Vampires, Daemons, and Witches. Oh My! A Review of Deborah Harkness’s “A Discovery of Witches”

Diana was born a witch but, after the death of her parents, has sworn of witchcraft. While doing research on the history of alchemy she stumbles across a manuscript that has been lost for years, a manuscript that was never supposed to be found.  Now Diana finds herself in the middle of a fight for the manuscript between witches, vampires, and daemons and for the first time in her life she needs her witchcraft to survive.  Throw in a romance with dashing vampire Matthew and Harkness has a the recipe for a very entertaining novel.

While reading “A Discovery of Witches” I found myself vaguely reminded of Elizabeth Kostova’s “The Historian” and while the books are very different in plot and content there are some elements they share.  Both take an ancient legend and transform it into something that fits into a more modern world while having heroines who spend most of their time in the library researching through old manuscripts.  That being said I think Harkness’s novel has a less serious tone and it reads like pure entertainment.  The plot is complex and there are enough new twists thrown into the text that keeps it from reading like the majority of vampire/supernatural creature fiction out today.  I particularly enjoyed the scientific elements Harkness includes and the DNA investigations of witches’ powers.

(On a completely unrelated to this review note, I do have to say that I think I enjoyed “The Historian” better as far as books about women academics and supernatural legends go.  

Something about Diana was a little more annoying than the heroine of “The Historian” but this might also be because I haven’t read Kostova’s novel in a while.  I might have to re-read it and see how the two compare when I know what elements I’m looking for.  I also enjoy the less romantic attitude Kostova took towards Vlad the Impaler/Count Dracula as I feel like vampire-human(witch) romances are better suited for YA lit.  This is just my personal opinion and I have no reviewer facts to back me up, vampire love sells there’s no denying it, but the vampire genre has a lot more too it than those Bela Lugosi eyes and I like to see it used for all it’s worth.)

The relationships Diana has with her aunts and the other witches seem realistic, but I found her relationship with Matthew to be odd at times, with far too time spent discussing the consummation of their relationship and the vampire’s desire to “take things slow.”  Other than the somewhat stereotypical vampire-warm blood relationship plot points I thought the novel took some interesting twists and set up a good foundation for the rest of the series.

I really enjoyed this book and even at over 500 pages it makes a light summer read.  I finished it in just a couple days and never felt that the plot lagged or had to force myself to get through pages.  Harkness does a good job with pacing and this makes the book feel shorter than it is.  I’m looking forward to the next book in the trilogy coming this July (at the time of this review it should be out already…I believe it was scheduled to come out on the 10th).