ALC Review: The Black Bird Oracle by Deborah Harkness
Release date: 16 July 2024
Rating: 4.5/5
Narrator: Jennifer Ikeda
Narration Rating: 5/5
Synopsis: Diana Bishop journeys to the darkest places within herself—and her family history—in the highly anticipated fifth novel of the beloved #1 New York Times bestselling All Souls series.
Deborah Harkness first introduced the world to Diana Bishop, Oxford scholar and witch, and vampire geneticist Matthew de Clairmont in A Discovery of Witches. Drawn to each other despite long-standing taboos, these two otherworldly beings found themselves at the center of a battle for a lost, enchanted manuscript known as Ashmole 782. Since then, they have fallen in love, traveled to Elizabethan England, dissolved the Covenant between the three species, and awoken the dark powers within Diana’s family line.
Now, Diana and Matthew receive a formal demand from the Congregation: They must test the magic of their seven-year-old twins, Pip and Rebecca. Concerned with their safety and desperate to avoid the same fate that led her parents to spellbind her, Diana decides to forge a different path for her family’s future and answers a message from a great-aunt she never knew existed, Gwyneth Proctor, whose invitation simply reads: It’s time you came home, Diana.
On the hallowed ground of Ravenswood, the Proctor family home, and under the tutelage of Gwyneth, a talented witch grounded in higher magic, a new era begins for Diana: a confrontation with her family’s dark past, and a reckoning for her own desire for even greater power—if she can let go, finally, of her fear of wielding it.
Review
When book world announced The Black Bird Oracle, and I saw that the book focuses on Diana’s Proctor blood and the twins, I preordered so fast—and I managed to snag a signed copy—holy cow. Proctor business does not disappoint, I can assure you. New family, new characters, another awesome old person (those are my favorite characters), more magical abilities—Harkness’ new addition to the All Souls series went way beyond my expectations. Readers who loved the first trilogy will not be disappointed with this new addition—and I suspect we will have more of the story to come.
Diana and Matthew have twins. We know that from The Book of Life. Pip (for Phillip) and Rebecca are, no surprise, extraordinary. And now, they’re both a target for the higher ups in the magical world. Immediately, Harkness puts readers on the offensive. We shall not be having the Congregation touch our little baby Dianas, thank you very much. Instead, we take off to the ancestral manse in Massachusetts, and visit the Proctors—which Diana has not even heard from. Ever.
If you loved the Bishops and the de Clairmonts, you will fall hard for the Proctors. They’re even quirkier and funnier than the other sides of the family, and I could not wait for more interactions with them. Matthew and Diana, despite already being established in their relationship, still offer such endearing romance. I can’t wait for folks to pick up this book and enjoy it. I loved it.
Despite my love for the novel, the storyline felt a bit recycled. Pip and Rebecca experience an iteration of what Diana lived through as a child, with some exceptions, and their powers awaken in a similar manner as well. We have conflict with the same antagonist—the Congregation, though this time, the witches factor in a bit more heavily. It’s only a minor drawback for me, though. I wanted a glimpse of the twins, and I’ve gotten them along with some Proctor lore, and I’m happy about that.
As for the narration, the audiobook for this is not short. At 17 hours long, I had to ramp up the speed so it wouldn’t take me forever to get through it, but let me just say—it did not feel long. By the time the last word was narrated, my jaw was on the floor, and I was ready for a fight, oh, and the next book. The narration was perfect. I could easily sort all the voices and accents for the characters, and the narrator made a great story so enthralling that it felt like no time went by at all before I finished the book.
Thanks to Libro.fm for the ALC, for which I willingly give my own, honest opinion.
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