Review of "A Discovery of Witches" by Deborah Harkness

Page Count: 579 Pages

Publish Date: February 2011

Genre: Fantasy/Supernatural

Synopsis: Deep in the stacks of Oxford's Bodleian Library, a 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 descend upon the library. Diana has stumbled upon a coveted treasure lost for centuries - and she is the only creature who can break its spell.

Review: I was so disappointed in this book. The idea seemed so interesting and I was really excited to get started. The slow start and flat characters was disappointing for me.

This book seemed like it went on forever and I've read longer books so it wasn't just the length. The plot is slow and definitely not strong enough to carry all the way through the book. There are a lot of things that happen that could be totally cut from the novel and it only would have improved things.

However, the slow plot wasn't my least favorite part of the book. The characters were not only lackluster, but they were painfully irritating especially the main character Diana Bishop. She was probably the most frustrating character in the entire book and a Mary Sue. She reminded me of the bad fanfiction that I read while I was in grade school.


The romance between Diana and Matthew was probably my least favorite part of this book. It reminded me a lot of Bella and Edward from Twilight. I was not a fan of Twilight. They were overly dramatic and, occasionally, flat out weird. Sometimes they took themselves way too seriously and it was very annoying.

The whole book took itself too seriously.



Some people really enjoyed this book, but it ended up not being for me.

Rating: 2.5 STARS.