Book Review - Deborah Harkness's A Discovery of Witches
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
Published by: Viking Adult
Publication Date: February 8th, 2011
Format: Hardcover, 592 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy
Creatures are dying out. The power of the witches is waning and they are having less children. The vampires are unable to sire successfully. As for the daemons, they are becoming more and more erratic, that which once made them brilliant is now driving them mad. They have one hope. Rumors of a book that holds all the answers to their origins and their decline. Each species has a different theory as to what is contained within its pages. Witches believe it is the first grimoire. And it is a witch who finds the book after all hope had been lost of ever finding the missing manuscript. Diana Bishop is a witch. The last descendant of Bridget Bishop who was hanged at Salem. When magic killed Diana's parents when she was seven she decided then and there that magic would have no place in her life. She has created a great academic career for herself, she is the foremost authority on alchemy and its symbology. Which is what she is studying at the Bodleian. She has taken a year-long sabbatical from Yale to conduct research in Oxford. One day she calls a book from the stacks, Ashmole 782. This book isn't what it seems, it reeks of magic and is a palimpsest. She refuses to interact with the magical so treats it as any other book. She takes her notes and as soon as she's done with it she sends it back to the stacks. But the wheels have been put in motion. The creatures know the book has been found. They start to gather at the library. Watching her intently. Hoping she will recall what was thought lost. And they are willing to do anything to get it back. Witches, vampires, and daemons aren't supposed to interact. They have a Congregation that enforces these laws. Too many of them in one place draws the attentions of the humans. And what's happening at the Bodleian is drawing their attention. Enter Matthew Clairmont. Matthew is tall, dark, and brooding, everything you'd expect a vampire to be. He takes a keen interest in Diana, not just because of the book, but because something draws her to him. Soon the two of them are inseparable. Falling for each other but denying that it is happening. But Diana, not the book, might be the answer to everything he has ever searched for. He is a scientist and has been studying creature DNA in an attempt to solve their decline. He doesn't hold with the Congregation and their segregation of the creatures. Diana proves to be an outlier. Her power isn't waning, it's unlimited. Her DNA shows traits long since forgotten. She must be protected at all costs. When Oxford becomes too dangerous for Diana Matthew spirits her away to his family estate in France, where Diana will have to face Matthew's mother and her disapproval. But Diana's problems are more than the average woman facing a potential in-law, the Congregation has heard they are consorting. Matthew and Diana are breaking their laws and the Congregation won't take this lying down. Soon nowhere is safe. Not even Diana's family home in upstate New York. They need time. Time to find out the true reason that Diana and Matthew prove such a danger, and time for Diana to embrace her heritage.
When I first read this book I couldn't help but be bemused that this is nothing more than literary Twilight. And, just like Twilight, the fanbase is fanatical. So I have rarely in the past called out the book for its absurd family dynamics, its angst, and its heroine, who is almost too dumb to live. Diana does next to nothing to protect herself while Matthew is carrying her around like a spider monkey. I mean, if you can't see the humor in that, or the parallels, I don't know what to say. To fans of the book, I get it. To detractors of the book, I also get it. But sometimes you just need an absurd book full of love and angst and a large found family that while not quite filling the Buffy sized hole that will always exist in my heart is an acceptable simulacrum with its cozy vibes on the edge of the apocalypse. Because I love my messy vampires. If The Vampire Lestat has taught me anything this year its that I need more of that level of chaos in my life and A Discovery of Witches brings a cozy version of that with ghost-filled houses and the golden spires of Oxford. While there are wonderful discussions on science and evolution and literature and language this isn't what the book is about. It's about complete and utter escapism and you have to take the book on its own terms in order to enjoy it. So knowing what it was, not the touted book in the front of Barnes and Noble for the entirety of February in 2011, but adult Twilight, I gave myself over to it. And I loved it. I unabashedly loved it. I can finally face my friends who adore this series without a guilty conscious. I was always holding back my opinions because there were scenes that I just couldn't deal with. Congregation defiant yoga classes with vampires, witches, and daemons? Seriously!?! I just couldn't get around how absurd this is. And yet this was something they in particular just adored. Maybe it's just my hatred of yoga and not this yoga in particular that is the crux of the problem. So yes, while I would have probably loved this book more had it proceeded as it had began, minus the yoga, with Diana living the dream; researching at Oxford, spending all her spare time in the Bodleian, having anxiety attacks, OK, that's not cool, but I can relate. But this book started almost with a different Diana coupled with Oxford. So what was lost was a lot. What was gained, well, I've come to love that in it's own special way. And now I do rate it higher than Twilight. Though I should note that only the first book in that series had anything slightly going for it and I have never been a Twihard. An All Souls Fan? Now that I can get behind.
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