ABAW: A Discovery of Witches, A Novel

A Discovery of Witches, a Novel (Book 1 of the All Souls Trilogy) by Deborah Harkness

Viking Adult, 2011 (library copy)

Old manuscripts, a witch in denial, clueless humans, intellectual vampires, unstable demons, secret societies, ancient castles, and a haunted house. In A Discovery of Witches, Deborah Harkness delivers a first novel that is smartly written and creates a richly nuanced supernatural world. I loved the library culture, the attention to the details of handling priceless manuscripts and academic research, and the pseudo-scientific exploration of magical powers. I did not so much love the main character, Diana, who starts out almost too perfect and too smart, and then too quickly turns too dependent on her new vampire lover. Said vampire, Matthew, is an interesting character, less for his brooding and aloof vampire romanticism than for his complicated back story combining medieval knight with modern geneticist. In one article I read, Harkness mentions that the idea for this novel started with a question about what sorts of jobs vampires would do if they were real. The ways in which she answers that question — not just for the vampires, but for all the supes — is clever. 

I was skeptical of the narrative structure of the novel. Most of the story is written in the first-person from Diana’s perspective. A few chapters distributed through the story are written in the third person, from Matthew’s perspective. First person narrative allows for suspense and conflict to build as the magical ingénue explores her newly discovered universe. Including the third-person chapters gives the reader knowledge not available to the protagonist, but mostly, I think those revelations weren’t entirely necessary. If Matthew’s perspective is important to the way the story unfolds, why not give more time to that perspective than the occasional chapters?

That said, I really got caught up in the story. The setting moves from the safety of the library, to the brooding European castle, where the sharpest dangers of the world are revealed, then finally settles into the domestic fortress of a New England haunted house. The academic setting is alluring, but the story leaves it quickly. The castle is a little cliché. The house, and the many characters that pass through it, are entertaining. Imagine a sort of benign Amityville horror house, breathing in the background of every scene, moving itself in and out of the main plot.

I was disappointed in the ending of the story (and always skeptical about time travel), but such is often the way with a trilogy. In spite of various bits that rankled me about the story, I did enjoy the book, taking in its nearly 600 pages in just a few delicious days. Harkness pays attention to the details and richly combines the historical and the fantastic, balancing science and magic on the head of a pin. I look forward to reading the subsequent books, if only for the chance to hang out with Christopher Marlowe.