More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
Read between
September 9 - September 24, 2025
By then more than a century had passed since Bridget Bishop was executed at Salem. Even so, rumors and gossip followed them to their new home.
Humans outnumbered us and found our power frightening,
fear was the strongest force on earth.
the stuff of human adolescence – horses and boys and romantic novels
Lighting candles with a few whispered words or hiding pimples with a time-tested potion – these were a teenage witch’s habitual first steps.
Except for the magic, it was a typical coming-of-age story.
There I’d first tried to carve out a place for myself in the theater department, my imagination drawn to the spectacle and the costumes – and my mind fascinated by how completely a playwright’s words could conjure up other places and times.
My specialty was the history of science, and my research focused on the period when science supplanted magic – the age when astrology and witch-hunts yielded to Newton and universal laws. The search for a rational order in nature, rather than a supernatural one, mirrored my own efforts to stay away from what was hidden.
To preserve my hard-won autonomy, I continued to keep any hint of magic or witchcraft out of my life. Of course there were exceptions, like the time I’d drawn on one of Sarah’s spells when the washing machine wouldn’t stop filling with water and threatened to flood my small apartment on Wooster Square. Nobody’s perfect.
Scholars do one of two things when they discover information that doesn’t fit what they already know. Either they sweep it aside so it doesn’t bring their cherished theories into question or they focus on it with laserlike intensity and try to get to the bottom of the mystery.
when in doubt, scholars usually postpone a decision.
It was the twenty-first day of September.
Do you remember
There are also daemons – creative, artistic creatures who walk a tightrope between madness and genius. ‘Rock stars and serial killers’ was how my aunt described these strange, perplexing beings.
When a daemon takes a look, I feel the slight, unnerving pressure of a kiss. But when a vampire stares, it feels cold, focused, and dangerous.
Witches and daemons were far more typical in libraries.
there were vampires aplenty in laboratories around the world. Science rewards long study and patience. And thanks to their solitary work habits, scientists were unlikely to be recognized by anyone except their closest co-workers.
These days vampires gravitated toward particle accelerators, projects to decode the genome, and molecular biology.
If it went bang, involved blood, or promised to unlock the secrets of the universe, there was sure to be a vampire around.
Blood and anatomy – two vampire favorites.
There were always things that went bump in the night in Oxford,
‘Daemons haven’t bothered me since I stopped acting.’
Like using witchcraft on the washing machine, the fact that I’d somehow caught the attention of a single, curious daemon shouldn’t count against me.
Humans struck her as unfortunate little beings blind to the world around them.
Daemons were perpetual teenagers who couldn’t be trusted.
‘I’m not using magic or witchcraft to figure out why a vampire asked me to dinner,’ I said firmly.
English vampires may not be as well behaved around witches as the American ones are.’
Like most witches, I had a problem getting the shoulder-length strands to stay put. Sarah blamed it on pent-up magic and promised that the regular use of my power would keep the static electricity from building and make my hair more obedient.
Given the surprises of the morning, the poem’s descriptions of how to make the Green Lion, create the Black Dragon, and concoct a mystical blood from chemical ingredients were even more opaque than usual.
Humans thought daemons were guardian angels at first.
we’re victims of human fear and envy.’
‘A little book can hold a big secret – one that might change the world.
That evening, rowing on the quiet river as sunset turned to dusk, I saw an occasional smoky smudge on the towpath, always slightly ahead of me, like a dark star guiding me home.
Four days ago I wouldn’t have accepted a ride home from a vampire, but this morning it seemed like an excellent idea.
This was the second meal Clairmont had invited me to (not) share with him. Was this a vampire thing? Did they like to watch other people eat?
Apparently Clairmont did not approve of women who opened their own car doors any more than he reportedly approved of women who argued with him.
‘Can you get this lady some tea when you have a chance? She’s threatened to kill for it.’
‘I’ve never seen anyone approach tea with that much attentiveness to detail.’ ‘You must not spend much time with serious tea drinkers.
We all hunt something, don’t we Diana?’
‘History only became more challenging when it became less neat.
Nobody really wants to keep secrets, not even the dead. People leave clues everywhere, and if you pay attention, you can piece them together.’
‘I wanted to know how humans came up with a view of the world that had so little magic in it,’
‘I saw the logic that they used, and the death of a thousand cuts as experimental scientists slowly chipped away at the belief that the world was an inexplicably powerful, magical place. Ultimately they failed, though. The magic never really went away. It waited, quietly, for people to return to it when they found the science wanting.’
‘It’s impossible to be tense around Mozart.’
We spend our time striving and straining to be something that we’re not. Let those desires go. Honor who you are.’
“Normal’ is a bedtime story – a fable – that humans tell themselves to feel better when faced with overwhelming evidence that most of what’s happening around them is not “normal” at all.’
Not even the humans among them could push the magic out of their world entirely.
‘Fear and denial are what humans do best,
today he wanted to be on his own while he got his craving for Diana Bishop under control.
It was the hunt that defined vampires’ identity, not their feeding or what they fed upon.
Grumpiness was preferable to agitation,
