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nuttus's review
The plot is dragging and filled with unnecessary descriptions about wine, tea, food, exercise, smells, alchemy and I don’t even remember what else. Descriptions that seemed to be just there only for the sake of being there. They had nothing to do with the plot or anything but making the book longer than necessary. Editor of the book did not do their job for leaving them there.
The characters at the beginning were interesting, but as the book progressed they lost all their personality. Instead of development they had a decline, especially Diana. The autonomous, strong willed and smart professor became a weak damsel in distress acting like a scared child, depending on the vampire to make every single decision for her - what she was and wasn’t allowed to do.
Which brings us to Matthew who is nothing more than an alpha male podcaster who has no other reason to be obeyed than a because I say so. At first our heroine is not cool with that, until she seems to start suffering from Stockholm syndrome and just obeyes. Matthew is also manipulative, secretive and possessive douche who veils all of that to being concerned about Diana’s safety and just shrugs his shoulders saying that’s just me. Zero willingness to learn anything else.
Diana is also so ridiculously overpowered that it’s not believable. First she doesn’t want to use her magic and then she can’t. And then she suddenly learns do it perfectly in five minutes. All this screams an Y/N wattpad fanfic written by a 10-year old.
Oh and I’m having a hard time understanding how this heroine is a respected scholar when she is literally so dumb that it takes her almost the whole book to understand that her mother told her her future in stories. Even if the mom literally tells her the story while she is living it at the moment. How can someone so dumb be a scientist? Before realizing this she of course had to have a melodramatic self pity temper tantrum.
The plot line also is all over the place. There is secret society or two, a magical manuscript, Diana’s superpowers, death of her parents, forbidden love story and a slow extinction of creatures. With all this going on, not much really happens in the book. Like at all. They just drink wine and read crazy old books, smell each other and sleep together while whispering cheesy crap to each other.
The characters at the beginning were interesting, but as the book progressed they lost all their personality. Instead of development they had a decline, especially Diana. The autonomous, strong willed and smart professor became a weak damsel in distress acting like a scared child, depending on the vampire to make every single decision for her - what she was and wasn’t allowed to do.
Which brings us to Matthew who is nothing more than an alpha male podcaster who has no other reason to be obeyed than a because I say so. At first our heroine is not cool with that, until she seems to start suffering from Stockholm syndrome and just obeyes. Matthew is also manipulative, secretive and possessive douche who veils all of that to being concerned about Diana’s safety and just shrugs his shoulders saying that’s just me. Zero willingness to learn anything else.
Diana is also so ridiculously overpowered that it’s not believable. First she doesn’t want to use her magic and then she can’t. And then she suddenly learns do it perfectly in five minutes. All this screams an Y/N wattpad fanfic written by a 10-year old.
Oh and I’m having a hard time understanding how this heroine is a respected scholar when she is literally so dumb that it takes her almost the whole book to understand that her mother told her her future in stories. Even if the mom literally tells her the story while she is living it at the moment. How can someone so dumb be a scientist? Before realizing this she of course had to have a melodramatic self pity temper tantrum.
The plot line also is all over the place. There is secret society or two, a magical manuscript, Diana’s superpowers, death of her parents, forbidden love story and a slow extinction of creatures. With all this going on, not much really happens in the book. Like at all. They just drink wine and read crazy old books, smell each other and sleep together while whispering cheesy crap to each other.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Violence, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Alcohol
larkspurlane's review against another edition
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Blood, and Torture
Moderate: Toxic relationship and Panic attacks/disorders
amy_reading_23's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
This book is complicated. Not as in it hard to follow (although I had watched the TV show beforehand so that gave me an advantage) but that I'm not sure what to make of it. There were some bits I really enjoyed. And some bits that made me uncomfortable. I don't like how Matthew treats Diana, I think their relationship is pretty toxic tbh and a bit misogynistic in times. They also excuse too much of his behaviour as "ifs because he's a vampire". But the plot is interesting and I still want to read the next two sometime, I'm just not necessarily in a rush.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Toxic relationship, and Medical content
Moderate: Misogyny, Gore, Domestic abuse, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, and Kidnapping
Minor: Stalking and Suicidal thoughts
toni7tess's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
First, this is a slow read. Although I very much enjoyed that, especially the elaborate descriptions of tastes and architecture, I can see how it could easily annoy others.
I feel like this book probably deserves fewer stars than I gave it, because it made me feel very uncomfortable a few times. However, I genuinely enjoyed reading A Discovery of Witches. The academic context is original, the historical details are intriguing, and I adored the worldbuilding and the slow, descriptive writing style.
Diana’s struggles with anxiety were well written and it was refreshing to see a protagonist have more realistic responses to traumatic situations and memories.
Now onto the bad stuff. The worst thing about this book was how controlling Matthew was. While he is an interesting character, the way he treats Diana is disturbing at times. She calls him out occasionally, but only a proper confrontation around his behaviour, or maybe some consequences, would have redeemed their relationship for me. This dynamic is handled better in the TV series.
It’s amazing to (in theory) have a strong, intellectual heroine who knows her place in the world. But Diana’s academic work seems to serve as a really strong motivator sometimes, just to be completely forgotten about other times. It’s also strange that a scholar of history of science and alchemy would not name the ouroboros when she first sees it in Sept Tours, that really took me out of the character.
Diana never actively tries to make up her mind about who to trust in the complicated power struggle she finds herself in. This results in a very reactive protagonist. Her personal motivations around her career and childhood trauma quickly take second place to the romance and by the end it feels like she just keeps getting pushed around by other characters.
Finally, the book glorifies feudalism and a very outdated upper-class lifestyle. The characters spend a lot of time drinking expensive alcohol, riding horses side-saddle etc, and it gets annoying.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic relationship
mistymoon24's review
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
DNF I only made it to chapter 28. When he tells her that the moment he said he loved her, she became wife. WITHOUT CONSENT. And she just accepts it. Diana is a painful pickme and Matthew exhibits shocking degrees of coercive control. It's sad this is considered a good romance.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse and Toxic relationship
kat1105's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
lighthearted
mysterious
relaxing
fast-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
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Violence, Gore, Pregnancy, Panic attacks/disorders, Animal death, Blood, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Torture, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: War and Sexual content
ruthee's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
Unlike others, I didn’t actually mine the pace or world-building…but the abusive relationship (red flag, after red flag, after red flag) framed as ‘that’s just the way vampires are, and my love is enough’ was so bad it just kept taking me out of the story.
It’s not often (if ever) that I completely prefer a tv or film adaptation to the original material, but in this case, my love of the tv series was what got me through this.
In audiobook, the narrator was good, except when it came to any accent that wasn’t their own. The English/Scottish/Australian ones ranged between literally lol to offensive…so strange for a professionally produced book.
It’s not often (if ever) that I completely prefer a tv or film adaptation to the original material, but in this case, my love of the tv series was what got me through this.
In audiobook, the narrator was good, except when it came to any accent that wasn’t their own. The English/Scottish/Australian ones ranged between literally lol to offensive…so strange for a professionally produced book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Blood, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Animal death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Stalking, Toxic relationship, Death, Gaslighting, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexism
caffeinated_gills's review
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic relationship and Misogyny
Moderate: Blood, Child death, War, and Violence
Minor: Murder, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Religious bigotry, Miscarriage, and Mental illness
mloschi's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Good fantasy, with interesting world building and mystery. I liked the dark academia setting. I felt like conflicts within the plot happened and resolved very (almost too) quickly. But overall a good book for some escapism.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood and Torture
Minor: Child death, Misogyny, Death, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Sexual content
maggies's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
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
Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Death, Death of parent, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Confinement
Moderate: Toxic relationship and Stalking
Minor: Xenophobia and War