[REVIEW] A Discovery of Witches

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

For a few weeks, I tried to gather my thoughts around this book. In particular, how could a book rated as 4 stars on Goodreads, could actually be a 1 star reading for me... But that's the amazing power of books, they depend so much on the story and the writing style, as they depend on the reader's mood, favourite genres, etc...
There are other reviews than summarise the book much better than this one --> for the moment I will just say that this book did much more "tell" than "show" (for example, it tried to convince me the vampire was dangerous, but we only saw him doing yoga, not doing any killing) and it is full of patriarchal elements:
- the most powerful witch ever born is not able to defend her self at all
- the woman's purpose is to have babies
- the woman's life is in danger so the man meets with other man (behind closed doors) to decide what she will do, while she waits outside and knits (... eyes rolling...)

But, hey, there are positive things: the main character is an historian that focused on alchemy --> I am a chemist, so I could I not like this? But I learned very little, so I will focus on alchemistry books instead of this fantasy series.

So, as a summary, and with all due respect for the author and fans, this book is not for me.

View all my reviews