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My Library📚

Ballad, Maggie Stiefvater

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Schiappa Reviews

Discovery of Witches- Deborah Harkness

(Review by Kaitlin W)

My first reaction to this book was that I really, really like it! I loved the mix between fantasy, science, and history. Even though I don’t really read historical fiction, this book pulled me in from the start. The genre I usually read is fantasy, a lot of fantasy novels somewhat has the same plot; teenagers falling in love, vampires, witches, etc…but the vampire, Matthew, was frozen at age 37 and Diana, a witch, was in her early 30’s.

Diana is one of the last descendants of Bridget Bishop, one of the witches executed during the Salem witch trials. This is another reason this book pulled me in, I loved learning about the Salem witch trials in high school! You could tell the author did a lot of research on the subjects she wrote about. Diana Bishop is a historian studying alchemy (I know, I know, alchemy is barley science as my dad says but bear with me I’m getting there) at the Bodleian Library in Oxford.

One of the manuscripts she calls up, Ashmole 782, turns out to be magic and has been missing for over 100 years! She knows its magic just by touching it, but by calling up this mysterious manuscript that had been missing for over 100 years, she attracted the attention of many more creatures that have been searching for it. One of these creatures is the vampire geneticist, Matthew, who has been looking for the book as well. They soon meet and slowly fall in love, even though it is forbidden by the congregation and the covenant. So because of this forbidden love, and Diana’s access to the book, they are hunted by all creatures.

My only critique on this book would be that there is a lot of background information to understand the manuscript, and Matthew. With him being 1500 years old, there are some secrets you have yet to find out about him that may help them with their forbidden love and their interest in the book. This slowed the pace down somewhat, but all this information is still important to the book! So if you can make it through the possible overload of information in some parts, you will love the book! I think this is a great transition book for young adults moving from YA to Adult Fiction.

This book was recommended to me by a work colleague since we have a lot in common with our taste in books. I ordered it from our local library, which happens to be where I work, and I’ve been hooked ever since. This book series has also been adapted into a TV series. It actually follows the storyline very well. I would recommend this series to older YA readers, science fiction lovers, and historical fiction lovers. Vampires, Witches, Daemons, Libraries, and Yoga, how can you go wrong?

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