A Discovery of Witches

by Deborah Harkness, 579 pages

Diana Bishop is a witch. But not by choice. She has spent most of her life since the age of seven trying to bury that part of herself, focusing instead on seeing what she can achieve on her own, non-magic-assisted merits. To that end, she has studied diligently, earning a graduate degree in history, focusing on the history of alchemy as a turning point when science and magic at last went their separate ways. And that is how she finds herself in Oxford University's hallowed Bodleian Library, carefully examining some old alchemical manuscripts one minute and face-to-face with a vampire (who also has a doctorate) the next. So one of the manuscripts may have felt a little...tingley and...bespelled. And so what if it opened for her, despite its magical locks? Why is she suddenly having to fend off not just one suspiciously curious vampire but a host of other bloodsuckers, spellcasters, and dotty geniuses (a.k.a. daemons)?

A Discovery of Witches is a quite enjoyable contemporary adult fantasy--when it reads like an adult fantasy. The protagonist is a strong, intelligent, powerful woman who can call up whatever she wants from the bowels of the Bodleian...and make sense of it all! How cool is that? But then, as Jen H. warns in her review, it all goes a wee bit Twilighty* (there are even sparkles, I kid you not). Diana pines and sleeps a lot, especially when her "shadowed man" is out of the picture. It's Bella all over again. But then, thank goodness, she wakes up and starts figuring out how to kick some baddie backside. After discussing this with fellow staff who've read it, we decided that when Diana is with her books or on a mission, she's an adult; and when she's wallowing in romance, she reverts back to being a teenager. The novel's first-person narration makes this contrast even more noticeable (and frustrating). I hold out hope that the next installment will give us more of the grown-up Diana and less of the angsty teen. There are other Twilight parallels, but to say more would be spoilery, so we'll leave it at that and see where (and when) the next book takes us.

The alchemical history is fascinating, as are the depictions of life on and around Oxford's campus. And I love Diana's family home back in New England (it has a bit of a mind of its own and isn't afraid to give anyone a piece of it). Given that the author is a history scholar, herself, I look forward to seeing how she brings yet more of that knowledge into the story.

*No offense to Twilight fans. I read and enjoyed the whole series (minus a few things from book four). I just also enjoy making good-natured fun of it. :P