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penemue269 's review for:
A Discovery of Witches
by Deborah Harkness
Really, really slow. There were some genuinely interesting aspects to the story, and I liked how the Creatures were divided. The demons were my favorite - and of course, they were the least explored. Like so many vampire romances however, I was much more interested in the characters surrounding the two main ones than Matthew or Diana. What's up with Marthe? Why would a several-hundred-year-old vampire want to stay a housekeeper? Even the house had more personality (literally) than Matthew and Diana, who were two-dimentional at best. Matthew's only defining character trait seems to be random temper flares, and Diana's seems to be chronic helplessness. Plot is replaced with pages and pages of ridiculously long descriptions of wine and the endless repetition of Diana passing out or sleeping through the story. Diana faints all over herself like a Gothic heroine from the 1700s. For someone who is supposed to be brave and headstrong, Diana does an awful lot of wilting and hiding behind Matthew. They call it "shielding" in the book, but come on. Once was enough.
In the end, the story reads more like a how-to manual for joining a cult than a romance. Step one: fall for a (debatably) charismatic cult leader who will dictate every move you make. Step two: declare your undying loyalty to a guy you just met, even over the family who raised you. Threaten them with violence if they show concern. Step three: Let a guy you just met a few weeks ago marry you without your knowledge or consent, and then have his lawyer draw up papers so that you can sign over your entire estate to his family. Also without your knowledge or consent.
Unbelievably sexist story. When Diana asks why she feels as if all the women had been sent out of the room so that the men could talk politics over brandy, I thought to myself "because that's exactly what happened, you twit!" Not a single strong female in the bunch.
In the end, the story reads more like a how-to manual for joining a cult than a romance. Step one: fall for a (debatably) charismatic cult leader who will dictate every move you make. Step two: declare your undying loyalty to a guy you just met, even over the family who raised you. Threaten them with violence if they show concern. Step three: Let a guy you just met a few weeks ago marry you without your knowledge or consent, and then have his lawyer draw up papers so that you can sign over your entire estate to his family. Also without your knowledge or consent.
Unbelievably sexist story. When Diana asks why she feels as if all the women had been sent out of the room so that the men could talk politics over brandy, I thought to myself "because that's exactly what happened, you twit!" Not a single strong female in the bunch.