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Empty Nest Update

I have been in a reading slump. You might remember that I spent most of the year preparing for an empty nest. I was really worried about what life held for me when I no longer had kids at home. When the time came, I took it pretty well. This was largely due to prepping and planning and important connections with people who made sure I had plans on my calendar. The kid, on the other hand, did not fare so well and will be moving home in December to consider Plan B.

Disappointment happens. I went to six colleges before I finished my degree. This is just a bump in the road, and the empty nest was a trial run for both of us. I will continue to take my tap dance classes and other activities and hopefully get back to reading and blogging. As I said, I did better than I expected, but that’s not to say I haven’t been depressed. While I kept myself busy with “out of the house” and “off the couch” activities, I have had zero motivation to read. What is the diagnosis for that? Very out of character for me, but I understood it to be a phase that would quickly pass.

Back to Books

How to get back to reading again? Through connections. I’m in two book clubs, but I haven’t read recent selections for either one. My tap class conflicts with sci fi book club, and I am the only person in the class with zero experience, so it’s hard for me to miss to go to book club — especially when I haven’t read the book. If book club doesn’t motivate me to read, what will?

As I mentioned in this blog, I have lost 100 lbs. This is a delightful state to be in, but it does come with some challenges. I joined a group that is supporting each other around one specific challenge, and one person in the group read a book and suggested it to another person, and she shared it with the group, and the next thing you know, several people, myself included, are reading A Discovery of Witches.

Witches, Vampires, and Daemons – oh my!

When I checked into Goodreads to say I was reading this book I saw a review mentioning an Anne Rice shoutout, so I was excited to dig into this book. I also noticed that some reviewers on Goodreads were not so impressed. As for me, I quickly began to judge A Discovery of Witches rather harshly. I thought it was ridiculous that they refer to non-supernatural folks as “humans.” I think most lore considers witches and vampires to be human, or at least formerly human, so something about calling regular muggle-types “human” just set my teeth on edge. I was also a little irritated by the vampire yoga class. I love vampires, and I love yoga, and I might even love vampire yoga in some cases. It just didn’t work for me here. I was also a little miffed that the main character is a witch who tries to hide her witchiness. That just seemed overdone to me.

Then I watched The Hate U Give at the theater and saw some parallels between Discovery’s main witch Diana and Starr: both hide their true selves in their academic environment. Most of us can probably relate to some area of our lives where we have to act out of alignment with what we consider to be our true selves. Some cases are more extreme than others. In THUG Starr reveals that she can’t be truly herself at school or at home. That is heartbreaking, because most of us have some safe space to let our hair down and be authentic. One of these spaces for me is the support group that told me about this book. Other safe spaces are my Moonlight Ladies group and my Slightly Off-Kilter Women’s Group (originally a book and craft club.) Then, of course, I can be my obnoxious morning- person self at home.

I am truly blessed to have so many spaces that I don’t have to hide my witchiness. As evidence of said witchiness, here’s a picture of me wearing my combat boots and granny shawl to junior prom. This photo has been likened to the movie poster from The Craft. My two friends have been cropped out for privacy, but I assure you, we just needed a fourth to complete our version of the movie poster.

Inter-Species Romance

In addition to the complication of Diana trying to deny her witchy side, there is an even larger theme in this series regarding forbidden relationships. Some of these are relationships between the different “species,” but then there is the same sex relationship of Diana’s aunt Sarah and her partner Emily. One of the primary conflicts in the series is set up to be the quest to ensure that all consenting relationships are respected and the “powers that be” keep their authority out of personal relationships. Which brings me to one of the problems I have with this book… the entire romantic relationship between Diana and Matthew.

Mild spoilers ahead, so skip to the next paragraph if you don’t want anything at all spoiled. I don’t know if knowing these tidbits will ruin the book for anyone, but just in case, you have been warned. So… about the relationship… I don’t like it. First of all, there was not even a trace of will they?/won’t they? Very little here raises the steam factor, in my opinion. Then there’s the fact that he breaks into her apartment and watches her sleep. Not cool, dude. Then (and this is where things started to really irritate me) there’s the scene where Matthew says that Diana is far from being a damsel in distress which is immediately followed by her literally puking and crying on the floor. Seriously??!! But let’s get to the kicker… This guy has the ever-loving nerve to – get this – declare himself married to Diana – without her consent. He literally shows up, says “I love you,” and then they are married. What. The. Actual. Anyway… they don’t just breeze over it. At least the book does acknowledge that to be a little complicated. But she loves him. So it’s okay. Right? (NO.) Then there are the countless number of times that Matthew “commands” or “demands.” That language nearly sent me into a screaming rage. And usually only my husband makes me that mad. (JK, I love you!) (But sometimes, for real, y’all.) Let me just say that Diana and Matthew are not my OTP, and we can move on. I would like to give a shout out to Sophie and Nathaniel. I am a much bigger fan of their relationship and hope to see more of them. Of course, I love Sarah and Emily, too. It’s just Diana and Matthew that I can’t stomach.

Carry On

The relationships between the different “species” are likely the crux of this whole series, which brings me to another point. I definitely believe I have to read the rest of this series before I make a final call on how much I like it. I am willing to give Diana and Matthew a chance to grow and change. Maybe all of this stuff was meant to put a bee in my bonnet so they would have wonderful opportunities for character development. A Discovery of Witches is not meant to be read on its own. It is Book One of a trilogy (with spin-offs.) Sometimes a Book One can stand alone. I don’t think this one does. Despite the issues I had with the first book, I have checked out the second one from the library. I do want to know what happens next. I particularly want to meet one of the characters in the second book. I want to learn more about the alchemy and the species stuff. I am just going to have to take the romance of the leading characters with a grain of salt and a few cloves of garlic.

If you read the book, please let me know what you thought. Give fair warning if your comment includes spoilers, especially if you discuss something past Book One. Besides this one, do you have a favorite witch or vampire series?

Please share!