A Discovery Of Witches by Deborah Harkness

I was really looking forward to reading this book because the copy I was reading, the European version, was beautiful. I guess I shouldn’t have judged the book by it’s cover, because the front is basically the start and end of everything good about it. Perhaps that’s a bit of an exaggeration. A Discovery Of Witches takes place in modern day London, with Diana Bishop, a witch who has denounced and suppressed all magical aspects of herself. Instead she is a renowned scholar, but one day she stumbles upon an ancient manuscript. Little does she know that the manuscript contains secrets to the magical world, and soon the witches, vampires, and demons who want these secrets come into the picture.

The story had interesting concepts and nicely written descriptions, but was hard to get into. The first half of the book was slow and tedious, but eventually got better. An intriguing aspect of the story was how it used scientific evidence to back up the magic that existed in the world. I would have loved to read more about the scientific aspect throughout the book, rather than only in clumps once or twice.

I found Diana’s relationship with Matthew, scientist and vampire, rather troublesome. Firstly, there was no realistic progression in their relationship. Initially Diana disliked Matthew, and her eventual falling in love with him was a cheesy trope that I usually enjoy. Despite this, I disliked how it was written, making Diana fall so hopelessly in love with Matthew without substantial time or development. Furthermore, Matthew had incredibly old fashioned and misogynistic views, and expected Diana to abide them. Diana made it slightly bearable by calling him out on them, but eventually even that changed. Matthew is possessive and irritating, which in the story is seemingly made okay due to his dark predatory nature as a vampire, as well as his old fashioned upbringing. He is also secretive, not only about his past but about certain hindrances that come when loving vampire. I was keen to learn more about Matthew’s dark background, but not much was revealed.

Overall, I had high hopes but was disappointed. Without its initial bore and its emphasis on Diana’s relationship, it could have been a good read, and I feel there was a lot of lost potential. I hope more of the science, a concept I have nearly never seen before combined with magic, is explored further in next installments, but I doubt I will continue the series.

2.5 Stars

Tagged: a discovery of witches, Book, book review, deborah harkness, fantasy, new adult, paranormal, romance, supernatural