The Book of Life: A Novel (All Souls, #3)

by Deborah Harkness

The #1 New York Times bestselling third installment in the All Souls series, from the author of The Discovery of Witches and The Black Bird Oracle.

Look for the hit series “A Discovery of Witches,” now streaming on AMC+, Sundance Now, and Shudder!

Bringing the magic and suspense of the All Souls Trilogy to a deeply satisfying conclusion, this highly anticipated finale went straight to #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. In The Book of Life, Diana and Matthew time-travel back from Elizabethan London to make a dramatic return to the present—facing new crises and old enemies. At Matthew’s ancestral home, Sept-Tours, they reunite with the beloved cast of characters from A Discovery of Witches—with one significant exception. But the real threat to their future has yet to be revealed, and when it is, the search for Ashmole 782 and its missing pages takes on even more urgency.

• ISBN10: 0143127527
• ISBN13: 9780143127529
• Publish Date: 26 May 2015 (first published 15 July 2014)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Penguin Putnam Inc
• Imprint: Penguin USA
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 576
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780143127529

Reviews

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.”

If I knew that the All Souls trilogy focused more on romance before starting it, maybe I would have a different perspective. With romance, I have to like the main characters and their relationship, but that's where this series failed.  

Diana has disappointed me too many times. Matthew gives off a bad aura. Their relationship is borderline toxic. Matthew and Diana are codependent and can barely function without the other. When two lives intertwine, there will naturally be some dependence. However, their relationship is unhealthy and has an exaggerated and dramatic soap opera type of vibe. 

By the end, I'd had enough of Matthew and Diana and everything related to them became ridiculous. They both have a superiority complex and expect others to do what they say without question or opposition. It doesn't help that Harkness puts them both on pedestals.

Diana is the queen of Mary Sues. She's an extremely powerful witch and while her abilities are interesting, they are vague and difficult to visualise. Throughout this series and especially in The Book of Life, she keeps on gaining unique abilities and can do any type of magic. It feels deus ex machina. Also, guess what Diana's sacrifice to the goddess is? It's her sense of fear.

[pamela]

Well, I finally managed to make it through The Book of Life, and thus, to the end of Deborah Harkness’ All Souls Trilogy. I had to force myself to finish it, and given that I had two over 30-hour flights within 7 days (including waiting at airports) that should give you an idea of how much I was just not into this book.

The Book of Life was not as bad as Shadow of Night, but it was still absolutely dull and insipid. It starts off with two characters who could be an interesting addition but never appear again throughout the book except as passing mentions from other characters, and a new character is mentioned in the very last pages of the series! The pacing was just all wrong. This whole series should have been interesting and exciting, but it was just boring, with a plodding plot, and nonsensical worldbuilding. I honestly don’t understand what people see in these books.

“Vote?” Matthew said, incredulous. “Since when did we vote in this family?” “Since Marcus took over the Knights of Lazarus,” Gallowglass replied, drawing a silver lighter from his pocket. “We’ve been choking on democracy since the day you left.”

By this book, it seems that Harkness had realised that first person wasn’t really working for her writing style, and so The Book of Life is filled with switching points of view. We still get Diana’s utterly insipid narration, but now we also switch to an omniscient narrator to talk about all the other characters. Including dead ones! Because of the inclusion of characters who had been killed off in previous books, the whole thing felt bloated with unnecessary voices and personalities. Characters who had no appearance in the last book suddenly popped up again and were apparently necessary, and characters who had only briefly been introduced for a page or two during the last book all of a sudden became central characters. There was no development and no reason for me to care about any of these characters in the slightest.

The worldbuilding was practically non-existent. From the beginning of the series, we’re told that it’s incredibly important to keep humans in the dark about the existence of creatures, and secrecy is paramount. But within the first few pages, Diana and Matthew are telling absolutely everyone about everything while still maintaining that it has to be a secret. The time travel element of the previous book also wholly failed in The Book of Life. There are suggestions that Diana and Matthew changed the past with new historical artefacts appearing, however, given that the characters of the book who were alive in the past all had memories of Diana and Matthew being there, this shows that the past simply became the past. There would have been no changes appearing in the present, as the past was one that had already happened, meaning those artefacts would simply have already existed in the historical record. No thought went into the internal logic of this book at all!

From a character point of view, Diana’s job is to be pregnant, Matthew’s job is to be an overprotective asshole (but he’s apparently an asshole for medical reasons, so that’s ok?). And don’t even get me started on the absolutely unnecessary and unbelievable love triangle that exists solely to show what a special flower Diana is. (Although I must say that there was more connection in the two paragraphs Diana spent on the unrequited love than there was in a single page of her romance with Matthew).

“I watched in silence as the parts of Matthew I knew and loved—the poet and the scientist, the warrior and the spy, the Renaissance prince and the father—fell away until only the darkest, most forbidding part of him remained. He was only the assassin now. But he was still the man I loved.”

Then we come to the central premise of the whole series. Ashmole 782. I nearly smashed my kindle, throwing it across the airport when I came to the culmination of searching for that blasted book. The search for the book should have been the primary plot point, but it always ran second to Diana and Matthew’s romance for the entire series, but to have it culminate in such a completely unoriginal, and idiotic way just made me rage. I can’t talk about it without spoiling it, but suffice to say it was awful.

Honestly, I could go into detail about the meandering plot (full of plot holes), the utterly contrived romance, the weak characterisation, and lacklustre worldbuilding, but I’d be here all day. Suffice it to say, I just don’t understand why people love these books. I could forgive the plot holes and poorly conceived character arcs if it were a fun read. But it wasn’t. It was just boring. If you like your men abusive, and your women pregnant and submissive, then this might be the series for you. But if you want more out of your reading material, I’d recommend you read just about anything else.

[littleread1]

While this series is great, I don't know all the history referenced, and all the historical figures mentioned. I think that made it lose some of it's impact for me. Still a great story though.

[elysium]

I don’t really know what to say… I really loved this series and I’m sad that it ends here.

Diana and Matthew are back in the present from Tudor time and Diana is pregnant with twins. Matthew is still trying to find a way to cure blood rage.

All that lab work and DNA thing went way over my head again, but it was still fascinating stuff. And the nerd in me really loves that they’re historian and scientist so we get along with their researching,

Diana finally grows into her magic here and is less afraid to use it. Thankfully while being pregnant she’s still doing stuff so her chapters are never boring.

We meet new and old characters and I really loved Fernando and Gallowglass. Okay, maybe I had little crush on him… I would have liked to know what happens to him in the end because that was left open.

The bad guy of the book is Matthew’s son Benjamin who also has blood rage. Now who wouldn’t like a villain who kills, tortures and rapes to get his vengeance? He was crazy enough to be a perfect villain.

[MurderByDeath]

The story is a re-read for me, and as an audiobook I thought it was excellent: Jennifer Ikeda did a wonderful job with all the characters. A great story to get lost in while sitting in traffic.

[Melanie]

My review and an extended sample of the audiobook are posted at Hotlistens.com.

4.5 stars for story
4.5 stars for narration
4.5 stars overall

This is the highly anticipated, final installment of All Souls Trilogy by Deborah Harkness. This is a book that you cannot read without reading the first two books of the the series. You would be completely lost. The entire series is wonderful, so I reading or listening to books one and two is no hardship, especially now that you can do the entire thing start to finish.

We start with Diana and Matthew returning to the present, but that doesn't mean things go back to normal. There is still a lot going on. If anything, things are much more stressful for the historian witch, scientist vampire and their family and friends. Ms. Harkness creates some wonderful characters, whether they are ally or villain. I'm of the belief that characters make the story, and Harkness helps to prove my theory with this trilogy. Her good guys are not all good, you can see their struggles and the complexities. The villains are so well developed and give new meaning to psychopaths. I mean, Benjamin could give Hannibal Lecter a run for his money.

The story was wonderful, with secrets, danger, magic, hope, fear, politics and more. We watch as Diana really comes into her own with her magic. Matthew takes on more responsibility for the family, as does Diana. Each character has their own part to play in the story. We learn about the history of creatures and Ashmole 782, also known as The Book of Life and other names.

I will say that going into this book, I was a little worried about how the trilogy would wrap up. I've read several great books, where the first part of the series was wonderful, but the wrap up to the series left a lot to be desired. This is NOT the case with this book. The trilogy wraps up pretty well overall. I still had a few questions that I felt were left unanswered, but they were small. Overall, I felt that the series answered the vast majority of the large questions. I couldn't have asked for a better ending.

Narration
The narration is great. I've listened to this series from the beginning, so Jennifer Ikeda has always been the voice for Diana, Matthew and the gang. It was great to have her bringing these great characters to life again. I think I liked Gallowglass's voice the best, but then, I've always had a thing for Scottish accents. She did a great job with both male and female voices, and yes, even male Scottish voices. There is also a bunch of French that was pronounced very well, at least to my non-French speaking ears.

[tweetybugshouse]

Wow i loved this book as much as i love the other two in the series. If you follow me on facebook you can see all the quoutes i had to share. Their where tears of joy, laughter and a satisfying thrill as i read the last words in the book. Their are hints that their still more story to tell and who knows maybe the author will create a spin off with tales of the twins and where all the revelations from this trilogy will take Diana and her new Scion. I stop gushing now for fear i will spoil it for you. Great trilogy.

[kimbacaffeinate]

One-hundred-percent spoiler free review.

Our journey in The Book of Life takes us from the Clairmont’s ancestral home Sept-Tours to the Americas, London and more. Matthew is dealing with his blood rage. Diana is continuing to learn her skills as a witch and tensions are high with the council.  Now more than ever finding Ashmole 782 and its missing pages is imperative.  Harkness weaves a tale full of suspense, tension, darkness and danger. Then she cleverly weaves in romance, magic, and hope.  The characters surrounding our couple were unique and added depth to the story. I adored them from the villains to their closest confidants. The growth we see Diana is truly a thing to behold as she embraces who she is. Matthew is noble, and his love for her unending.

I am in awe of Deborah Harkness and her vivid imaginations. The Book of Life, as well as the rest of the series, is beautifully crafted from the imagery to the character growth and emotions. I have heard others say parts could have been omitted, but I would not trade one word, one scene, one kiss. The movie rights have been purchased, and if they are able to bring even a fraction of the magic to the big screen, I will be delighted. The novel while well over five hundred pages flew by as I slipped into this world. Attempts to savor it were hopeless as I found myself needing just one more chapter. It was a deeply satisfying journey and one I won’t soon forget.

I was quite curious as to how Harkness would solve many of the obstacles Diana, and Matthew faced and in the end I found it to be brilliant, and satisfying. I closed this with mixed emotions. I was deeply pleased with the outcome but sadden to part ways with these characters and their world.

Copy received from publisher in exchange for unbiased review.This review was originally posted at Caffeinated Book Reviewer