Reviews tagging 'Death'

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

48 reviews

laurenleigh's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I unknowingly sat behind this author at a Leigh Bardugo book signing! Thank goodness Leigh posted a pic of them together with a tag so I could discover this book. I love me some witches, demons, and vampires, oh my! My favorite aspect is the scholarly slant. Our main characters are professors and researchers, and Harkness has clearly done a ton of research herself. I loved the depth and complexity this gave to the story! I hesitated when I saw it compared to Outlander(ew), but I see they have a similar episodic story structure. I sometimes struggle when a love connection turns so deep so fast, but who am I to argue with some star-crossed lovers? Definitely recommend you give this a chance if you like magical fantasy and adventure!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Medical content, Death of parent, Murder, and Death

discogecko's review

Couldn't get past the evolution and genetics explanations... They're not accurate. Dislike the protagonist.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Stalking, Blood, and Death of parent

kat1105's review against another edition

adventurous emotional lighthearted mysterious relaxing fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Violence, Gore, Pregnancy, Panic attacks/disorders, Animal death, Blood, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Torture, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: War and Sexual content

ruthee's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

Unlike others, I didn’t actually mine the pace or world-building…but the abusive relationship (red flag, after red flag, after red flag) framed as ‘that’s just the way vampires are, and my love is enough’ was so bad it just kept taking me out of the story. 

It’s not often (if ever) that I completely prefer a tv or film adaptation to the original material, but in this case, my love of the tv series was what got me through this. 

In audiobook, the narrator was good, except when it came to any accent that wasn’t their own. The English/Scottish/Australian ones ranged between literally lol to offensive…so strange for a professionally produced book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Blood, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Animal death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Stalking, Toxic relationship, Death, Gaslighting, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexism

sophieamreacher's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

This book took me a while to get through but I didn’t mind. I loved the first third and the last third but the middle was a bit lacking. Felt like an adult dark academia version of twilight which I loved.

I wished Diana had kept some independence though.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Death, Violence, and Blood

karly_ackley's review against another edition

adventurous informative mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Death

Moderate: Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, and War

mloschi's review

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Good fantasy, with interesting world building and mystery. I liked the dark academia setting. I felt like conflicts within the plot happened and resolved very (almost too) quickly. But overall a good book for some escapism. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood and Torture

Minor: Child death, Misogyny, Death, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Sexual content

maggies's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Started reading the series primarily because I want to watch the show, and now I'm even more excited to keep reading the series! I think it might have benefitted from some editing down—lots of repetition of the same sentiment or even sentence in just a few paragraphs, for example—but overall a really engaging fantasy story. The world of the witches, vampires, and daemons is laid out for readers as Diana learns the details, which is a simple and effective trick for this kind of world-building. Docked a star because it's just not believable to me that the entire book takes place over less than two months.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Death, Death of parent, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Confinement

Moderate: Toxic relationship and Stalking

Minor: Xenophobia and War

baearles's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Murder, Stalking, Toxic relationship, War, and Pregnancy

hazelgirl21's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, and Body horror

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury