A Discovery of Witches - Book review

A Discovery of Witches: A Novel
By Deborah Harkness

In one word: Disappointing
In summary: Too long, too monotonous, too flat

I should start off by stating that this novel just wasn't my cup of tea, and the main character drinks copious amounts of it. In fact, she does an inordinate amount of tea drinking, eating, sleeping and resting, all of which are explained in painful detail multiple times over. I had high expectations only to be disappointed.

The premise was intriguing. A reluctant witch, historian Diana Bishop, encounters a mysterious, bespelled alchemical manuscript in Oxford’s Bodleian Library, only to find herself at the center of a 'creature' war. Creatures—witches, vampires and daemons—secretly live among humans and go to great lengths to hide their existence. Above all, they all want to get their hands on the manuscript, which is purported to contain information about each race (among other things). But Diana returned the manuscript to the stacks and now it’s seemingly lost.

Yes, the premise was intriguing but the story didn't deliver.

This is a very long book, with entire chapters devoted to the MC sleeping, eating or drinking wine and very little storytelling. In fact, it felt at times as if the author was merely trying to demonstrate her knowledge of wine or yoga, among other things. This book would have benefited from a strong editorial hand, namely some dramatic word count cuts. The extraneous detail--from what the characters are eating to the character running through her yoga poses--only served to slow down the pace.

Aside from the plodding pace, the book had other problems. The characters fell flat for me, with a few exceptions, and I never connected with Diana Bishop. Instead, I found myself longing for her demise. Bishop was touted as a strong, well-educated, independent woman--a historian no doubt--who acts increasingly like a doormat as the story progresses, bowing to vampire boyfriend Matthew's every whim. She also sleeps (a lot), bathes (a lot) and is exhausted after performing the simplest of tasks. I had to continually check her age as I thought perhaps I'd misread it. Instead of a thirty-odd year old woman, she acts more like a couch-ridden eighty-year-old with one foot in the grave. At times she's petulant, borderline annoying, and was devoid of redeeming qualities.

For this reader, this novel lacked originality. It felt like a retelling of the Edward-Bella tale, with Bishop an even weaker version of the Bella damsel in distress. You have a weak female enamoured with a dominant male vampire, seemingly overnight. The relationship wasn’t even as authentic as the tenuous Edward-Bella and just didn’t work for me. The novel also incorporated ideas and lines, almost verbatim, from the popular Laurell K. Hamilton Anita Blake series. For example, vampire Matthew Clairmont is French and he refers to Bishop as “ma lionne” and later as “ma petite.” Fans of Hamilton will recognize the latter as Jean-Claude’s nickname for Anita. There are also instances where Matthew says to Bishop, “(You’re in grave danger) and all you can think about is (something trivial)”—something to that extent. Again, this phrasing is very similar to Jean-Claude’s dialogue with Anita Blake, not to mention Edward’s dialogue with Bella (ie., when she’s going to meet his family and she’s worried about them liking her v. the danger involved). Too similar for my liking.

I’d read in other reviews where the author was compared to Anne Rice and the series likened to an adult Harry Potter. I have to disagree on both counts. Rice’s early Vampire Chronicles demonstrated far superior storytelling and writing skills, and there is nothing of Harry Potter here.

This is book one of a trilogy and leaves the reader hanging, and not in a good way. It didn’t have the closure or complete story arc of a standalone novel. The author doesn't even attempt to tie up the loose ends--instead, she seems intent on creating more. Reading this novel was akin to driving towards a destination never making it there.

Pros: intriguing premise and the author can string words together.
Cons: way too many extraneous words (at least 50k too long); unlikable, flat characters; dismal/slow plot and pace; poor retelling of Twilight