A Discovery of Witches: A Novel

Written by Deborah Harkness

Narrated by Jennifer Ikeda

Book one of the New York Times bestselling All Souls series, from the author of The Black Bird Oracle.

Look for the hit series “A Discovery of Witches,” now streaming on Netflix

“A wonderfully imaginative grown-up fantasy with all the magic of Harry Potter and Twilight” (People).

Deborah Harkness’s sparkling debut, A Discovery of Witches, has brought her into the spotlight and galvanized fans around the world. In this tale of passion and obsession, Diana Bishop, a young scholar and a descendant of witches, discovers a long-lost and enchanted alchemical manuscript, Ashmole 782, deep in Oxford's Bodleian Library. Its reappearance summons a fantastical underworld, which she navigates with her leading man, vampire geneticist Matthew Clairmont.

Harkness has created a universe to rival those of Anne Rice, Diana Gabaldon, and Elizabeth Kostova, and she adds a scholar's depth to this riveting tale of magic and suspense. The story continues in book two, Shadow of Night, book three, The Book of Life, and the fourth in the series, Time’s Convert.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Audio
• Release date: Feb 8, 2011
• ISBN: 9781101484531

Deborah Harkness

Deborah Harkness is the number one Sunday Times bestselling author of A Discovery of Witches, Shadow of Night, The Book of Life, Time's Convert and The World of All Souls. A history professor at the University of Southern California, Harkness has received Fulbright, Guggenheim, and National Humanities Center fellowships. She lives in Los Angeles. Follow Deborah Harkness on Twitter @DebHarkness and Instagram @debharkness, and visit www.deborahharkness.com and www.facebook.com/AuthorDeborahHarkness

Reviews for A Discovery of Witches

[Emma Warwinsky · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

More melodramatic than I was hoping for or expecting, but ultimately, the meat of the story made the fluff worth it. :) Excited for what happens next for Diana.

[cbrockiamico · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed listening to each character’s accent and ethnicity differ from the narrator.

[momalwaysreads · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

If you like Twilight, I think you will really enjoy this book. It felt a bit long at times, but i was listening to the audio and was able to listen while doing other things, so it made it go much more quickly. I will definitely continue the series, but most likely on audio as well.

[bookofsecrets · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I’m finishing up this chunkster book today. I liked it, though maybe not as much as I thought I would. The world building was quite interesting, and I was impressed with the scientific and historical research. I’m very curious about the magical book Diana found, and why the various creatures want it.

On the flip side, the many descriptions of things — rowing, horseback riding, food, wine, hunting, etc — slowed the pace down. I liked witchy Diana, but never warmed up to Matthew. Does he get more likable in future books?

[mrsdanaalbasha · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

[Tuesday, ‎December ‎24, ‎2013] The first time this book was released and I heard of it I had to get it, though it's more expensive than the rest of the same books from the same genre, it just seemed like it was worth it. I've got a huge thing for witchcraft, I had it for a long while, since December 2011, but in 2012 I didn't do much reading; in 2013 I tried to finish the piling unread list first. I can't wait to start this delicious looking book.

Now that I've reached chapter 17, almost half the book, I can say surely enough that this book is inspired by Twilight but much more boring. A few changes here and there but really, this book lacks something essential: a soul. So far I can only rate it 3 stars. I hope I finish it soon. Dull.

I also really dislike Mathew, he's always angry without a reason, he seems crazy, and Diana is simply so old and boring to love.

[treebeard_404 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I am 10 hours into this book (not even half way!) and the author has barely advanced the main plotline at all. I don't have the time or patience for vampire romance.

[nclithing · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The first half of this book read like a deep set of character studies, and perhaps the slowest romance I've ever seen. All the same, excellent writing, wonderful research incorporated.

[acargile-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book was recommended to me by a parent of a student many years ago. I've had it on a list all of this time and finally listened to it.

The book was not what I was expecting. It's very scientific with history wrapped within. I don't feel the chemistry between the two characters, but that's not bothering me. Perhaps it's because I'm listening instead of reading? Nonetheless, I listened intently until finishing and very much look forward to listening to the second book.

As an English teacher, I enjoy the use of the Bishop family after having taught The Crucial so many times. I also like that vampires can be out in the sun and have families--those they've turned. I like that the demons, vampires, and witches are all coming together and forming their own family. I like that the vampires are not evil--although they are definitely capable of violence.

[brandywinn · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Very much a Mary Sue, though not as bad as in Twilight. Probably because there is intelligent discussions in it. Curious how this plays out in the subsequent books.

[caedocyon · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Brutal quantities of borderline-abusive heterosexual kink in this otherwise inoffensive disposable urban fantasy. I know how common "strong independent woman falls for overprotective, controlling man and likes it" kinks are among straight people, but y'all need to negotiate that shit properly.

I was going to see if I could think of anything else to say about this book, but... no, not really.

Not great sequence of events:

0. main character puts up token resistance to getting Protected and Taken Care Of,
1. main character get kidnapped,
2. the kidnapper points out all the ways her special new instahusband is abusive and controlling,
3. you're cheering on the kidnapper and hoping this is a turning point in the story/relationship,
4. the kidnapper proceeds to torture main character near unto death,
5. main character spends the rest of the book getting PROTECTED and TAKEN CARE OF but now she's so traumatized she appreciates it.

A few points returned for ~witchy maiden aunts~ who are explicitly witches and explicitly married to each other? IDK, that's a trope I can get behind.

ALSO ALSO: [complaints about fantasy political systems] global government of tens of millions by an unelected board of 9 people (9!!) is a weird system of government and a very weird thing to replicate when you plot to overthrow the existing government.

[kiri_3 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Thoroughly pedestrian and contrived.

[yggie-606508 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Ok, I’ll be honest. I actually didn’t want to like this book. I wanted it to be a Twilight clone, with an annoying bossy vampire and a characterless lady protagonist. And in some ways, it is.

I did get annoyed with Matthew being being a big bossy bully, and with him being impossibly handsome and attractive all the time. I did get annoyed with everyone treating Diana like a helpless kid and she just leaning back and letting people bathe her and feed her and whatever.

I did not learn anything useful from this book, I did not change, it never profoundly moved me in any way. But still I read it, and kept reading it, laughing at the more humorous parts, shaking my head at the annoying parts, picking it up whenever I was free to.

I also started reading the second book in the series as soon as I finished this. So yeah. What can I say, apparently I do like it. Quite a lot.

[romymc · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

It reads like a romance novel, except for some violence by the bad guys. Not sure if I will read the next book in the series.

[amberwitch · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A fantasy romance between a witch and a vampire. They meet in a library, when the witch finds an enchanted manuscript that makes her a target for both witches and vampires, and the vampire end up protecting her.
Not a very good read, kind of boring. Flowery prose and a lot of pathos. Characters I did not care for, and romantic protagonists where I could not se the attraction between them.

[bangerlm · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book started off fantastic and I was super excited about it, but then it dramatically went downhill when the love interest was introduced. The main character lost all agency, the violent, controlling man was romanticized, and the plot became less focused. I kept hoping the author would turn it around, especially when some of my exact complaints were spelled out, but it never happened.

[spiritedstardust · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This book felt like a big jumble of different genres mixed together, and I'm not really quite sure what to make of it. It also contained almost every supernatural being under the sun, but I didn't really get to know any of them, depsite going into laborious backstories of a few of the characters (a lot of which felt uneccesary). It also managed to turn witches, vamps and daemons into boring people.

The characters themselves felt somewhat ridiculous - my biggest gripe was probably with Matthew, I'm sorry, but in no way did he sound or seem like someone who had been around for 1500 years...
I felt his 'love' connection with Diana compeltely setup and forced, there really wasn't any sort of spark for me.

I also found this book extremely repetitive - it all seemed to be about reading books, eating and Yoga - the Yoga classes were the most ridiculous addition.

I pretty much sped my way through this just so I could finish, as someone who loves the whole witch, vamp, demon genre this left me cold - I almost felt like there really were no supernatural beings in here.

[sensory-376444 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Meh. Was disappointing. Waited so long to read this book and it wasn't as good as I expected it to be. I will try the whole series though since it has a few redeeming qualities.

[lavaturtle · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I have really mixed feelings about this book. The protagonist is interesting -- a serious academic with a complicated relationship with magic -- and there's an intriguing world full of magic and creatures and complex social dynamics. But I just couldn't get on board with the main romance, which is completely central to the plot.

I know we're supposed to be rooting for Matthew and Diana and their forbidden love, but he's a walking pile of red flags! He's possessive and controlling from the moment they meet, always orders Diana around like he knows what's best, has a terrifying temper, and kills people on Diana's behalf. More than once. And the thing is, not only does everyone around Diana act like they know better than her... but they're actually right. She's never allowed to be an authority on her own life, and she never gets to finish the paper she's working on! From the moment the love interest appears, Diana's normal life that she's worked so hard for is stripped away from her. It just bothers me.

On the other hand, I love a lot of the supporting cast. Ysabeau is great, and Sarah and Em are the best. And their house! I would happily read more about the Bishop family and their witchy business.

[bodagirl · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book kept my interest while reading, but didn't make me want to devour it. I think part of the issue is that the magic system and society are still being defined, as the POV is mostly from Diana, who has denied her heritage for so long, and Matthew, who keeps secrets from other characters and the reader. I'm also a little uncomfortable with Diana and Matthew's relationship; I'm getting the feeling that they are fated, which is fine, but the motivations for why they are drawn together at the start is really unclear. It started as "enemies to lovers" but within a few chapters it became some amorphous connection that much later on turned into a possible fated mate situation. I do appreciate that Harkness is stressing that Matthew comes from a very different age and his vampiric instincts make him act possessively, but it makes my modern sensibilities shudder a bit that Diana questions things so very rarely and often just accepts what she is being told.

The aspects of the story I really enjoyed were the historical elements that were woven in (though I wonder along with Diana how Matthew was able to know so many influential thinkers so well) and the idea that demons aren't actually from Hell, but rather randomly popped up as super creative or gifted people. However, the possible connection between "demonic" and some mental health disorders or the Autism spectrum in problematic, even though the demons we meet seem to be fairly well adjusted.

I grabbed the whole series from a used bookshop, so I will probably continue to see if it improves.

[xenoglossy_1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

This book is Twilight for people who think they're too smart for Twilight. "Oh, come on," you might say, "comparing a vampire guy/non-vampire girl romance to Twilight is a really lazy way to trash it, and you're probably being overly dismissive," but it honestly hits an alarming number of the same plot points, from "vampire guy breaks into heroine's room to watch her sleep at night" to "vampire guy has a female vampire relative who hates the heroine, which turns out to be because she's just jealous the heroine can have babies and she can't" to "vampires ordinarily can't have biological children, but the vampire guy and the heroine can," and I'll eat my hat if the resulting child/children aren't Renesmee-level Super Special and Amazing, too. This book just spackles on a shallow layer of academia, which as far as I'm concerned makes it more insufferable, because at least Twilight had no pretensions. This book wants you to think it's Smart and Deep and not just a shameless fantasy about being a relatable yet also super special woman with a hot vampire boyfriend who is also in charge of your life, because of course he knows better than you what you need. Which, if that's your thing, far be it from me to judge, I just feel like this book didn't own it, you know?

To nitpick further, while the prose was generally readable, there were some really clunky attempts at descriptive language, and while I'm not dead against the use of epithets (i.e. referring to someone as "the vampire" or "the historian" or whatever instead of by a pronoun or their name) in third person, in first person it's distracting. I highly doubt anyone thinks about people whose names they know that way.

I will say I was kind of fond of Sarah and Em, because being someone's eccentric, vaguely hippie-ish, cat-owning lesbian aunt is my life goal, but for most of the book their sole purpose is to call the heroine up and nag her about how worried they are about whatever she's doing (such as, you know, dating a vampire), so that she can be annoyed because she's TOTALLY FINE, YOU GUYS, GOD. So as redeeming features go, it wasn't much.

[LettyMrtz · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A very interesting book filled with historical, scientific, and magical facts, and the best part is that the ingredients are very well mixed and fit into the story. This is one of those books where you learn without even realizing it; I felt that all of a sudden it had too many pages to be an introduction to history and character presentation, as many issues were left unresolved. I’m not saying I didn’t like it; on the contrary, I enjoyed it very much and was left wanting to know what happens with Diana, the aunts, Matthew, and their entire family. (Translated from Spanish)

[jennybeast · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I quite liked it, but I really wanted it not to be a series. It was so involved that I wanted it to wrap up in one book -- I'm not sure I have the staying power for an indefinite storyline.

[xofelf · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I want the sequel.

[Bealibra30 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I recommend the complete trilogy. It is very well-written and entertaining adult fantasy. (Translated from Spanish)

[pennykaplan · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Well written creation of an alternate universe of supernatural creatures…liked the historical bits (vampires never die). But got tired of the romance between a witch and a vampire. Didn’t finish it.

[swbesecker · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An adult story of witches, vampires, and daemons that begs you to forget everything you thought you knew about these creatures and fosters imaginative hope in wishing they were real.

[kcollett_6 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Not only does Diana start off studying in the Bodleian in Oxford (which I’ve done, squee!), but she eventually returns home to her family’s old farmhouse in Madison in upstate NY (20 miles from our 200-year-old farmhouse—though our house is not nearly as alive or opinionated). Includes witches, like Diana’s family, vampires, and daemons, old manuscripts with secrets, old vampire families with secrets, some unpleasant enemies, and a remarkably likeable bunch of allies.

[charon07 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I was going to give this two stars, since it was at least entertaining enough to keep reading, but it got pretty tedious toward the end, and most unforgivably, turned out not to be a stand-alone book but to be just the first installment of a series. There is no resolution of any part of the plot, and I have no interest in continuing. Its best feature was some bodice-ripper romance, but that was too scant and far between, and similarly unresolved, to redeem it even as a romance.

[xbooksandmagicx · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

From the very first moment, I was hooked on this story; it has everything I like: it's a fantasy saga with supernatural creatures and romance, as well as super interesting historical and scientific facts. It has truly been a book that exceeded my expectations and quickly became one of my best reads of the year. (Translated from Spanish)

[rchall78 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I really wanted to like this book. Couldn’t finish it. I never started liking the main characters. I got about 75% of the way through, and figured if I didn’t like it by then, I wasn’t going to.