#A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES BOOK HOW TO#
#A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES BOOK SERIES#

The vast majority of the action seems ‘back-ended’ to the resolution, which seems a shame when it includes stuff like witches flying, torture, haunted houses, ghosts and time travel! The idea that the house hides things from them or even adds or takes away storeys is inspired.Īt 688 pages however, the book feels about 250 pages too long. I also love the idea that witches live in haunted houses and various ancestors are always with you.

The addition that Matthew is fifteen hundred years old so has met some of the most famous people in history such as Charles Darwin, Christopher Marlowe or Isaac Newton is fabulous. A historian herself, she provides an authentic-feeling storyworld that provides a fascinating backdrop for this world of creatures. It’s also clear Deborah Harkness knows her subject.

#A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES BOOK HOW TO#

I also love the idea our heroine must learn how to control her powers and can’t even trust her own people. The idea of a vampire and a witch falling in love is fantastic. I love a great concept and like Twilight is essentially ‘Romeo and Juliet’, so is A Discovery of Witches at its heart. I had cancer back then and was undergoing chemotherapy, so I discovered on re-reading recently I had forgotten a lot of it (though not really surprising!). I first read A Discovery of Witches around the time it first came out. She must also face ‘The Congregation’ who forbids inter-species love between creatures. With him and various other allies Diana sets out to discover more about her powers and to gain control over her magic. This first book is about Diana and the peril she finds herself in as a direct result of discovering Ashmole 784, not only from daemons and vampires but from her own kind, the witches.ĭiana finds herself at a considerable disadvantage because she has rejected her witch powers all her life, after the murder of her parents when she was just seven.Įnter Matthew Clairmont, an enigmatic vampire scientist who vows to help and protect Diana. When she discovers a lost manuscript – ‘Ashmole 784’ – her life is put in danger as it turns out the manuscript may contain the key to life for ALL creatures. The book follows the fates of Diana Bishop, a witch scholar doing research at Oxford university in England. In this storyworld there is a trinity of supernatural creatures that live amongst humans: witches, vampires and daemons.

Marketed as ‘Harry Potter or Twilight for grown ups ’, the book and its follow ups ( The All Saints Trilogy) enjoyed considerable commercial success and critical acclaim. Historical fantasy novel A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness was first published in 2011.

#A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES BOOK SERIES#

This time it’s a TV series rather than a film we’re comparing to its source material … But then we’ve done this before with several TV series before, catch up with them below.Ĭheck out the rest of the Book Versus Film case studies, modern to classics, HERE.

A discovery of witches book