Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - Shadow of Night

Shadow of Nightbegins immediately where A Discovery of Witches ends as we find out that Diana and Matthew have successfully time-walked back to sixteenth-century Elizabethan England on the night of All Saints' Day. In travelling back in time, our main lead characters expect to 1) make contact with a powerful witch who would be willing to teach Diana how to use her witch's powers, 2) locate and steal the mysterious alchemical manuscript (Ashmole 782), and 3) protect themselves from the Congregation's clutches (waiting for them in the present/21st century).

I have had several issues while reading Shadow of Night the first one being with how time travel was used and explained in the first few chapters of this book. It seems to me that the author thought that Diana's time-walking abilities should be created and used not because it made sense for the character's evolution but rather because Deborah Harkness needed a plot device to transform her romance fantasy novel into what she had been wanting to do from the beginning: a historical fiction. Also, I wasn't convinced about how the actions and consequences of time-walking were explained. It was too easy to have 16th century Matthew disappear and be replaced by 21st century Matthew pretending to be his 16th century self. What happened to the real 16th century Matthew? He was displaced? Where? We don't know. But I can understand that the author did not want to deal with such a constraint and chose the easy way out.

However, there are certain elements in this book two of the All Souls trilogy that I cannot overlook. These elements are related to the plot of Shadow of Night that was promised at the end of A Discovery of Witches. This plot was simple and direct enough: go back in time, find a witch to train Diana, and retrieve Ashmole 782. Unfortunately, Deborah Harkness goes back on her promise several times throughout the book progression as she much prefers writing about Queen Elizabeth I's rotten teeth instead of focusing on Diana and Matthew's real purpose. That is why it takes more than three hundred pages for Diana to find someone willing to teach her and yet, as soon as she does, the training is rapidly over making Diana the most powerful witch in all the history of witches without it being earned at all. As for the search for Ashmole 782, it takes even longer for the main characters to start looking for it and investigate its whereabouts simply because, despite what Deborah Harkness wants to make us believe, Matthew sucks at spying and gathering intelligence. He is so dumb, it hurts. We are told several times that Matthew is the Queen's best spy, that he is good at getting information from people but, in the end, he fails everyone every chance he gets. This, in my opinion, considerably impacted the pacing of the story. Also, this second installment has not changed my mind about Matthew. I am still unconvinced as to why he is our main male character. He is still boring but above all he is such a horrendous person. (I will describe all the way I think Matthew sucks at the end of this review in the spoiler section)

Moreover, there is another decision from Deborah Harkness that I did not understand and which, I believe, also contributed to affect both the plot and the pacing of the story. When I finished A Discovery of Witches and picked up Shadow of Night, I thought that the author would show us two timelines: the sixteenth century and the present day (twenty-first century). Instead, we only have six chapters throughout the book which take place in present day and none of these chapters actually shows how Diana's aunts and Matthew's family deal with the Congregation in the couple's absence. Luckily for our two main characters, the Congregation seems to be so busy with administrative paperwork and voting motions that they don't have the time to spy and investigate on the Bishop and de Clermont families except at the very end of the book, which to me, was another proof that Deborah Harkness should have spent more time showing the intrigue and plotting from the Congregation side as well as on the Bishop & de Clermont families to make that ending more impactful.

Shadow of Night is a long, slow and boring book in which you never get to see how truly powerful witches can be or how terrifying vampires truly are. You will hear about witches and vampires' accomplishments but you will never be able to see it because Shadow of Night is all about telling but not showing.

Here are all the reasons Matthew Clairmont and his family should end up being the villain of the story:

1) He sexually abused his human wife Blanca (he reveals to Diana that he knew that, when Blanca was a child, she had been victim of sexual abuse and that as a result she was never able to refuse anyone) and so he basically forced Blanca into intimacy with him but also forced her into giving him children despite knowing that she had had many miscarriages and was so devastated that she didn't want to try to have children anymore. [And Diana's reaction is: 'Oh, Matthew will never love me as much as Blanca.' WTF]
2) Matthew worked as a spy for Queen Elizabeth I. He was sent to North Benwick (where there would be witch trials later). But it wasn't the first time that Matthew gathered intelligence against witches leading witches to be arrested, tortured and burnt at the stake. Like mother like son, I suppose. Matthew is a witch killer and Diana isn't the least worried that she is sharing her life with a man who is responsible for the death of dozens of witches (at the minimum) and that Ysabeau de Clermont goes on witch-hunting trips wiping out entire covens since her rebirth which was before the Trojan War. (Ah yes, Ysabeau is Helen of Sparta/Cassandra of Troy/Briseis, etc. = she is all the women of the Trojan War because of course she is)
3) Matthew is a devout Catholic but he is also Queen Elizabeth I's spy therefore his work consisted in collecting information on Catholics which led to the arrest and torture of Catholics proving once again that this man is without will, without moral and without conscience. He also loves pushing the blame away from himself saying 'My daddy is making me do it'. He is such a terrible person. He has no bone.
4) Christopher Marlowe endangers Diana's life several times. And ever time Marlowe's intentions are clear: he wants Diana to die. And yet, Matthew doesn't kill him and doesn't trust his wife. This is all so strange, especially when we know what Matthew did to Gillian in the first book when the only thing the witch had done was threaten Diana but never actively trying to kill Diana. This really reinforces my opinion as to the fact that Matthew just targets women. He is a threat to women.
5) Matthew has blood rage. He is the family assassin therefore his father ordered him to kill whoever Philippe wanted dead and let's face it, if Matthew can be convinced to kill people sharing his own faith then he can be convinced to kill anyone else and most likely innocent people who were simply his father's political opponents.
6) Matthew prefers fingering the Queen's mouth rather than making love to Diana.
7) His father, Philippe de Clermont, was Herakles (aka Alcides of his real name). Yes, the Greek hero from the myths. The one who killed his wife and children. I guess things do run deep in the de Clermonts family.
8) In the 16th century, Matthew is the de Clermont representative on the Congregation. He forgot to tell that part to his wife. So, I guess that makes him part of the system that his family established many centuries ago. An institution founded on segregation and discrimination. A system he has never wanted to change until now that he is in a relationship with a witch.

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