I have read - The Discovery of Witches

I don’t know actually what it is about this book that makes it so captivating. Really, I don’t. But captivating it is. When trying to explain the story, it sounds rather week and trivial, like a cliché à la Twilight. Okay, perhaps I am not being fair. I have never read the Twilight books so perhaps they are not as bad as I think they are. But I am not sure I will change my mind about them because I doubt I will ever read them. I do rather jealously guard against losing hours of my life never to be regained doing something I am most likely to regret, and would prefer to keep the space in my brain which the words would inevitably occupy for, well, anything else really. Okay, I repeat, perhaps I am not being fair. I’ll stop the Twilight-dishing. This is about what I like about the Discovery of Witches, not why I have not read Twilight. I mention Twilight only because nowadays, if you say “vampire” and “in-love” in the same breath, it seems to automatically equal Twilight. There seems to be a whole generation who seem oblivious to the fact that vampires did love before Twilight.

Anyway, enough digression. In this book, a witch – with the potential to be a very powerful witch of course, nothing less would possibly do – falls in love with a vampire, and of course an incredibly powerful and influential vampire from a very powerful and influential vampire family. And of course, it is a love so strong it is beyond question, beyond challenge. For each other and for their love, they would defy the world and all the hordes of witches and vampires in it. Excuse me a moment while I suppress my gag reflex... I jest, it is really not that bad. Occasionally, it is ever so slightly a bit over the top for my taste. That witches are considered "non-human creatures" is another point that irks me. There could have been a little more restraint exercised in the use of the words witch, vampire and creature throughout the narrative, if you ask me. But really, that is about all that I can come up with which I did not like about the book.

It took me a chapter or two for the little things which irked me to cease interfering with the enjoyment of the book. After that, I was swept along and was captivated. While the all defying love between witch and vampire is at the core of the plot, it is not all that the book is about. By far, not. It is not a story about Diana and Matthew. Rather, it is the story of the world in which Diana and Matthew are in. There is heartache and sorrow, intrigue and suspense, drama and scandal. All intelligently set out in a credible world, a world I got sucked right into. Not only could I not put it down, I couldn’t stop thinking about it afterwards. For days after finishing the book, I was still thinking about the characters and their plight in their world.

Suffice to say, I loved the book and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a tale spun in web of witches and vampires.