Reviews with content warning for Animal death - A Discovery of Witches

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A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

41 reviews

foxgloveandcrow's review against another edition

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.

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maxandrambo's review against another edition

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mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.25

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katvou's review against another edition

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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

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bookishchef's review against another edition

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mysterious 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? Yes

1.5

This book is like Twilight.
But without the love triangle.
And somehow even more toxic.

You thought Edward stalking Bella was creepy?
Meet Matthew Clermont! He is actually mentally and physically abusive to our bland Mary Sue protagonist named Diana.

If you're Matthew, life is easy.

Diana has a panic attack? Threaten her life.
Diana is feeling scared? Threaten her life.
Diana is feeling horny? Threaten her life.

Why? Because you just cannot help yourself of course. After all, it is sooooo hot when men treat women like

A. fragile objects they're supposed to control and protect.
B. things to literally kill.

This book perpetrates the idea that men cannot help themselves from abusing, controling, and commanding women.
Worst thing is, that every time Diana goes against Matthew's wishes, she is immediately punished by the plot. Which only confirms that women are supposed to listen to the men in their lives according to this book.

I have no clue how I, the reader, was supposed to find any of this romantic. All of the scenes were either highly uncomfortable or straight up abusive.

The excuse of "he just can't help himself" is as old as time and has been used time and time again to excuse shitty behaviour from men.
And Diana, the MC, decides that this excuse is not an excuse at all. She seems to think this is actually the way the world works. She doesn't even take the horrible "I can fix him" attitude that so many romance MCs take. Instead she just completely accepts Matthew as the toxic asshole he is and gives up every part of her life to listen to him and conform to his ideas of an ideal wife.

So yeah this book stole the toxicity from Twilight and made it 10x worse.

You know what else it stole?

THE WEIRD BABY PLOTLINE

Yup, you heard me correctly.
This author really looked at Renesmee and went "wow that's such a cool plot point".
Remember how Bella wasn't supposed to be able to get pregnant because Ed was a vampire? Well, same goes for Diana in this story. For a solid 80% of the book, we hear nothing about pregnancy rates between witches and vampires. (Diana is a witch and Matthew is a vampire)

Matthew refuses to have penetrative sex because of *plot*, and Diana gets frustrated because of this. And then suddenly out of NOWHERE it is revealed that witches and vampires can't have babies together BUT Diana has *special* DNA which means she is able to conceive with Matthew. Matthew supposedly didn't know this, so his aversion to penetrative sex was completely unrelated.
Even so, this entire plotpoint seems to exist to make Matthew right once again, and to rip off Twilight.

Truly do not understand why this gets 4+ stars on Goodreads.

ALSO OMG WINE GETS MENTIONED MORE THAN THE MC'S NAME I STG

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stwriter92's review against another edition

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adventurous slow-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? Yes

1.0

Let me start off by saying that I did not like this book. At all.

A Discovery of Witches centers on the story of a very powerful witch who doesn't understand her own powers and has an enormous destiny dropped on her like a ton of bricks. She falls in love with a vampire, which is extremely taboo. Oh, and she has exclusive access to a very important book. If the synopsis I am giving seems sloppy, it's because the organization of the above mentioned parts were sloppily slapped together into something that vaguely resembled a plot if you squinted hard enough. The entire thing read like a bad Twilight fanfiction for adults. I already don't like Twilight (don't come for me), so this was just annoying as all hell.

I am usually a fan of books that weave together the threads of different storylines. I loved the way this was done in books I have read and reviewed in the past such as The Golem and the Jinni, The Lord of the Rings, and The Priory of the Orange Tree. However, unlike these books, the threads that "wove" this story together started to fray at the edges after the first stitch. This is probably because the threads themselves were not substantial enough to carry the story forward.

I found the two protagonists to be incredibly dull, insufferable, and selfish. I couldn't find a single thing I liked about either of them. Both Diana and Matthew were the most annoying characters I have read in recent times. Nothing about them made me feel sympathetic towards them or their "plight." They seemed to put the love they had above everyone else, oftentimes dragging unwilling participants into a game that should have ended as soon as it had started. The relationship between them is incredibly toxic, with Matthew being over-controlling and overbearing and Diana enabling him by being very "deer in the headlights." Matthew is absolutely dripping with red flags. He has an uncontrollable temper and constantly exerts his strength over Diana to control her. For example, early on in the book, they get into an argument. When Diana tries to leave, the following scene ensues:

"Let me go, Matthew," I struggled in his arms.
"No"
No man had ever refused when I asked him to stop doing something---whether it was blowing his nose in the library or trying to slip a hand up my shirt after a movie. I struggled again. Matthew's arms got tighter.
"Stop fighting me," he sounded amused. "You'll get tired long before I do, I assure you." (p. 191).

He will often talk to her as if she's a defenseless, naive child that he needs to take care of, which also puts a horrible taste in my mouth. On top of that, he drops this gem on her: "I will kill you myself before I let anyone hurt you" (p. 281). How, how, how does that make sense? God, I hate over-possessive love interests. Oh, and did I mention that he watches her sleep? The ick levels are high with this one. On top of this, he keeps so many secrets from her! At some point, they have the "no more secrets" conversation, but he still continues to keep secrets from her. And she just lets him!

Diana isn't a gem, either. Matthew calls her "ma lionne," but I think "mon oiseau" or even "mon ver" would have been more appropriate. There is nothing really courageous about her. She runs away from everything and only does whatever her own selfish heart wants. She pretends to care about other characters, but will side with Matthew the minute things get ugly. When other characters try to make her see the way her and Matthew's actions affect those around them, she refuses to take accountability for anything and refuses to allow any blame to be put on Matthew either. In her eyes, everyone else is wrong. I noticed this throughout, but there's a part where Matthew's mother, Ysabeau (who I love so, so, so much) tries to convince Diana to think twice before choosing to be with Matthew.

"This is not a game, Diana! Matthew would willingly turn his back on creatures he has known for centuries to protect your right to be whatever you imagine you want to be in your fleeting life. I'm begging you not to let him do it. They will kill him if he persists."
"He's his own man, Ysabeau," I said coldly. "I don't tell Matthew what to do" (p. 276)

Did I mention that the Very Important Book that this is supposed to be about ends up being super irrelevant? I would expect that a book that everyone wants to get their hands on would be put in a place of higher importance than the toxic romance between an overbearing vampire and a very boring witch. But I guess I was wrong!

I really only enjoyed the side characters in this book. I loved Hamish, Sarah, Em, Marcus, Miriam, and (when they appeared in the last few chapters) Nathaniel and Sophie. Not to mention, I adored Ysabeau and Marthe to death. If the story was written about these characters instead of about Diana and Matthew, I think I would have enjoyed it more.

This is one of the few times I will not be continuing a series. Usually I try to push through to see if the story gets better, but I am so uninterested and turned off by the mere thought of having to read about Matthew and Diana pretend to care about other people in two more books. No thank you.

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midnightgremlin's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.25

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marylinaris's review

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

I took several pages of notes while reading but I genuinely can’t put them into a succinct review, so bullet points got to do.

Things I liked:

• the worldbuilding

• the plot hooked me from the beginning and kept me intrigued till the end

• that Diana has grown up knowing about the magical things in the world and her not knowing specific things that were later revealed gets a good explanation

• descriptions part 1 - this book had some very flowery prose and did a great job describing the general settings; it very much gave the sense that the author has lived these places, sports and activities

Things I didn’t like:

• describing the only two WoC by comparing their skin to the color of beverages

• the short timeline when it comes to the romantic relationship (I didn’t mind their instalove but their speedrun from strangers to lover to married in one month was a little too much)

• both main characters, but especially Diana, are way too dramatic (this goes hand in hand with the short timeline but I couldn’t take her seriously when she swore undying love and devotion to Matthew after knowing him for half a month –– not to say Matthew wasn’t dramatic, that man has an emotional breakdown at his friends place about how much he loved Diana... THREE DAYS AFTER THEY MET)

• descriptions part 2 - overall too much! While nicely written most of it was just not needed for the plot or setting up the scene. The way we were told about just every outfit Diana put on very much gives ‘this was written by a teenager on wattpad in 2013 who thinks it is necessary to describe every single item of clothing the mc ever wears’. We don’t need to hear about every single food group Diana eats when they have a meal? So much of it has no plot relevancy and I, personally, do not need the author to hold my hand through the book and give me this much detail when it comes to just about everything. I can believe the line ‘She had a quick breakfast and brushed her teeth before heading out’ and do not need every single step that goes into these actions written out in detail to follow the story - truly it was more hindering than helpful

Random other things:

• at some point I just wrote down that it feels like the entirety of Oxford is just made up of non-human creatures because there were like three human side characters and the rest of the town was filled with vampires, witches and daemons

• I’ve heard about how possessive Matthew was going to be before I picked up the book, so I wasn’t really bothered by it for most of the book tbh (the only way it got a little annoying in was when he tried to keep Diana save, she wouldn’t listen, stayed and couldn’t even really defend herself)

• this book was published in 2011 and you can tell, surprisingly it refrained from the ‘not like other girls’ trope for the most part

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hopelessromanticbookworm's review against another edition

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adventurous funny informative mysterious sad tense medium-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? Yes

5.0

𝐼𝑡 𝑏𝑒𝑔𝑖𝑛𝑠 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝐴𝑏𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐷𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑟𝑒.
𝐼𝑡 𝑏𝑒𝑔𝑖𝑛𝑠 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝐵𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑑 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐹𝑒𝑎𝑟.
𝐼𝑡 𝑏𝑒𝑔𝑖𝑛𝑠 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑎 𝐷𝑖𝑠𝑐𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑊𝑖𝑡𝑐ℎ𝑒𝑠.

I can’t get enough of this magical world! This must be my fourth reread (2022) of this book and I still LOVE it!

Deborah Harkness brings a magical world to life in a steady pace that keeps you turning pages to find out more. Building up the characters backstories and slowly linking the two MC characters together in the way she did made me feel more invested into the characters and their lives.

As the story progresses, you meet a number of different characters and how they are linked to the MC’s forbidden love. How they will all help Diana & Matthew to make this world a better place for all creatures, to secure a future for many generations to come.

This books comes full of mystery, history, romance, family, danger and of course magic! Creating that atmosphere in this magical world that keeps you wanting more is what brings me back each time, and to once again meet Diana & Matthew.

Even though this is a reread for me, I am excited to continue and join Diana & Matthew in the past to learn more history and watch them evolve through the series. If you haven’t yet picked up this series I recommend you should if you love all things magic! 🥰 x

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yellow_star's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious medium-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? Yes

5.0

Th main character technically has a disability with an anxiety condition and trauma, but mainly Diana is a multi faceted character and not an annoying disability inspiration caricature abled people often make. It's a fairly diverse set of characters, mixed in both sexuality and race which is rare in romances and fantasy. This is also just an awesome job of story telling in general and deserves to be a best selling book.

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linesiunderline's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Sometimes you just want a good story to really sink into. Sometimes that story will have vampires and witches and romance and Oxford in it, and there will be parts of it you don’t really get but whatever, you won’t be mad about it, even if it is a teensy bit overwritten in places.

Did I think I would really enjoy this one so much, to the point that I put the second audiobook on hold before I finished the first? I did not. But Vampire Matthew has quite a presence. So does Oxford and all of the witchy atmospheric business. I’m all in.

If you are an Outlander fan, this one is for you. I have to go watch the TV series now.

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