A Quick Note On This Review: This article includes affiliate links to Bookshop.org as a way of supporting both local bookshops and my own ability to write.
Additional note: there are spoilers ahead if you haven’t read A Discovery of Witches before this review.
Diana Bishop and Matthew Clairmont are on the run from their enemies through the annals of history, and their search for both safety and Ashmole 782 has led them to Elizabethan London. While there, they encounter spies, courtiers, and intrigue as they work with Matthews old friends in the School of Night to uncover a path to better understanding the nature of Diana’s magic and the importance of Ashmole 782 to the people who covet its secrets in their own time. With witch hunts taking place across the British Isles, though, trying to get answers is a lot harder and more heartbreaking than either of them could have imagined.
Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness, the second book in the All Souls series, builds on the atmospheric start that A Discovery of Witches was able to initiate. The focus is predictably on Diana and Matthew’s relationship, but Harkness’s expansion of the setting of their trials and tribulations has enabled a wider cast of characters to become available to her as a storyteller. In some ways, the historical richness of the cast and setting creates a risk that the reader could become a bit more enamored with the technical aspects of her ability to write historical fiction than the main plot itself, but Harkness did manage to maintain the plot focus as she progressed through the story by weaving everything into the relationship between Diana and Matthew.
Unlike a more traditional romance novel that may lean more into the nostalgic elements of a period, Harkness’s Shadow of Night integrates a bit more authenticity to the interactions Diana and Matthew have with the Elizabethan period than romance, especially with regards to hygiene, medicine, and the like. Additionally, Harkness does a solid job of using the strife common in romantic relationships as a way of holding the reader’s attention as the cast roams across the historical period.
For casual readers, Shadow of Night offers an interesting continuation of A Discovery of Witches, which would make it ideally suited for those who were intrigued by Harkness’s atmospheric world building around folkloric monsters, but it would also appeal to anyone who enjoys reading about the fallibility of human relationships. While it’s clear to the readers that Diana and Matthew have a lot of love between them, there are conflicts and disagreements that mirror real-life struggles with communication and compromise between partners that is reminiscent of Anna Karenina by Tolstoy, if a little more dramatic to appeal to a modern audience. Yet, these disagreements don’t tend to stray into the realm of the over dramatic, making it an ideal option for anyone interested in such a balance.
For writers, Shadow of Night offers additional insights into how to create an atmospheric landscape for characters that’s both familiar and new, much the way A Discovery of Witches had. In addition to this feature of the book, Shadow of Night offers a useful template for writers who are looking to explore time travel in their own stories, as Harkness uses an understated approach to identify moments where history is changed by too much meddling, even if that meddling is simply existing outside of your preordained place in history.
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What’s Next?
I am an avid reader and have quite a few thoughts on how some books could benefit both people that want to be entertained and those looking to sharpen their literary skills.
If you’re interested in finding out more about what I’ve been reading – and how it could benefit you – I will be publishing those thoughts on a weekly basis. Check back next week for a discussion of Melissa Caruso’s The Tethered Mage!
The Writerly Review 