A Discovery of Witches (All Souls, #1) in 2025 & 2026 Reading Challenge

Jul 30, 2014 Katie Kenig rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy

Thank you to my friend Devon for recommending this series to me!

I borrowed the audio book version of this from the library for our recent trip. We like to listen to books on long car trips, and this one (three days in the car each way) was definitely a long trip, and this was a very very long audio book to listen to on the way! It's sometimes hard finding books that fit both of our interests, as my husband primarily reads fantasy and I read mysteries, general fiction, historical fiction, horror ...more

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Jun 24, 2012 Barbara rated it really liked it

Shelves: on-my-shelves, 2012-reads

I'd give this 4 stars even though I agree with others who find the character of Ruth a bit flat and hard to understand why Matthew is so smitten with her. but I really like the parts of the book set in the Bodelian Library. Also envious that this fellow academic wrote a best seller (where the real money and fame is). ...more

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May 05, 2019 Kristi rated it liked it

Shelves: reading-challenge-2019

Diana Bishop is the last in a long line of powerful witches, but ever since her parents were murdered when she was 7 years old, she’s hated magic. In fact, she’s structured her whole life around the rejection of her powers and her lineage—or so she thinks. When Diana unwittingly calls up a long-lost manuscript from the bowels of Oxford’s libraries, she sets in motion something that will turn the whole world on its head. This discovery will call into question the world in which witches, vampires, Diana Bishop is the last in a long line of powerful witches, but ever since her parents were murdered when she was 7 years old, she’s hated magic. In fact, she’s structured her whole life around the rejection of her powers and her lineage—or so she thinks. When Diana unwittingly calls up a long-lost manuscript from the bowels of Oxford’s libraries, she sets in motion something that will turn the whole world on its head. This discovery will call into question the world in which witches, vampires, demons, and humans live—and the boundaries that separate their lives.

** spoilers ahead **

I love stories about witches, but it was initially really difficult for me to get into this book. The first time I picked it up, I just found it way too pretentious, probably because of the way that they talk about academia and Diana’s life, interests, etc. It’s funny that the author is an academic because the story seems to romanticize academic life in this way that is sort of hilariously Disney-like. Also, when I got to Diana and Matthew’s witch-vampire yoga date, I was like, “I don’t know if I can do this.” (X_X) Anyway, it’s a bit difficult to put my finger on what precisely bothered me about the tone, but perhaps it just seemed like it was trying to hard. It was just too on trend, too fan service-y, too cliched. It’s a bit like a cheesy CW or Lifetime rendition of a supernatural book, if that makes any sense—it feels derivative and cheesy at a lot of moments.

But things improved a bit once we finally got into the world-building elements of the book. Diana’s ancestors are interesting, even if she tries her best to be uninteresting. Matthew was sort of laughably in every major historical moment and friends (or would-be lovers) with every major historical figure, but at least there was some interesting back story there. I thought that the ideas of witches, vampires, and demons as three separate races governed by different rules and characterized by tensions with one another was interesting. I thought the idea of the governing council was interesting—and that they would go so far to keep the races apart. I liked Diana’s mother a lot, and the story of how she and her husband tried to save Diana and hide her powers—I thought that was clever and touching.

I don’t really like Diana. I never really understood what people meant when they would complain that a character was a “special snowflake,” but now I think I get it. So, Diana hates magic but she has basically every power known to witches because her parents were awesome and she absorbed her twin in utero. It’s a bit ridiculous. Diana’s main qualities seem to be that she is stubborn, persistent, and smart. But I think that there are some things that I would tolerate in a younger (YA) character that I just find weirdly immature in someone who is supposed to be in her 30s and a fairly accomplished academic. Diana behaves like a child a lot of the time, and even her relationship with Matthew would be a bit more tolerable in someone who was younger and less experienced. In her, all of this just reads kind of weirdly.

A lot of people seem to have complaints about Matthew, which I get, but to be honest, it was just hard to take him too seriously. He’s way too overblown as a character. Not only is he fabulously wealthy, handsome, intelligent, etc., as I was saying, he knows every major historical character and he’s also the head of basically an even more secret and suspect version of the Knights Templar. It’s just cartoonish, really. As for his relationship with Diana, yeah, it’s weird. It reads very much like Edward and Bella from Twilight or Christian and Anastasia from Fifty Shades of Gray—which at one point made me wonder if this like the latter started out as Twilight fan fiction but blessed by better writing. Again, things that I find kind of believable (if not acceptable) with younger female protagonists just strike me as weird when applied to someone who is basically at the early end of middle-aged. Diana should know better, and she’s an odd combination of immature and cold.

So, what did I like about the book? I think that the world building is interesting. In the middle of the book, they really had me going with some interesting ideas about creatures and humans, etc. But then they jumped straight from “creatures should be able to intermarry” to “Diana and Matthew are going to have a child that will change everything and this has been foretold for centuries” and I mean, come on. Again, it’s like Twilight, except we skipped from Book 1 to wacko Book 4 all in one concise volume here. *eye roll*

I might read the sequel, but I suspect that time walking will just heighten the cartoonish aspect of the plot, so I’m not sure I can bear it. It’s too bad, there are some really interesting and creative bits here. I liked the Bishop house. I liked the idea that some witches have powers and some cast spells. I liked the idea that demons are unpredictable anomalies. I liked the discussions of alchemy. I liked Diana’s parents. The central mystery might be intriguing, although I suspect they’ve already given most of it away. It’s almost enough to keep going, but there are a lot of obstacles as well. ...more

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May 10, 2014 Stephanie rated it really liked it

A long, but satisfying read. I enjoyed how clever the plot was and the research it must have taken to have some many literature references. I'm sure the next book will be a treat to read especially with Christopher Marlowe as a character! ...more

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Jan 22, 2019 Ketutar Jensen rated it really liked it

I loved the beginning
The mididle was a bit... irritating. A bit too much marysue. A bit too much romance tropes.
The end was lovely.

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Nov 03, 2019 Soelo rated it it was amazing

Shelves: audio, ebook, series, series2010s, tv-watched

This a great book to read in the fall. The settings of Oxford, France, and upstate New York are very autumnal. The mythology is interesting enough without being too complex. Diana and Matthew are compelling as main characters and the supporting cast is emphatic and stubborn.

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