I picked up this book for two reasons.
1. It has Witches in the title. Fantasy is probably my favorite genre. My main reason for reading is to escape real life. Fantasy is the complete opposite of real life on the surface. We won’t get into how Fantasy often tends to mirror life in some scary-accurate ways. My point is, I like that Fantasy is not real life.
Reason number 2. I saw that it was a TV Series. Almost always, if I know a movie or TV show was based on a book, I will read the book first.
As much as I like Fantasy, and enemy-turned-lover stories, the first 100 pages of this book took me way too long to get through. It is entirely possible that I just haven’t been in the mood to immerse myself into a story (it happens to the best of us) and maybe that is because I haven’t had the desperate need to escape life lately. Still, the book had a slow beginning. Not slow enough for me to stop reading though.
The Novel
A Discovery of Witches follows Diana Bishop, a historian researching alchemy at Oxford. There she meets Matthew Clairmont, a doctor/ scientist… and he’s also a vampire. Diana, herself is a witch from a powerful family, though she (at first) does not practice magic.
Matthew Clairmont and many other “creatures” (there are also daemons in this world, though it’s not super clear on how they differ from humans other than they can be extremely intelligent) watch Diana because they are interested in her discovery of a long-lost manuscript dubbed Ashmole 782. Some think it has the answers to the origins of the three non-human species.
It is taught to all creatures that species shouldn’t mix, even in friendship, but Matthew is intrigued by Diana and can’t seem to stay away from her. Diana finds herself drawn to Matthew as well, and despite both of them resisting it at first, the two soon fall in love. The other creatures of the world are less than pleased at their union.
The Congregation, a council of three witches, three vampires and three daemons, try to kidnap and even kill Diana. She learns that the Ashmole 782, and her relationship with a vampire are not the only reasons they want her. Diana’s parents, dead almost 30 years, had put a binding spell on their daughter and only now, her power is starting to manifest powerfully, and the Congregation feels threatened by this power.
We meet Matthew’s family and learn of his association with the Knights of Lazarus. We meet Diana’s aunts and their quirky magic house. We meet a few daemons, and they all form an alliance to go to war against the Congregation.
Okay, so… a vampire falls in love with a non-vampire, even though he tries not to… trouble ensues because of their union… family gets involved… Female lead ends up having superpowers of her own… going to war against the overseers… Sounds a bit like another popular novel series from a few years ago. And in my opinion, not as good. While reading A Discovery of Witches, I felt like the author tried too hard to make an adult Twilight. Now, I love the Twilight series (the books) and possibly I was just not willing to give A Discovery of Witches it’s fair chance, but I couldn’t help but feel unimpressed.
Matthew was a thousand-year-old vampire, and Diana was a historian, so you expect some history to be in this story, but it felt like the author threw bits and pieces of history throughout the book randomly, almost as an afterthought.
When Diana starts using magic, it’s hard to picture what exactly is happening. I can see how the author would want to be unique, making Diana’s magic very different from what is seen in other magical novels, but I couldn’t quite get a handle on what Diana was doing, or what she was intending. For most of the book, Diana actively tries not to use magic, and the story is told from her perspective, so when the magic does happen, she doesn’t know what’s going on herself. Written that way, it’s hard for the reader to picture it. At the end of the book, one piece of magic breaks a rule that I could not get past. When creating a fantasy world, you get to make your own rules, I get that, but they have to be believable. They rules have to make sense, and the magic at the end does not make sense.
A Discovery of Witches was easy enough to read, and I did appreciate the fact that the characters were older, even if it seemed a little late in life for a coming-of-age type story. I appreciate and respect the work the author put into her creation. I also like that Diana was an academic, though aside from history and alchemy, she didn’t seem to exercise her brain too much. (I mean, an academic in her situation would have questioned her parents’ deaths and researched magic, even if she wasn’t planning to use it.) The storyline of the alchemy and how it all plays into Diana’s past and power intrigues me… but not enough to read the next book. At least not yet. I may give it a try down the road.
The TV series
Seasons 1-3 are available on DVD. I checked out season 1 from my local library. This review is based on season 1 only.
Interesting enough, actress, Teresa Palmer as Diana Bishop looks similar to Kristen Stewart as Bella Swan in Twilight. Part of it is she looks a lot younger than the character was portrayed in the book. Looks is where the similarity ends because Teresa’s acting is great, though as the season went on, I did get tired of her voice. Matthew Goode is a wonderful choice for the vampire, dark and regal and quietly sexy. I absolutely love Alex Kingston as Aunt Sarah. I hadn’t thought of her while I was reading the book, but the moment I saw Alex on screen, I thought, “Yes! Perfect!” She will forever be one of my favorite actresses and fits this role amazingly.
The TV series followed the plot of the book nicely, with only a few major changes. One way the on-screen story line differed from the novel is, in the book Gillian was not a friend of Diana’s but just a fellow witch that was somewhat annoying to her. I can see why the show would make Gillian and Diana’s relationship closer, however, because we need to hear Diana’s inner dialogue, and that’s easier if she’s talking about her thoughts and feelings with another character. Another change was the series gave screen time to the Congregation. It was a good way to tell us watching about the Congregation, instead of the other characters just explaining it, and it also let us see the development of why they were going after Diana.
One thing I was hoping they would change but didn’t, was the magic at the end that didn’t follow the rules. Matthew sort of explained it, but not to my satisfaction. It is possible things will make sense during book 2 and season 2, but I’m not sure if I enjoyed it enough to continue.
The environment and imagery on-screen are beautiful and very similar to how I pictured in my head. The way the show portrayed the opening of the Ashmole 782 manuscript was great, allowing us to understand the importance of the book faster than how the novel did. I liked the way they showed Diana’s magic manifest as well. The tense relationship of the main characters, one thing that was decently described in the book, was equally enjoyable on screen.
Usually, the book is better because it has so much more information, but in this case, I don’t think that’s true. First of all, in a TV series, you can put more information on screen than you can in a movie, but also, the visuals in this story are important and well done on screen. In the book, it was harder to visualize and understand exactly what was going on, but on-screen it all made sense. The few things the show changed from how the book was written are understandable, and even a little better. The only criticism I can find is that the show is a little slow, as was the book, and I found myself falling asleep during one episode.
Conclusion – A Discovery Of Witches: Book vs TV Show
Overall, I think the TV series was done as closely to the novel as you could get, and even improved a few things. If I was to give a rating out of 5 stars, I’ll give the book 3 stars and the TV series 3 ½ stars. But don’t take my word for it. Read and watch for yourself. Let me know what you think.