The Black Bird Oracle - Review
Deborah Harkness’s All Souls Trilogy is my favorite series. No caveat! It’s rich, beautifully written, clever, detailed, and Harkness imbues her expertise as a historian into the world and the main character, Diana. Diana Bishop is a historian of science, as is Harkness herself. The romance at the center of the story is sweeping and intense and tender and perfect and I would lay in traffic for Matthew Clairmont. The world of All Souls is no longer known as a trilogy, as this most recent entry is the fifth. It reminds me a lot of Sarah J. Maas’s A Court of Thorns and Roses. A nice tidy three book arc with a good story and a good ending. But wait, I’m not done actually, let me keep putting out books. I have no way of knowing if either Harkness or Maas intended to finish at book 3, then later decided to keep going, but with the state of both series past book 3, I have a hunch. But this is not the time to say how much I dislike ACOTAR’s later books.
The Black Bird Oracle picks up about six years after the last entry, Time’s Convert– which was not even centered on Diana and Matthew, but more so on Matthew’s vampire son and his newly-turned mate, Phoebe. With glimpses of the Bishop-Clairmont couple. Oracle opens at the end of another Yale school year, with Diana and Matthew gearing up to take their now seven year old twins back to England for the summer. A mysterious note appears from an unknown relative telling Diana it's time to come home. Another ominous message comes from the Congregation– the magical creature governing body we just spent three books trying to reform!-- notifying Diana and Matthew that the time is fast approaching to have the twins magically evaluated to see what skills they might possess.
This novel is a significant slow-down from the first three, and focuses more mechanically on Diana’s skills as a witch, her backstory, and the history of her family. The twins have a rather large part as well, given that they are rare Bright Born children (the product of a witch and vampire, to give the short version. The long version requires a little discussion on DNA and a vampire disease called blood rage) and therefore are relatively unknown to everyone. No one seems quite sure what they will become, given the power Diana has undoubtedly passed on to them.
There is sooooo much information given on Diana’s paternal heritage, and the story is chock-full of her father’s family, the Proctors. (You know the ones. “I saw Goody Proctor with the Devil!” Those Proctors). Diana hails from Salem twice-over. Her mother’s family, the Bishops, are directly descended from Bridget Bishop, the first witch hanged at Salem in 1692.
But the Proctors are hard for me to swallow. The whole thing teeters at the edge of convenience and unreality. To use a real quote a professor left on a paper of mine once: “The scaffolding here is so weak, it would collapse if I blew on it.” I just don’t know that I believe a family with power of this magnitude managed to just not ever be brought up, not once the entire series. For example, Diana experiences a lot of Harry Potter-level fame regarding her parents. Pretty much every time someone hears her name, they go slack-jawed: “You’re Rebecca and Stephen’s child!” Her parent’s reputation precedes them, and everyone knows how powerful the Bishops are. But no one ever points to Diana’s father’s family, which, turns out, is quite extensive! Cousins upon cousins hanging out 13 miles from Salem, and this is the first I’m hearing of it. I don’t know, it just doesn’t seem possible.
The witches of the Congregation keep memory bottles in a place literally called the “Memory Palace” and test witches showing aptitude for higher magic in a labyrinth on Congregation property and no one has ever heard of it? Diana sat on the Congregation! Although, she did sit on the de Clermont seat, a vampire seat, and the witches are notoriously secretive, but still. Not even a whisper! One last thing I have trouble with is Diana’s magic itself. Book three closes with the idea that DIana has pretty much succeeded, her magic is stronger than it has ever been, and she’s un-fuck-with-able, but I open this book to find that she’s still basically a novice? I’m trying not to spoil too much, but this is a review for the fifth book in a series that began over 15 years ago, so I don’t know why you’re reading this expecting no spoilers.
But all this has the potential to get cleared up in a following entry, if handled correctly. I can remove myself from it a bit to admit its okay that Harkness decided she wasn’t done, and so all the pieces might not fit as cleanly as I’d like them to. That doesn’t necessarily make for excellent writing and storytelling, but it’s also very real and human, so forgiveness is bestowed somewhat reluctantly. Don’t push it , Deb.
Let’s shift to what matters. Matthew! Matthew Gabriel Phillippe Bertrand Sebastien de Clermont. My one and only, my husband's arch enemy. Aside from being the perfect book boyfriend, Matthew is a very complex and nuanced character. He is an extremely flawed, tortured, regretful assassin, working for centuries under his father’s reign as head of the de Clermont family. He’s a devout Catholic who was once forced to help round up other Catholics. He’s a brilliant geneticist, philosopher, and poet. Protector, spy. Loving brother and son. This is getting to be a long tombstone engraving. He was a father and husband before he became a vampire, and remembers his previous life with not an insignificant amount of pain. Because of his blood rage, he has been the cause of death for more than one woman. He’s controlling, possessive (but I like that, to be real). He and Diana’s relationship is very intense and layered. Why is my boy standing at the grill in this book? Why is he waiting by the phone for Diana to grace him with a phone call? Diana is the main character, this is her story. But the entire series really hinges on their romance. It’s the catalyst for the entire plot. I don’t really enjoy such a huge part of the story falling to the wayside to make room for a bunch of lore about the Proctors.
A character I do think is used quite well in this book is Sarah Bishop. Harkness uses her as a great foiil to Diana’s paternal aunt, Gwyneth Proctor. Sarah is well documented as having a deep aversion to higher magic. She blames it for killing her sister, and she blames it for killing her partner, Emily. She is extremely resistant to Diana using it, and her anger prompts a big revelation about Diana’s Bishop family. She feels betrayed by Diana in this, she feels second-best to her more talented sister. And I feel for her! I’m hoping for more of her and this thread in future books.
The writing in this book is wonderful, as usual. It’s atmospheric and well-characterized. There are so many characters, and they all have such unique voices and attributes. And Harkness is a master of the found family trope. It makes me wish my father loved me. It makes me want to adopt children. The world is tangible, and she uses her expertise as a historian to the fullest extent. You can feel the amount of research that went into this, and the love and care she has for it.
I recommend this series to anyone. I still have plans to get something from this series tattooed on my body, but this book was a bit of a let down. I hope the following one picks back up. The Black Bird Oracle is not bad, by any means. It just is not as good as the others.
Deborah if you’re reading this, I love you and I would die for you.
3.75/5.