A Discovery of Witches

By Deborah Harkness
Book club book #2This story is about a woman who tries to deny the fact that she is a witch and unexpected consequences result as she is forced to reckon with her own power and the blossoming relationship with, you guessed it, a vampire. Harkness tells a compelling story of discovery as the main characters search to discover why their species are dying out and why their relationship seems to be at the heart of that quest. It took me awhile to warm up to this book because it reminded me of The Historian and yet it didn't have the tight and beautifully woven story that that book had. The suspension of disbelief required in the beginning of the first book was maddening. The many inconsistencies throughout the book were frustrating (some continued even into the second book, although the writing and the story became much more cohesive in the second book). Some of these inconsistencies or loose ends were quite blatant, I was surprised at the editing stage they weren't tied up a bit cleaner.My biggest critique of the first book is that the author told you things without showing them to you. So you really had to believe the storyteller and be willing to follow her despite the fact that what she was telling you was not always evidenced in the story itself. On page 228 I made the note that the author tells you they are in love but you really don't see a lot of evidence of it and she tells you vampires and witches hate each other but all the interactions you see are cordial. I read the book despite these distractions, and also bought the second book. So I definitely think it is a book worth reading. And its always neat to see writers become better as they write more. "Somewhere in the center of my soul, a rusty chain began to unwind. It freed itself, link by link, from where it had rested unobserved, waiting for him. My hands, which had been balled up and pressed against his chest, unfurled with it. The chain continued to drop, to an unfathomable depth where there was nothing but darkness and Matthew. At last it snapped to its full length, anchoring me to a vampire. Despite the manuscript, despite the fact that my hands contained enough voltage to run a microwave, and despite the photograph, as long as I was connected to him, I was safe." Page 195"Humans can convince themselves up is down and black is white. It's their special gift." Page 142Book 59 and 60