Caffeinated Reviewer

I devoured The Black Bird Oracle by Deborah Harkness in audio format, narrated by Jennifer Ikeda as the author took us to meet the maternal side of Diana Bishop’s family. Magic, suspense, secrets and more await you in this unputdownable edition to the All Souls series!

Deborah Harkness first introduced the world to Diana Bishop, an Oxford scholar and witch, and vampire geneticist Matthew de Clermont 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.

In this stunning new novel, grand in scope, Deborah Harkness deepens the beloved world of All Souls with powerful new magic and long-hidden secrets, and the path Diana finds at Ravenswood leads to the most consequential moments yet in this cherished series.

* This audiobook edition comes with a downloadable PDF including a family tree.

The books in All Souls series are ones I own both in hardcover & audiobook. I usually listen first and then read my hardcover copies. To me, The Black Bird Oracle feels like the start of a trilogy and I am hoping we get a new book next year. If you haven’t started the series or watched them, I encourage fans of fantasy, romance, magic, suspense, historical fiction, mystery and well written, addictive, must devour fiction to own them, pet them and feed them your soul regularly.

Could you pick up The Black Bird Oracle and begin here? I think so. Harkness does a wonderful job of acclimating new and familiar fans to Matthew and Diana’s story and world. Of course, I recommend devouring them all from the beginning.

I will try to keep this spoiler free. The tale begins at the beginning of summer. Diana and Rebecca are just returning home when a black bird delivers a message. Then, Diana and Matthew receive a formal demand from the Congregation that their children Pip & Rebecca are to receive their witches test. They say all things come in threes, and Diana also receives a letter from a great-aunt she never knew existed. Gwyneth Proctor’s letter simply reads: It’s time you came home, Diana. And just like that, I was all in. Despite my desperate attempts to make the story last, I lost waaaay too much sleep devouring this tale.

I loved visiting Diana’s paternal side of the family and seeing Diana explore that side of her magic. Ravenswood is situated outside of Salem, Massachusetts, and is an active witch community with family lines dating back to the Salem witch trials. Diana Bishop herself is from the line of the first witch to die. From the witches’ council to the memory bottles, I was all in. As always, Harkness wraps history, prophecy and magic into her tales. The story is brilliantly paced and of course I lost sleeping listening over and over to just one more chapter.

I loved getting to know Gwyneth, the cousins, and Diana’s children. Diana will be tested and face a nemesis, but she will also grow as a witch as she embraces both dark and light.

The tale left us in a good place, but hints of things to come and this fan needs more.

Except for A Time’s Convert, which shares a different perspective, the series is narrated by Jennifer Ikeda. Jennifer has become the voice of Diana, Matthew and all the other wonderful characters in the series. She does an exceptional job of capturing the tone of the story, the character’s emotions, passions, and fears, as well as their unique personalities. Ikeda enhances Harkness’s story, making listening my first choice.

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About Deborah Harkness

Deborah Harkness is the number one New York Times bestselling author of A Discovery of Witches, Shadow of Night, and The Book of Life. A history professor at the University of Southern California, Harkness has received Fulbright, Guggenheim, and National Humanities Center fellowships. Her publications include works on the history of science, magic, and alchemy. Her most recent scholarly book is The Jewel House: Elizabethan London and the Scientific Revolution. She lives in Los Angeles.

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About Jennifer Ikeda

Jennifer Ikeda is a two-time Audie Award winner who has narrated dozens of audiobooks. She has appeared in numerous TV and film roles, On- and Off-Broadway in both classical and contemporary plays, and as a narrator for NPR's Selected Shorts. Jennifer is a graduate of the Juilliard School.

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Reading this book contributed to these challenges:

• 2024 Audiobook Challenge

About Kimberly

Kimberly is a coffee loving book addict who reads and listens to fictional stories in all genres. Whovian, Ravenclaw, Howler and proud Nonna. She owns and manages Caffeinated PR. The coffee is always on and she is ready to chat. BlueSky | Facebook | Instagram

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