Book Review: A Discovery of Witches

A Discovery of Witches
By Deborah Harkness
A Discovery of Witches #1
Hardcover: 579 pages
Viking Penguin
February 2011
Categories: Fantasy, Witches, Historic
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My Rating: ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩ |3/5|

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.

This book started out with so much potential; Diana is a powerful witch that refuses to acknowledge her powers. She is a strong, take no nonsense female lead and I fell in love with her almost instantly. Let me tell you though-- my love sadly did not last long. As soon as Matthew comes into the picture, ugh. Let's back up a bit-- I'm getting a bit ahead of myself.

Diana was born to a family of witches dating back to Salem in the 17th century. She is full of magic, but she has chosen to shun her own abilities. After the death of her parents as a child, Diana has been scared of being a witch. In turn, she has chosen a life of historical research, leading her to Oxford and the Bodleian Library that houses thousands of ancient manuscripts. In the process of doing research for her alchemy paper, she comes across a book that is full of magic. After opening the book, she returns it to its proper place in the library. Little does she realize, she has unleashed a shit-show of magical creatures upon her small England town. Not only witches felt the magic that she released, but daemons and vampires as well. As they all begin to show up at the Bodleian, so does a powerful vampire that immediately draws her attention.

Matthew. Matthew is an ancient vampire, powerful and dangerous. At first, I liked his character; I honestly thought he was the typical cocky, sarcastic, lovable male. Well, let me tell you. I had SO many issues with his character, not to mention the ensuing relationship between him and Diana. He is pushy, bossy, and a complete asshole. When I say asshole guys-- I can take a lot when it comes to male characters. I thought Cardan from the Cruel Prince was kind of lovable next to Matthew. His complete dominance of Diana makes me want to vomit. The fact that she completely changes as soon as he comes into the picture left me baffled. One minute, she was all, "Vampires are dangerous. I hate magic. Leave me alone." The next moment, she was alone in a car with him, going to yoga. Her 180 left my head spinning. I really never understood their insta-love and where it came from.

The entire story was their relationship and the effects that it had on the supernatural population. That's it. Both of our main characters chose to be selfish and chaos ensues. Don't get me wrong here, I understand that people should be free to love whoever they want to love, no questions asked. That's really not the part I'm talking about when I make the statement, both characters chose to be selfish. There were multiple scenes, minus spoilers, that our leads chose themselves over family and friends. The safety of others involved never concerned them, and this pissed me off to no end. Not to mention the fact that Matthew made the decisions for a group of people that he obviously cared little for. If he was questioned about the choices he was making, he basically threw a toddler style temper tantrum and his show of dominance was nauseating. Ok, end rant.

Honestly, I really did enjoy the world and the array of supernatural creatures that we get to meet throughout the story. The plot-line itself, outside of the relationship, was rather intriguing. I liked the mystery of this secret manuscript and the implications it had on the entire supernatural community. The ending was written well enough to make me want to read the rest of the series. Will I rush on finishing them? Absolutely not!