The Black Bird Oracle
Ratings16
Average rating4.2
15
Ratings16
Average rating4.2
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, 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.
Reviews with the most likes.
I just finished reading this beautiful book. I love the storyline.
It was so worth the wait! Deb always delivers when it comes to all souls!
We find Diana and Matthew living their beautiful life together with their twins Philip and Rebecca (Becca and Pip).
Diana receives a tarot card from the Proctors, a family she thought were all dead.... In finding out her family is still alive and a car ride away, Diana returns home and learns some uncomfortable truths about the lies her family told and a life path she didn't know she had a choice to follow.
OMG I already need book 6. The book is beautifully written and filled in a lot of answers that have been building in the series but it also covers a lot of uncomfortable topics.
My only con is the lack of Gallowglass. I understand why he is missing but I need him in the next book.
5 stars! No regrets for pre-ordering both the audio and the hardcover haha
A good addition to the World of All Soul's and I'm excited for the rest of the trilogy. Although a lot happened in this book, it felt like not much happened at all until the very end. More witchy and less academia for this series so I do enjoy that.
Unfortunately, some of the characters that I loved from the original seriesfelt kind of annoying in this one (Sarah and Stephen and sometimes Matthew). Hopefully that changes as the story developes but it was something that I noticed while reading. Diana also made some questionable choices that I didn't really understand given her character growth previously.
Overall, I enjoyed this and it got me in the mood for some witchery. It really made me want to create my own oracle deck which if you read this you'll understand what I mean.
More magic and more secrets.
It's a delight being back in this universe. New discoveries (big and small), familiar faces, and significantly more magic. The vibes of this one made me wish it was already fall. Spooky and mysterious plots set in a community Diana hasn't fully experienced but where she clearly belongs.
This one feels different than the first three. I flew through it but I wasn't obsessed. The stakes seemed a little lower to me and there's a heavier focus on discovery and learning. The driving force of the plot comes from uncovering secrets instead of outright danger. The vampires are more of background/set dressing than key components of the plot, but in return you get a lot more knowledge about different branches of magic and covens. It felt like it ended a bit abruptly and definitely did some heavy lifting for future plot points.
Despite that I loved it. It does a good job giving you a refresher on relevant plot points from the first few books, although there were a few references I didn't remember and I just did a complete reread. I'm surprised at the direction some of the character development took. The romance is not the focus in this one, you get a bit, but this is truly about Diana's journey learning more about herself as a witch and as a member of the Proctor family.
There's clearly more to come and I'm looking forward to it.
Format note: I had access to both the ebook and a hard copy and would definitely recommend a hard copy. There are small drawings throughout that are whimsically nestled into the text in the hard copy, but appear in an awkward amount of blank space in the ebook. Not a deal breaker but the hard copy formatting is a delight.
Featured Series
5 primary books6 released booksAll Souls is a 6-book series with 5 primary works first released in 2011 with contributions by Deborah Harkness.
