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

May 14, 2015 Christa rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: ebooks-all-vendors

I liked this book at least as much reading it the 2nd time as I did the first go around. I found Diana to be a wonderful character, and it was interesting to see her realize the power she held as a witch. Matthew was also great, and I loved how protective he was toward Diana. The story was fast paced and completely captivating. I enjoyed the way the story took us from Oxford, to France, and then to New York.

When Diana calls up a volume from Oxford's Bodleian Library, she is suddenly in the cros ...more

6 likes · Like · see review

Jul 02, 2012 Kara rated it liked it

Shelves: fantasy, book-club, series, nook, romance

I could suspend my disbelief just enough for vampires and witches and magic and time travel and a whirlwind romance, but I couldn't do it quite enough to believe that the main character, Diana, was a prodigy--a highly awarded, well-respected, tenured professor of history at an Ivy League university. She spoke like a teenager, and between her constantly saying "Oh!" and "Really?" and being completely unable to draw conclusions from the evidence in front of her, I couldn't believe her character.

Th ...more

Like · see review

Dec 30, 2016 Stacia rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: owned-read, urban-fantasy, romantic-fantasy, ebook

This book was not for me, at all. There were so many things I hated about it... Where to begin? First, I despise romance novels. That's what this book was despite any marketing that says otherwise. My policy when picking books is to read the publisher's description, look at the overall GoodReads rating & if my friends have read it, check their ratings/reviews. I try not to read reviews so my opinions aren't colored by other people's thoughts. I should have in this case. Once I got 1/2 way throug This book was not for me, at all. There were so many things I hated about it... Where to begin? First, I despise romance novels. That's what this book was despite any marketing that says otherwise. My policy when picking books is to read the publisher's description, look at the overall GoodReads rating & if my friends have read it, check their ratings/reviews. I try not to read reviews so my opinions aren't colored by other people's thoughts. I should have in this case. Once I got 1/2 way through reading it, I said to myself, I can't be the only one who thinks this books sucks, let me check the reviews... Lo & behold, I should have done that before buying the book. Sigh.

Second, though I was expecting a fantasy (I mean it's a book about witches & vampires!), I could have stomached it if it was a good romance, but it had all the ickiness of Twilight and none of the entertaining aspects. I didn't find stalking, obsession and patronization super romantic when I read Twilight, and guess what, I still don't. At least, however, Stephanie Meyer's book wasn't a boring drudge. This was, for 75% of the book (and I know that to be precisely true cause I was reading the ebook version), a super dull read that I resented each boring and irritating moment of (I have never been able to not finish a book - it's a problem). The fact that it picked up the pace and was actually about something resembling magic and having a plot in the last 25% of the book was not enough to make me forget how much I hated the prior 75% of the book.

Third, the protagonist was the epitome of a Mary Sue. Others do a much better job of describing all the things that make her a horrid character. I don't want to spend another minute thinking about her. I can't think of a single well-drawn character in the whole book.

I could go on and on, but the only joy I can find in this read is that it's finally over & I never have to think about it again. I'm personally going to avoid reading anything by Deborah Harkness like the plague. ...more

Like · see review

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

Like · see review