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Bryn

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Bryn is currently reading

Xenocide (Ender's Saga, #3)

by Orson Scott Card

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May 01, 2013 12:34PM

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A Discovery of Witches (All Souls, #1)

by Deborah Harkness (Goodreads Author)

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Bryn said: " I've just started this book, so I'll update my review along the way. Just a few thoughts so far...

I think, overall, I will enjoy this story. It's fun, light, escapist stuff. It involves history, alchemy, science, DNA, romance... all things that inter I've just started this book, so I'll update my review along the way. Just a few thoughts so far...

I think, overall, I will enjoy this story. It's fun, light, escapist stuff. It involves history, alchemy, science, DNA, romance... all things that interest me.

However, there is one thing that has really bothered me right from the beginning. Diana Bishop is a total (gag, barf) dream-stealer (AKA Mary Sue). Not only is she a powerful witch, she's insanely brilliant, has a photographic memory, she's tenured at Yale and is an Oxford alumnus, AND she's beautiful, athletic, well-traveled, and rich. I just can't relate to a perfect person (who is clearly the author plus everything she ever wanted to be). And I'm supposed to be sympathetic to this perfect person's problems? Puh-lease. Her biggest problem is that she's TOO powerful... and she has frizzy hair (but only because she doesn't use her magic enough). Aw, poor Diana, she doesn't want to have magical powers. Boo-hoo. Her character gives me the kind of goose-bumps you get from fingernails trailing across a chalk board.

I've often heard this novel called a "Twilight" for adults, and it's pretty obvious why. But at least I could relate to imperfect, awkward Bella.

I've just been introduced to Matthew, and I hope he might actually have a flaw or two, but I have the feeling he will be just as nauseatingly perfect as his female counterpart.

UPDATE:

Matthew is as I feared. Thus far, his biggest problem is that his house is TOO BIG, so he lives in the gatehouse and lets his yoga instructor live in the main house (huh?).

This story is gratting on my nerves more and more. The author has written a personal daydream that invloves everything she ever wanted to be and everything she has ever been interested in. I have to dig and dig to find the plot, because the author is too busy daydreaming about things that have nothing to do with the story: like running, rowing, wine, and yoga. While the author may love physical activites, it is extremely boring to sit through a five minutes desicription of a woman rowing a boat, only to have to sit through another overly detailed description of a yoga class. I love yoga as much as the next person, but this is just the author daydreaming about things she likes to do, and it completely detracts from the story.

I've read in many other reviews how "great" the writing is... except it isn't. The prose sounds just as contrived as Diana's brilliance + athletic prowess + witch power + everything awsome and perfect.

To be fair, I would probably like this novel slightly better if I was reading the paper version instead of listening to the audiobook. The narrator does the worst Brittish accents I have ever heard (though her Australian and Indian aren't too bad). Her inflection when speaking in Diana's voice is reminicent of a woman who spends all her breath bragging about her Mensa membership and trying to convince you that she is "totally down-to-earth." Again I say: puh-lease. ...more "

Aug 02, 2012 12:40PM · see review