Hello everyone!
I'm here with the final installment in the witchy-vampire-y trilogy!
Alright that made almost zero sense, but you'll see what I mean as soon as you start reading the actual blog post, I promise.
Two weeks ago I decided to read and review the first of Deborah Harkness' worldwide bestselling All Souls trilogy, A Discovery of Witches, and then of course I couldn't just put the book down and let the other two rest.
I can do that with certain other series, but this one made it virtually impossible.
There's something about these characters and the world that sucks you right in, which means you're unlikely to resurface before you've made it all the way through and it spits you out the other side.
I did take my time and made it a weekly thing per book, however, otherwise my eyes (and probably my brain) would have gone on strike and fritzed out. But I'm finally finished with the original trilogy now!
So without further ado, let's dive right into The Book of Life.
You'll find links to my previous reviews at the bottom of this page, but very, VERY briefly, the story goes like this:
Diana Bishop, reluctant witch who doesn't want to be a witch, falls in love with vampire Matthew Clairmont, a relationship which is strictly forbidden by the Congregation (and their Covenant). These two don't give a hoot, however, and manage to get entangled in the mystery of Ashmole 782, a manuscript everybody wants, but only Diana seems to be able to call from the library. Because it becomes too dangerous for the two of them to stay put, the couple timewalk back into the 16th century.
There, they learn how to live together (married, natch), how to run a household, how to scheme around royal courts, Diana learns more about her magic and that she's a weaver, which is probably the most powerful witch she can be, and after an unfortunate miscarriage they realize they're pregnant again, this time with twins, just in time for the pair to return home to the present after seeing Ashmole 782 in its whole glory, and also realizing that one of the missing pages came into the possession of Diana's parents.
Now, in the present again, the explosive final installment of the trilogy might as well take off.
At Sept-Tours, mourning the death of Emily who died at the hands of Peter Knox during an interrogation he was conducting, Diana and Matthew get an unwelcome visit from one Baldwin de Clermont, the oldest surviving son of Philippe himself, and current head of the family. Considering the amount of trouble these two have caused him, it's a minor miracle he doesn't just bite them both, but he's civilized - mostly - and only evicts them from the De Clermont family lands.
Another thing under dispute is Diana's position in the family: despite being adopted as blood-sworn daughter of Philippe, one of his surviving children MUST acknowledge the blood vow (surviving children here meaning the ones Philippe himself made), but they don't seem that keen on it, so at the moment it's a status quo, especially since she's also pregnant.
Anyway, knowing when they're not wanted, and with the Congregation about to send a search team to ensure all is well at Sept-Tours (not to mention Ysabeau being taken hostage by Gerbert, something I personally wouldn't look forward to but the matriarch only smiles and wiggles her fingers in excitement about), Diana and Matthew resort to travelling back to America after Oxford isn't a viable option anymore.
Why?
Well, because while everyone around Matthew is trying to convince him to form a scion branch of the De Clermont family to get out from under Baldwin's thumb, the existence of his other son Benjamin comes to life. Benjamin unfortunately inherited Matthew's blood rage after he was turned as punishment for selling the family secrets. Matthew disowned him, but this comes to bite him in the ass when Benjamin contacts his dear old dad, saying he knows what the witches discovered; he also sends a video of a witch he currently has in captivity, and is raping over and over again to impregnate her, but she miscarries every time.
Talk about crazy, right?
Anyway, back home at the Bishop house with a mourning Sarah and one of Matthew's other uncles Fernando (mate to the deceased Hugh De Clermont), the couple land in the middle of a helpful Madison coven who raly around them, and Diana's physical ribbons which she brought with her from the past become part of her during a spell she performs, linking with her fingers and arms. On top of that, her best friend Chris, a biochemist from Yale, arrives unexpectedly and is pulled into the fray of different species (he's annoyed nobody told him about witches, vampires and daemons, who cares they exist?), and into trying to discover more about the DNA research Matthew has been doing for years.
It's imperative they speed up the process because they don't know what the twins will be after they're born - not to mention, Benjamin already threatened to come after Diana, so there's that.
Relocating to the premises of Yale, Diana and Matthew are reunited with people from their past - Andrew Hubbard, an annoying vampire from 16th century London, and their 16th century adopted son Jack, now a vampire, and unfortunately in the grips of blood rage himself; Andrew was turned by Benjamin, and he in turn created Jack. They also bring one of the missing three pages from the manuscript Diana and Matthew are after, but of course good luck can't last long.
What did I say about Baldwin popping up whenever and wherever he wants?
Recognizing blood rage signs in Jack, he orders Matthew to kill the boy, which Diana absolutely forbids. This leaves them with only one option: forming the scion branch, but it will lead to separation as Matthew goes with Marcus, Andrew and Jack to wrangle Marcus's children in New Orleans, and Diana heads to London with Gallowglass, enlisting the help of Hamish along the way (she also gets another of Andrew's orphans as chauffeur, but considering they're related that's actually a good thing, because Andrew also promises there will be help available in London should she need it).
Oh, and did I mention? Ysabeau, receiving news that Diana is en route to London and things are afoot, tells Gerbert she's off - having addicted the vampire to the internet and rumaged around for his secrets, she's now ready to make sure Diana knows everything she needs to run a vampire family.
And also, Ysabeau is just that cool.
The entourage in London grows to include Phoebe, Marcus's fiancée, as well as Sarah and Fernando, and they hunt for the last missing page from the manuscript while the twins continue to grow. They do actually find the page - bought by a daemon Diana met at the Bodleian a year ago. He gives it to her, so now the only thing left is to put the book back together ... that is, unless Benjamin does something first.
Having tracked them down to London, he threatens Phoebe at the library, and despite a visit from the Goddess the previous night, Diana hesitates and doesn't kill him there and then, which would have ended badly if not for Ysabeau being the coolest on the planet and arriving just on time.
Diana's health is also starting to go wonky, and Fernando travels to New Orleans to get Matthew home, which prompts Gallowglass to take his leave - he's been in love with Diana for centuries, and needs to move on. Sadly, this means he misses the birth of twins Rebecca and Philip, and their christening at Sept-Tours ... along with everything else that happens because when has anything ever been peaceful?
Baldwin arrives unnanounced AGAIN (though he WAS invited), at which point Matthew announces he's forming the scion branch, which gets a lot more support from the gathered creatures than expected, though Baldwin isn't convinced. Diana, however, promises to spellbind individuals with blood rage should they become unmanageable, which sort of brings them back to an uneasy truce yet again.
I swear it's like a chess game, I never know who's winning.
Able to be a family for a short time at Les Revenants, the house Ysabeau gave them, this is cut short when Matthew discovers that Benjamin and Gerbert have secretly been going after witches and Ashmole 782 for much longer than anyone else. Having no other choice, he knows he must hunt his son down, which leaves Diana on her own to retrieve the book from Oxford, once and for all, especially as they suspect Knox is also working with Benjamin.
It isn't all that easy, either, but after hitting dead ends all around, Diana learns from a returned Gallowglass that Matthew's been captured by Benjamin, which enables her to get rid of the last of her fear - as the Goddess wanted - release Corra, her firedrake, and free her forever, and retrieve the manuscript, aptly called the Book of Life, as it reveals just why the Covenant was formed.
And, oh, Diana sort of absorbs the book after putting it back together. As you do.
Now finally with everything she needs, Diana is more than willing to go straight to Matthew after arriving at Sept-Tours, but Baldwin takes command as an experienced warrior and arranges the troops as he sees fit: this includes Diana, whom he sends to Venice as the De Clermont representative on the Congregation.
I know: you're thinking, say WHAT?
Here's the deal: right before this last debacle went down, Matthew learned Baldwin had formally accepted Diana as his blood sister. Matthew thought it was because his brother was worried for her - and maybe he was, but my money is that the scheming, experienced chess player Baldwin was pulling a Philippe and ensuring Diana would be able to go to the Congregation, rightly thinking she might be the only one to convince them over certain topics he would never be able to budge.
And they need the Congregation on their side to go after Benjamin, so Diana goes to do what she does best: aka showing everyone she's no longer the frightened woman from the start of this adventure, because she learned from the best (read: Ysabeau and Philippe) and she's ready to throw down.
She not only explains the Benjamin situation, but also reveals the thing with the Book of Life (now inside her), and another witch Janet reveals herself to be the product of a vampire-weaver relation, a well.
And oh, Diana gets her revenge on Satu.
Remember the witch from the first book who tried to open Diana up with magic? (Also hint: one of the witches from the past actually said 'they're opening us up to find the Book of Life' so basically these modern day creatures knew even less than Jon Snow because they didn't understand that a weaver IS the Book) Well, Satu's also a weaver and she's terrified, has been ever since she figured Diana out, but Diana's having none of her selfishness and spellbinds her so she can't do much magic anymore.
Booyah.
Getting the vote from the Congregation afterwards, Diana joins Baldwin & Co in Chelm where they've located Benjamin's compound: Ysabeau recognizes it from photographs of where Philippe was held before he died (and also, Benjamin was the one who tortured Philippe, so, you know, whatever's coming for him, he deserves it). Going in, they first run into Benjamin's vampires, who they dispatch easily, and then into Peter Knox, who Diana literally pulls into threads after he reveals he was the one who killed her parents.
After that, it's only Benjamin left, and needing to save a broken Matthew, Diana uses the arrow gifted to her first by Philippe for her wedding, then by the Goddess as a weapon of justice, and kills the crazy vampire.
All's well that ends well, more or less; returning home to Les Revenants, Matthew slowly but surely heals, while Diana ignores the emails Baldwin sends her. This prompts a hilarious angry outburst from the vampire and ANOTHER one of his unnanounced visits, but Diana's needed with the Congregation again: she has to fight to repeal the Covenant, once and for all. And when Chris and Miriam arrive with scientific proof for what she already knows, she can actually explain it clearly: the Covenant was originally formed because of fear from what would happen if species mixed, creating powerful individuals with traits they didn't understand. It turns out daemons are the key to everything, because weavers are products of daemon-witch relationships, and only humans with daemon DNA trigger the blood rage genome in vampires after they turn; together, they can procreate because both have daemon DNA.
With the Covenant finally dismissed, Baldwin informs Diana that the family has unanimously voted her their representative on the Congregation; Matthew and Diana can live happily ever after with their scion branch of De Clermonts; and we get one last visit from Philippe who, in his ghostly form, presents Diana with the arrow she killed Benjamin with, the one he had been in possession of before gifting it to her, and tells her that she must continue his work of dispensing justice, as the Goddess wishes.
Philippe always knew, you see - Diana was the only one who could do it, just like him.
And the Goddess isn't done with her yet.
But for now ... for now, she and Matthew get a happily ever after (even though Matthew is out of his mind that TWO of his sisters are coming to his birthday party; someone get the man a drink).
THESE BOOKS.
I swear, it's been a long, long time since I've read a trilogy this cohesive, hilarious, enchanting and downright brilliant. I can't even begin to capture all the nuances, I haven't been able to since the first review, but if these have caught your eyes, please, READ THEM.
I promise you, you won't regret it. The humour alone is worth it - I mean who else writes about a house that plays Fleetwood Mac just to annoy its residents??
I'm both excited to have read them all and sad that it's over, the original trilogy, that is. I have yet to read Time's Convert and I do plan on doing just that.
But first I need a bit of a break from weaving and ANSWER YOUR F-ING EMAIL statements.
You need an extra dose of energy to deal with these De Clermonts, I tell you!
xx
*image not mine
No comments:
Post a Comment