Reviews with content warning for Stalking - A Discovery of Witches

Reviews tagging 'Stalking'

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

37 reviews

crayolabooks's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious relaxing fast-paced

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

4.0

It became more of a romance than I expected and some things happened very fast. I am interested in reading the second book and seeing how things play out!

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alexirose's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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amberlfaris's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional informative mysterious tense medium-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

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lakeofstars's review against another edition

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mysterious slow-paced

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

1.5

if you take away the extremely toxic romance, then there's a good story set in a Really interesting universe here. i adored the weaving of history, science, and magic, the fact that it focuses on two scholars, and that there's a big underlying mystery that actually requires the expertise of said scholars (a geneticist and a historian) to unwind. but then, all of it is shaped around a stupid, disgusting, unhealthy romance, and that ruins it all for me. matthew, the male lead, is extremely possessive, controlling, and manipulative towards diana, the female lead. he controls her every move, location, and even the people she can interact with. all of this is excused because he is a vampire who “can’t control his instincts” and has lived longer and therefore “knows what is best.” beyond the distastefulness of such a love interest being romanticized, i personally think that the concept of characters “just being born violently possessive and controlling, they can’t help it!” is… weird at best and bioessentialist at worst. i get it, he’s a vampire, they’re not meant to be sweet and cuddly, but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth when such toxic behaviors are not only excused, but defended within the text. it works in horror stories like carmilla (which was MILD compared to the way matthew treats diana sometimes), not in regular romances where we are expected to take such “boys will be boys”-esque excuses at face value. at least it seems like all vampires in this universe have these instincts, not just the males, which would make things significantly more problematic. but that doesn’t mean i’m ever going to accept that matthew’s abusive treatment of diana is “romantic.” additionally, i didn’t like matthew as a character. even beyond the toxicity, he was not nearly as charming as the author clearly wanted us to believe that he was. the amount of times i audibly scoffed because he was throwing another tantrum (a 1500-year-old man, btw), saying something that was supposed to be suave but felt cringey, or insisting his privacy was more important than diana’s was abysmal.

also- ironically, considering the entire basis of her character is that she was forging her own path- diana had NO agency at any point. whether it was finding out her op magic had been guiding her all along, matthew dictating her every action, or other characters swooping in and saving her any time she is about to have to fend for herself, she doesn't DO anything!! oh, except for have a five-paragraph internal soliloquy about mundane activities like exercising or preparing tea every other page. thankfully, she does investigate a lot of things herself, but believe me when i say you have to trudge through chapters of her doing busywork and either thinking about or being bossed around by matthew before you get to see it. i don’t mind an overpowered MC if they’re written well, which i hoped diana would be, but she ended up being a typical mary sue who, despite being described as incredibly headstrong and independent, constantly bends to the will of and needs to be saved by the big strong male lead. i wish that this book was just about her because before she started dating matthew and everything came crashing down, i found her characterization and gradual acclimation to her new abilities to be compelling.

but all of that aside, this book’s greatest sin is that it was boring. i was BORED reading a book about solving mysteries, about magic, about witches and daemons and vampires, about history, about science, about alchemy- about so many things i normally love. the novel barely focused on what made it interesting to me in the first place. it made what should have been high stakes seem inconsequential, considering the characters barely paid them any mind most of the time. if this author wanted to write a contemporary romance where a witch and a vampire drink wine and do yoga, then she could have written exactly that instead of sidelining the plot. the imbalance between the romance (notice how i didn’t say relationship development? that’s because there was barely any transition between “i trust him i guess” and “i’m in love with him and we are basically married”) and the main story was severe, and while this may not be a problem for someone who enjoys the romance genre more (and who can stomach such a problematic dynamic), it was a major turn off for me. a book can absolutely be primarily a romance without neglecting the rest of the plot, but unfortunately that was not the case here. and suddenly, at around the 80% mark, the author seemed to remember all of the other plot threads she had neglected and rushed to provide answers that should have been built up throughout the middle section of the novel. Love That!

i also am just straight up not a fan of fertility/conception storylines, which this seems to be leading into for the next book. i'll read it because i AM invested, but... i'm scared.

tl;dr: pros- atmosphere, language/prose, worldbuilding (for the first half, at least). cons- pacing, character writing, relationships
- this was originally going to be 2 stars, but i looked at the other books i gave that rating to and this is definitely worse than them. so... here we are.

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cgward00's review

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dark funny mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

1.0

DNF at 84%

I should've paid more attention to the dozens of content warnings this book has: around 78% the book revealed that the trilogy is actually all about pregnancy and how the three supernatural races are meant to begin interbreeding. Pregnancy is a deal-breaker in books for me. A shame since I otherwise enjoyed the characters and vaguely historio-supernatural vibes even if some of it was a bit one-note at times.

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siglerbooknook's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful mysterious reflective 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? No

4.75

I loved this book! The story captured so many emotions well. It made me laugh, made me nervous. I was fully invested in the heroes. The villains were frightening. They felt like real people with motivations while still feeling dangerous and bad.

The side characters are wonderful. Each character felt like their own person, even those who were only in a few chapters. Harkness does a wonderful job writing witty banter. I caught myself laughing out loud at several points.

The unique take on witches, vampires, and demons was very enjoyable. I loved the world building and how myth and legend are woven so seemlessly into the story.

My only gripe was how secretive a few characters are. It feels like a few things would have been a lot less dangerous with honest communication. I also didn't like Matthew much at the beginning because he was so controlling, but that got better/more understandable as the story went along.

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torturedreadersdept's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious slow-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

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jessicabearbooks's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious relaxing tense slow-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? It's complicated

4.0

“As far as I can tell there are only two emotions that keep the world spinning year after year...One is fear. The other is desire.”

Wow. This book has such a rich story and so many plot twists! When I started this I was not ready for the level of emotional attachment I would form to this story and these characters, maybe it's because the story was so long and I spent so much time with this family but I adored it.

Every main character was well developed and believeable. It was easy to love them, especially Ysabeau who honestly holds my heart; her developing relationship with Diana is so sweet. Matthew was a little toxic at times in his reactions and mindset but I don't really feel like this is an issue as he's a Vampire with heightened protective instincts so what do you expect.

The last couple of chapters were so wholesome, I want to be a part of this new family. I was not prepared for the genius comedy in this book because GIRL I was rolling at points haha. Also this story is just a really cool concept? The Knights of Lazarus...damn.

Excited to read the next one but need a break first lol - I'll be real, this book felt as long as it looked. Took me a whole month but when I was reading I thoroughly enjoyed the escapism. This whole series has huge cosy autumnal vibes, I reckon that's why it took me so long to get through because It felt too weird reading about a spooky vampire house while I was getting sunburnt. Also definitely read this series while listening to classical music, the vibes are unmatched.

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kirjakimalainen's review against another edition

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adventurous inspiring mysterious slow-paced

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

4.25

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abby_can_read's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious 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

📖
I went back and forth on what I wanted to rate this. I have mixed feeling about this book.

Based on the blurb, I was excited. I thought this sounded great. I think this book had a great start and based on the summary, I knew the love story of Diana and Matthew was coming. I liked that Diana was older and she had life experience before meeting Matthew and them getting involved.

I started to lose interested around the time Matthew watched her sleeping, but I stuck with the book. I lost more interest as the relationship between Diana and Matthew developed.

I went into this book hoping it was a more mature and developed version of Twilight -- mainly featuring a better female character and a better romance. I don't think I had unreasonable hopes/expectations. But neither of those panned out for me.

The plot wasn't horrible, though I found to be predictable. The writing style was okay. The characters, mainly Diana, had me going back and forth and I still can't really decide how I feel beyond I think they were flat and some of the character development went backwards. I'm not really sure what I think about the relationships, mainly the one between Matthew and Diana. I can't decide if it's better or worse than Edward and Bella.

Despite my mixed feelings, overall I did enjoy reading this book. I plan to read the sequel. I have low exceptions and I'm curious how this series will compare to Twilight.

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