It's Not Merely "A Discovery of Witches"

I am on week 2 of a two-month summer vacation. What does that mean for me? Lots and lots of reading! Yes, this book-o-phile gets to spend most of her days sitting on the couch, curled up with a book on her lap and a pretty kitty at her side. Yay! (I'll just forget the fact that I have papers due for my grad classes that I haven't even thought about.) As I promised in a previous post, I will only review those books that I feel are worth reviewing. In the past two weeks, I have read 6¼ and several of the books were quite good, particularly Shining Through by Susan Isaacs and Top Secret Twenty-One by Janet Evanovich (which took me about 6 hours to read!). The ¼ book was one on the Vanderbilts, but I found Cornelius Vanderbilt too repulsive to continue reading about them. Now, onto my review:

______________

What is it about witches, vampires, and other things that go bump in the night? It seems like every other book these days is filled with the supernatural. Some are well written (Harry Potter series) and some are just dreadful (Twilight series). As I was killing time by meandering through Barnes & Noble last week, I came across a novel that fits into this category: A Discovery of Witches (2011) by Deborah Harkness. It looked like an interesting enough story so I decided to give it a read. 

Synopsis: "Deep in the heart of Oxford's Bodleian Library, Diana Bishop -- a young scholar and the descendant of witches -- unearths an enchanted alchemical manuscript. Wanting nothing to do with sorcery, she banishes the book to the stacks. But her discovery has set a fantastical underworld stirring, and soon a horde of daemons, witches and other creatures, descends upon the library. Among them is the enigmatic Matthew Clairmont, a vampire with a keen interest in the book. Equal parts history and magic, romance and suspense, A Discovery of Witches is a mesmerizing and addictive tale of passion and obsession that reveals the closely guarded secrets of an enchanted world" (ADoW book jacket).

Review: This much hyped debut novel by Ms. Harkness will either thrill you or chill you. It appears from all the reviews I've read it's a "love it" or "hate it" novel. Those readers who hate it have been comparing it to the awful Twilight series and while I agree that there are some similarities - vampires, romantic entanglement with a vampire, etc., this novel is better written, has original ideas about the supernatural world, and is way more than just a straight up romance novel.

The story is actually kind of a mix of witchcraft, vampire, daemon, history, science, alchemy, and a bit of Dan Brown-ish mystery that involves an ancient book, which I won't say too much about in the review for the sake of spoilers. Refreshingly, the more I read, the better the book became. The history, witchcraft, myths, science and alchemy have been very well researched (the author's day job is a history professor) and I enjoyed reading about all of it in great deal. The ancient texts and books, descriptions of illustrations and talk of grimoires, spells and magic are every occult/history lover's dream.

Yes, it does have the odd corny romantic comment and the main character, Diana Bishop, doesn't always make the smartest decisions considering she's so well educated, but mix it all in with the story itself and it works. The setting takes the reader from Oxford, England, to Lyon, France, to Central New York state and each are beautifully described!

While I have no complaints about the pacing in the front 75% of the book, the last 25% is all consuming. The minute that the story switches to Diana's childhood home in Central New York, I could not put the book down. The Bishop house is sentient and highly opinionated. It's also full of the ghosts of Bishops past, who are also very opinionated. A couple of new secondaries show up, one of which is absolutely adorable.

I only have two complaints; one is that it could have used a bit of editing. Generally speaking, I enjoy reading nearly 600-page books, but there were some events that could have been cut down or removed completely.  Two, there really is no resolution at the end. Yes, I get that it's book one of a trilogy but each book really should be able to stand on its own. Otherwise, this book was quite a good read and I'm looking forward to reading the next novel in the series: Shadow of Night (which I just picked up from the library).

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars