Title: The Illusions
Author: Liz Hyder
Year: 2023
Genre: Historical Fiction
The Illusions tells the story of magicians and early film pioneers in 1896 Bristol, as two women cross paths and change their lives forever. It was selected by my book club to be our read for the month – I didn’t know anything about the book beforehand but the title did intrigue me and I also loved the book cover as well.
Cecily Marsden is a young assistant to an ageing con-artist, whose life is turned upside down when her master suddenly dies. Believing she has some magical powers of her own, she is guilt-ridden believing that she was involved in his death and goes to his brother, Roderick Skarratt for help. However living with Skarratt turns into an horrific nightmare.
Meanwhile, Eadie Carlton runs a local photography studio but is a pioneering early film maker. However she is struggling for her talent to be taken seriously in the male-dominated world of technology. By chance she meets the young magician Mr, George Perris, who sees the potential in moving pictures and wants to use them to revolutionise magic. Perris is being trained by The Professor, a famous magician who is close to retirement and is about to put on the show of his life in Bristol. beofre announcing George as his successor.
However when the Professor suddenly dies, George is forced to take over the show. As him and Eadie prepare for the spectacle, their world and Cecily’s worlds collide. However Cec soon finds herself facing the fight of her life to save the show from sabotage from Perris’ jealous contemporaries and to harness her own magical powers.
First of all, whilst the book is defined as historical fiction, I actually found the book had a few fantasy and romance elements as well and I think Hyder does overall a great job of blending these genres together into a story which is entertaining. I was also surprised to read in the author’s note that the characters are all fictional as they do feel like real people from the time period in which the book is set.
Out of the two main characters, Cecily and Eadie, I did find myself drawn more to Cecily’s story as it is both tragic and uplifting to see her growth and journey throughout the book. She begins the story as a lowly thief and con-artist’s assistant but as time goes on she begins to realise the error of her ways and learns to follow her heart to achieve things she never thought she could.
Whilst Eadie does go through a similar journey, she starts from a different place. After her dad died and her brother disappeared, she was forced to take her dad’s place and run the family business. She is clearly very intelligent and capable but has to deal with men around he saying that she isn’t good enough because of her sex. This also means she has to be very serious and quite aloof about her work, which initially causes some friction with George Perris. It seems through the story Eadie’s journey is more about learning to accept what her heart is telling her and to embrace all of her feelings rather than bottling them up.
I also really liked George Perris who was a great romaince interest for Eadie, he is young and maybe quite idealistic and naive but he also comes across as a very caring man and you do root for him and for his show to be a success.
However, whilst it is clear that him and Eadie are the romantic heroes of the story, Hyder does do a will-they-won’t-they throughout the book but I did admit a couple of times these situations seemed a bit contrived when they could have got together much earlier in the plot then they actually did and a few times I found myself getting annoyed that they wanted to tell each other how they felt but then didn’t at the last hurdle for some reason or some interruption and I think it was this that made me draw more to Cecily’s story.
Also the character of Roderick Skarratt who is the main villain is maybe a little bit sterotypical and pantomine, although he does have a good amount of threat in the story, the jealous contemporary of George is a little bit thin as a motivation for him.
Overall I did enjoy this book delving into a time in history where technology began to expand rapidly, creating wonderous new experiences for people and it is an entertaining read, especially as the show draws closer and you wonder if it goes ahead. Parts of the story also reminded me of The Greatest Showman movie so if you enjoyed that movie then I think this could be a great read for you.
If you have read this book, let me know down below your thoughts.
