History Literature / ADiscoveryofWitches

* ThemeNaming: Diana and Phoebe, both moon goddesses. Rebecca, Sarah, Emily are traditional names. Philippe (the French form of Philip), Baldwin, Matthew, Hugh, Benjamin, Andrew, Marcus, Miriam, Ysabeau (a variant of Elizabeth), Peter, Margaret and Steven (a variant of Stephen) are all Biblical names

* ParentalFavoritism: Ysabeau outright states that Matthew is her favorite son.

* CastHerd: The series edges into LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters as the third book runs along. Some groups include the de Clermont family, the Madison coven, the London coven, the women of the Mala Strada, the Conventicle members, and, of course, the School of Night itself.

* VampiresAreRich: Played straight with the de Claremont family.
* WitchSpecies: Witchcraft and power distribution are hereditary. It can skip a generation, as with Sophie, who is a demon, but her daughter with Nathaniel (also a demon) is a witch.

* NonHumanHumanoidHybrid: What could result if [[spoiler: Diana and Matthew have a child. If Ashmole 782 is correct, this could be the solution to the problem of creatures dying out.]]

* LawOfInverseFertility: [[spoiler:Vampires aren't supposed to be able to sire children, but due to Diana being a Weaver, a witch who creates new spells, Matthew and Diana are able to conceive. Subverted in that Diana miscarries their first child. Then she has twins.]]

** [[spoiler: Rebecca and Stephen would have also had Diana and her twin brother if not for Vanishing Twin Syndrome
** Ysabeau also made twins Louis and Louisa]]

* InterspeciesRomance: Between Matthew, a vampire and Diana, a witch.

* LawOfInverseFertility: [[spoiler:Vampires aren't supposed to be able to sire children, but due to Diana being a Weaver, a witch who creates new spells, Matthew and Diana are able to conceive. Subverted in that Diana miscarries their first child.]]

* MuggleBornOfMages: Sophie is a subversion of this: she comes from a long line of witches, but she herself is a daemon. And, although she and her husband are daemons, she know her child will be a witch.

** [[spoiler: Rebecca and Stephen would have also had Diana and her twin brother if not for Vanishing Twin Syndrome]]

* WitchSpecies: Witchcraft and power distribution are hereditary.

** The TV show averts this a bit more with [[spoiler: Emily Mather being black, as a descendant of Tituba.]]

* TroubledFetalPosition: Subverted, in a downplayed fashion. When attending yoga with Matthew, Diana has a hard time struggling with the pose of lying on her back with her eyes closed. (It's implied it reminds her heavily of [[spoiler: her parents' murder.]]) Amira, the yoga instructor, tells her that pose isn't for her and that she should curl into a fetal position, which is a great deal more soothing.

Chief among the creatures who gather around Diana is vampire Matthew Clairmont, a geneticist with a passion for Darwin. Together, Diana and Matthew embark on a journey to understand the manuscript’s secrets. But the relationship that develops between the ages-old vampire and the spellbound witch threatens to unravel the fragile peace that has long existed between creatures and humans—and will certainly transform Diana’s world as well.

--> “I don’t like this one bit,” my aunt finally said in a tone that suggested that the world was falling apart. “Bewitched books? Daemons following you? Vampires taking you to yoga? Witches threatening a Bishop?"

* [[spoiler:Fantasy Contraception]]: [[spoiler:Diana]] is given a tea full of herbs (parsley, ginger, feverfew, rosemary, sage, mugwort, Queen AnneÂ’s lace seeds, pennyroyal, angelica, rue, tansy, and juniper root)

* GossipyHens: The women of the Malá Strana. It proves useful.

Chief among the creatures who gather around Diana is vampire Matthew Clairmont, a geneticist with a passion for Darwin. Together, Diana and Matthew embark on a journey to understand the manuscript’s secrets. But the relationship that develops between the ages-old vampire and the spellbound witch threatens to unravel the fragile peace that has long existed between creatures and humans—and will certainly transform Diana’s world as well.

--> “I don’t like this one bit,” my aunt finally said in a tone that suggested that the world was falling apart. “Bewitched books? Daemons following you? Vampires taking you to yoga? Witches threatening a Bishop?"

* [[spoiler:Fantasy Contraception]]: [[spoiler:Diana]] is given a tea full of herbs (parsley, ginger, feverfew, rosemary, sage, mugwort, Queen Anne’s lace seeds, pennyroyal, angelica, rue, tansy, and juniper root)

* GossipyHens: The women of the Malá Strana. It proves useful.

As of 2017, Harkness was working on another series involving the characters, taking place about two years after "The Book Of Life" the first of which was going to be "The Serpent's Mirror" is due out in 2018. However, she eventually switched to working on "Time's Convert", still taking place two years after "The Book of Life" but focusing on Marcus.

The book series is also going to be made into a TV series.

* MonochromeCasting: Despite having characters from all over the world, the series only averts this slightly with Osamu a Japanese member of the Congregation, Juliette Durand, and we find in Time's Convert that [[spoiler:[[https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/539177/times-convert-by-deborah-harkness/#excerpt Phoebe's mother is Indian.]]]]

* MonochromeCasting: Despite having characters from all over the world, the series only averts this slightly with Osamu a Japanese member of the Congregation, and we find in Time's Convert that [[spoiler:[[https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/539177/times-convert-by-deborah-harkness/#excerpt Phoebe's mother is Indian.]]]]

As of 2017, Harkness is working on another series involving the characters, taking place about two years after "The Book Of Life" the first of which "The Serpent's Mirror" is due out in [[http://deborahharkness.com/sandbox/coming-in-2017-the-serpents-mirror/ 2018]]

* UntoUsASonAndDaughterAreBorn: Matthew and Diana have twins, a boy and a girl