I picked up a secondhand copy of Deborah Harkness‘ A Discovery of Witches somewhere. It’s been hanging out on my bookshelf for a while now and finally got a little attention from me.
Description from Goodreads:
Deep in the stacks of Oxford’s Bodleian Library, young scholar Diana Bishop unwittingly calls up a bewitched alchemical manuscript in the course of her research. Descended from an old and distinguished line of witches, Diana wants nothing to do with sorcery; so after a furtive glance and a few notes, she banishes the book to the stacks. But her discovery sets a fantastical underworld stirring, and a horde of daemons, witches, and vampires soon descends upon the library. Diana has stumbled upon a coveted treasure lost for centuries-and she is the only creature who can break its spell.
Review:
Um…I can’t say I’m sorry to have read it, but I also can’t say I enjoyed it all that much either. I know this one was really popular, so I was probably just a poor match for the book. But I didn’t care for it.
There were a lot of things included that did nothing to move the story along. For example, the main characters rowed, ran, did yoga, rode horses, played chess, billiards and scrabble, ate elaborate dinners, had tea/coffee and tasted expensive wines. On their own none of these would be problematic. But each was described in minute detail, often more than once. So all together it really slowed the plot down.
There was a lot of talking about things, but very little doing. Seriously, the characters discussed everything, told each-other every little secret of their species and confided their secrets with ease. But they actually did very little…unless you count the jaunty horse rides and agonisingly well thought out dinners. Then in the end they established some elaborate plan that never materialised. Nope, it’s apparently the next book. Um, yeah, how unsatisfying is that? Other than the bad guys, no one seemed to actually have any volition of their own. They responded to immediate threats and then settled right back into the humdrum again.
I also wasn’t particularly fond of Diana or Matthew. Diana was supposed to be this strong-willed, self-aware, successful woman. But she just flailed around hopelessly, fainted regularly, took orders and, starting about halfway through the book, seemed to be put to bed about a hundred times. Sometimes it felt like she never even made it out of bed before being manhandled back into it ‘for her own good’. This left her feeling very child-like to me.
Similarly, Matthew was supposed to be the big alpha dog vampire but he just seemed shy and awkward around Diane, got beat up more when he attempted to protect her and did yoga. There’s nothing wrong with yoga of course, but it does kind of run counter to the big bad vampire persona he was supposed to have. All-in-all did didn’t come across as the man he was described as being.
Lastly, the romance seemed to come out of nowhere. It wasn’t quite insta-love, but it wasn’t far off. Even worse, once it settled in Diane and Matthew were saccharine sweet. Their dedication to one another was admirable, but I can only take so many heartfelt declarations of adoration and I generally like to know what such passion is based on. The whole latter 1/3 of the book just seemed to be one impassioned ‘I love you’ after another. The words might change for varieties sake, but the intent never did.
I did enjoy the underlying themes of acceptance and self-actualisation. I thought the writing itself was fine and some of the side characters (Marcus and Hamish especially) were fun. I’m not claiming it isn’t a good book. I just didn’t enjoy it personally.
