447. A Discovery of Witches
Rating: ☆☆☆1/2
Recommended by: Joni Renee Zalk
Author: Deborah Harkness
Genre: Fiction, Fantasy, Romance
579 pages, published February 2011
Reading Format: Book
Summary
The protagonist of A Discovery of Witches is, no surprise, a witch named Diana Bishop. Diana is a professor at Yale who specializes in the study of alchemy. Descended from a prominent family of witches, Diana rejects her gift until she discovers a bewitched alchemical manuscript while conducting research at Oxford’s Bodleian Library. There, she meets Matthew de Clermont, a brilliant geneticist who also happens to be a vampire. When Matthew and Diana fall in love, they defy the rules set down by the council of witches, vampires and daemons which forbid interspecies fraternization.
Quotes
“It begins with absence and desire. It begins with blood and fear. It begins with a discovery of witches.”
“Just because something seems impossible doesn’t make it untrue,”
“As fast as I can tell there are only two emotions that keep the world spinning year after year…One is fear. The other is desire.”
“Yes, I see that you are behaving like a prince but that doesn’t mean you won’t behave like a devil at the first opportunity.”
“It is a blessing as well as a burden to love so much that you can hurt so badly when love is gone.”
“All that children need is love, a grown-up to take responsibility for them, and a soft place to land.”
“Somewhere in the center of my soul, a rusty chain began to unwind. It freed itself, link by link, from where it had rested, unobserved, waiting for him. My hands, which had been balled up and pressed against his chest, unfurled with it. The chain continued to drop, to an unfathomable depth where there was nothing but darkness and Matthew. At last it snapped to its full length, anchoring me to a vampire. Despite the manuscript, despite the fact that my hands contained enough voltage to run a microwave, and despite the photograph, as long as I was connected to him, I was safe.”
“If the butterfly wings its way to the sweet light that attracts it, it’s only because it doesn’t know that the fire can consume it.”
“there’s nothing more powerful than human fear—not magic, not vampire strength. Nothing.”
“Scholars do one of two things when they discover information that doesn’t fit what they already know. Either they sweep it aside so it doesn’t bring their cherished theories into question or they focus on it with laserlike intensity and try to get to the bottom of the mystery.”
