Reviews with content warning for Injury/Injury detail - A Discovery of Witches

Started reading the series primarily because I want to watch the show, and now I'm even more excited to keep reading the series! I think it might have benefitted from some editing down—lots of repetition of the same sentiment or even sentence in just a few paragraphs, for example—but overall a really engaging fantasy story. The world of the witches, vampires, and daemons is laid out for readers as Diana learns the details, which is a simple and effective trick for this kind of world-building. Docked a star because it's just not believable to me that the entire book takes place over less than two months.

Content Warnings

baearles's review

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Content Warnings

bedtimesandbooks's review

Go to review page

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Content Warnings

foxgloveandcrow's review

Go to review page

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A fun story that would’ve been improved by trimming out the minutiae and doing a bit more to introduce antagonists. New bad guys were often just dropped right in with no introduction. And I definitely didn’t need a chapter devoted to legal paperwork.

But I like the tv series a lot (which separated the wheat from the chaff, honestly), and I enjoyed the story and characters of the book a lot.

Content Warnings

bodagirl's review against another edition

Go to review page

medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

This book kept my interest while reading, but didn't make me want to devour it. I think part of the issue is that the magic system and society are still being defined, as the POV is mostly from Diana, who has denied her heritage for so long, and Matthew, who keeps secrets from other characters and the reader. I'm also a little uncomfortable with Diana and Matthew's relationship; I'm getting the feeling that they are fated, which is fine, but the motivations for why they are drawn together at the start is really unclear. It started as "enemies to lovers" but within a few chapters it became some amorphous connection that

much later on turned into a possible fated mate situation

. I do appreciate that Harkness is stressing that Matthew comes from a very different age and his vampiric instincts make him act possessively, but it makes my modern sensibilities shudder a bit that Diana questions things so very rarely and often just accepts what she is being told.

The aspects of the story I really enjoyed were the historical elements that were woven in (though I wonder along with Diana how Matthew was able to know so many influential thinkers so well) and the idea that demons aren't actually from Hell, but rather randomly popped up as super creative or gifted people. However, the possible connection between "demonic" and some mental health disorders or the Autism spectrum in problematic, even though the demons we meet seem to be fairly well adjusted.

I grabbed the whole series from a used bookshop, so I will probably continue to see if it improves.

Content Warnings

mariebrunelm's review

Go to review page

adventurous mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

What better way to get mentally ready for a trip to the Bodleian library in Oxford than by reading a book set partly in the Bodleian library in Oxford? I first read A Discovery of Witches in 2018 when I was leaving for my first solo trip to Oxford and it helped quite a lot with my stress because Diana, the main character, is literally shown taking each step to enter the library. This time round, I read it for the setting and because re-reading brings me much comfort. It really is a fun book, but also a rather deep one. On the one hand, I still love it as much as the first time, because there were lots of parallels to draw between supernatural creatures and queer people. On the other hand, this being the third time I'm reading it, I could no longer stand Matthew (the other MC)'s overprotectiveness and paternalistic behaviour (which are challenged, thankfully) and I really roled my eyes at the insta-love story and the direction their relationship took (I don't want to spoil you!).

But this novel is still very, very enjoyable - I found myself giggling and not putting the book down and having lunch at Blackwell's just because Diana did.

Having said that, you still may not know what this book is about. Diana is a historian of science studying alchemical manuscripts at the Bodleian where she meets Matthew, a vampire, while creatures of all three types (there are daemons as well) close in on her for studying a particular document at the Bodleian. There follows a romance between the two of them, the details of which I will not disclose, but it involves very spirited locations, danger and a whole lot of pining.

Rep: sapphic secondary characters.

Content Warnings

maxandrambo's review

Go to review page

mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

Content Warnings

katvou's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Content Warnings

More...