Genre Search: Urban Fantasy – A Discovery of Witches (All Souls Trilogy #1) by Deborah Harkness

I found A Discovery of Witches on Sundance after it was heavily advertised on Twitter and Facebook. (So, yes, ads work, LOL)

I got a month’s subscription of Sundance and began to watch it. Initially, I enjoyed that the characters were just regular people with one tiny difference – one was a witch, the other a vampire. I learned there are vampires, witches, and demons in this series and that none of them were crazy lunatics like in other books I’ve read. On the contrary, they were all rational beings who were basically human with extraordinary abilities.

I didn’t finish season 1. Instead, I got the audiobook.

Being supernatural creatures in the human world, I consider this Urban Fantasy.

So, I decided to give the book a try to compare it to my own series (which is part of my experiment with audiobooks).

I must say I was a little disappointed.

The book was too long. Longer than it needed to be. There was some action, but it took forever to come and even so, there are really two scenes of real threat to the main characters. Most of the time, the two protagonists just talk and talk and talk. I don’t mind talking, but I thought it was too much it felt mundane. It didn’t really advance the plot.

It is an audiobook, so I would just let it run. I thought about something else half the time and I found, when I focused on the story again, I hadn’t missed anything. The book ends in a cliffhanger, but I don’t think I have the stamina (or time) to go through another set of characters talking aimlessly again. I think I will leave the story where it ended and move on.

I know my own series starts slow. I know the introduction to my universe takes a while. In a way, it is like A Discovery of Witches. Although, I do think whatever happens with my protagonists happens for a reason and at all times the plot moves forward. In The Recruit, awkward Rebecca needs to get curious enough about our werewolf hunter to decide to go become one herself, and that is a process. Then, she has to get to know the vampire-filled place she will be working with and train to become a werewolf hunter. It needs to happen. 

But, alas. That is my review of A Discovery of Witches.