A Discovery of Witches

Title: A Discovery of Witches

Author: Deborah Harkness

Publisher: Penguin Books, 2011

Pages: 579

Genre: Fantasy

A richly inventive novel about a centuries-old vampire, a spellbound witch, and the mysterious manuscript that draws them together.

Deep in the stacks of Oxford’s Bodleian Library, young scholar Diana Bishop unwittingly calls up a bewitched alchemical manuscript in the course of her research. Descended from an old and distinguished line of witches, Diana wants nothing to do with sorcery; so after a furtive glance and a few notes, she banishes the book to the stacks. But her discovery sets a fantastical underworld stirring, and a horde of daemons, witches, and vampires soon descends upon the library. Diana has stumbled upon a coveted treasure lost for centuries - and she is the only creature who can break its spell.

I was thrilled a few weeks ago when I saw the particular targeted ad telling me that A Discovery of Witches was being made into a television series. I read the trilogy for the first time a few years ago, and I was completely enthralled by the stunning mix of history and fantasy that Harkness lays out over the course of her story. It is nice to know that this time, my opinions were shared with enough other people to warrant the creation of a television show with a rather well-known cast. When I read the news that the books had been made into a series, I decided to re-read the trilogy before the show was released.

These are long books. I enjoyed them in audiobook format, and they are each around 24 hours long. However, they are compelling enough that even through a second listen I was finished with A Discovery of Witches in 5 days. Considering I usually only listen to books during my 45-minute commute to work, you can see how much I could not stop listening to this book. I know that I tend to be easily entertained, and I consume art through rose-tinted lenses a majority of the time. I would say the fact that this book was just as compelling the second time around is a testament to the captivating story that Harkness has weaved together. I knew what was going to happen, and I still could not stop listening!

That doesn’t mean that this book doesn’t fall into certain tropes that are old as time. That’s an exaggeration, but these vampires are old as time. And Matthew Clairmont fits exactly into the controlling stalker box that is quite popular. He is older and wiser and going to tell Diana what to do and when to do it. He is also stronger and faster and more capable of protecting her than anyone else, am I right? Wrong. Excusing his controlling, almost gaslighting, behavior as vampire instinct is a way to gloss over a real problem facing a lot of people today.

And even in the face of all of that, I love this book. But I always have been much more invested in supporting characters and this book is no exception. Sarah Bishop and Emily Mather are the absolute best! I could read a series about their life with great enthusiasm. In saying that, I do really like Diana as a protagonist. She isn’t perfect, which I like. She is driven, strong, and willing to fight for what she thinks is right. And I can’t wait to see how all of this translates to the screen!

Rating: 5/5

The Likeness

Title: The Likeness

Author: Tana French

Publisher: Penguin Books, 2008

Pages: 492

Genre: Mystery

In the “compellingˮ (The Boston Globe) and “pitch perfectˮ (Entertainment Weekly) follow-up to Tana French’s runaway bestseller In the Woods, itʼs six months later and Cassie Maddox has transferred out of the Dublin Murder Squad with no plans to go back—until an urgent telephone call summons her to a grisly crime scene. The victim looks exactly like Cassie and carries ID identifying herself as Alexandra Madison, an alias Cassie once used as an undercover cop. Cassie must discover not only who killed this girl, but, more important, who was this girl?

I love procedurals. I did not know that that was a term until recently, but I’m a fan of them. Movies, TV shows, and of course, books. I love to try to work my way through the evidence with the detectives and see if I can solve these crimes first. I’m sure a lot of you do as well, that’s why the movies, TV shows, and books are so wildly popular and prolific. This book was no exception.

But it went beyond a mere procedural or murder mystery. When detectives find the young victim who looks like Cassie, who was using an old undercover alias, they approach Cassie about stepping into this girl’s life. The level of manipulation that the detectives reach to undertake this whole operation was unconscionable. They actually cover up the fact that the girl is dead in order to allow Cassie to step into her life. I can’t even fathom the lack of empathy required to do that to someone, or the lack of respect for the dead.

I’ve never truly thought about what it would do to a person to pretend to be someone else. The ways in which Cassie became Alexandra were frightening. She truly began caring for these people who were all suspects of her murder in a way. She lied for them, she nearly ruined her real life for them, and the whole time she knew that they could have been the murderers. But how do you not fall in love with people when you’re trying to live the life of a woman who loved them? I don’t know that I could do it. Keep myself from becoming emotionally attached.

When Cassie was learning about Alexandra’s life, and specifically her 5 roommates, she has a phone full of photos and videos to help her. Through these snippets, Cassie falls in love with the idea of what Alexandra’s life with those people was like. She fell in love with the idea of these 5 people. It reminded me a lot of how we filter our real life for social media. It also reminded me of how at the beginning of a relationship we scroll through the other person’s social media and build up this idea of what their life has been like, and the kind of person we think they are. We fall in love with that version of the person that we have built from our interactions coupled with that idyllically filtered social media life. And usually, after a few months, we are greeted with the reality that whatever we thought they were is often not the case. Cassie does this, and it backfires on her in a most dangerous way. Makes me glad all I ever got out of falling for made up versions of people were bad breakups!

Overall, this book was excellent. I read In the Woods a few years ago on a plane and loved it. Then I read The Secret Place a year or two after that, and loved it. Tana French does not disappoint, people.

Rating: 4.5/5