the subtle—sometimes not-so-subtle—changes in the water’s taste and smell, on guard to keep it from “turning.” This is the only hint of the occult in the novel, and Stiefvater handles it with care, building to a climax that shows the power of the sweetwater while retaining its mystery to the end. (2025, 378 pages)