Sara's Review: A Discovery of Witches (All Souls Trilogy #1) by Deborah Harkness
REVIEWER PURCHASE PUBLISHER: Penguin Books; RELEASED: February 8, 2011 GENRE: occutl, vampire thriller LENGTH: 594 pages FORMAT: ebook, paperback, hardcover, audible
ADD TO GOODREADS BUY LINKS AMAZON | B&N | KOBO AUTHOR LINKS FACEBOOK | TWITTER | WEBSITE BLURB
Deep in the stacks of Oxford's Bodleian Library, 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 descends upon the library. Diana has stumbled upon a coveted treasure lost for centuries-and she is the only creature who can break its spell. 3.5 (FOUR) BOUNDLESS STARS
I am sure I am like many others who were bombarded with commercials for the new TV series and just had to watch it. I wanted to read the books as soon as season 1 finished. Because one I am not patient and want to know what happens next and two I like to compare the differences. One big difference between the book and the TV series is the relationship between Diana and Matthew is built up slowly. It was organic. Whereas in the TV show she seems to love him out of the blue (at least to me). I liked this so much better. Although, Mathew character in the book is an ill-tempered dick and he is portrayed so much better on screen. In the book, I honestly don’t see his appeal, AT ALL. Another big difference is the book is it's only told mainly from Diana’s POV, and we get a little from Matthew’s. There is no side characters and subplots. I was disappointed not to find this in the book. The book also didn’t seem to have the level of intensity that the TV show did. Great screenwriters, I guess. I don’t think I would have read this series had I not liked the TV show, because I don’t read vampire books anymore. Yet now that I want more of the show, I am going to finish the books. I think the TV show made me biased when I read the book, be warned. I am rating it 3.5 Boundless Stars, and I like the TV adaptation better than the book. But I felt the same way about the Notebook.