'The Illusionists' by Rosie Thomas

Book details

Genre: Fiction

Publisher: HarperCollins

ISBN: 9780007512041

Synopsis

From the bestselling author of the phenomenally successful The Kashmir Shawl

London, 1885

As a turbulent and change-filled century draws to a close, there has never been a better time to alter your fortune. But for a beautiful young woman of limited means, Eliza’s choices appear to lie between the stifling domesticity of marriage or a downwards spiral to the streets – no matter how determined she is to forge her own path.

One night at a run-down theatre, she meets the charismatic Devil Wix – showman, master of illusion, fickle friend. Drawn into his circle, Eliza becomes the catalyst of change for his colleagues – a dwarf, an eccentric engineer, and an artist – as well as Devil himself. And as Eliza embarks on a dangerous adventure, she must decide which path to choose, and how far she should go when she holds all their lives in her hands.

[From Goodreads.]

Review

It’s quite fitting that The Illusionists, just like an actual illusion, is entirely not what it seems.

Unfortunately, while illusions and magic acts are generally enjoyable in their unpredictability and twisting of reality, Rosie Thomas’s novel is not.

I picked up The Illusionists expecting to read a thrilling and eccentric novel surrounding a modern woman’s intrigue with the London’s theatrical world in the late 1800s. “A dangerous adventure” of a young woman’s journey towards emancipation through art. That’s what the novel’s synopsis implied, after all. Instead, I got two emotionally distraught male performers, a wax-modeler (also male), a psychotic engineer (guess what? Male) and a run-down theatre. Oh, and featuring as the love interest of every single one of the afore-mentioned characters is Eliza – a middle-class woman who poses as a life model on Tuesdays, and considers herself “forward-thinking” (she’s not).

Eliza was infuriating – and even more infuriating was the author’s evident conviction that Eliza was a woman of her own means. Sure, Eliza did things that were not technically societally acceptable for her class, but let’s have a little more girl power! If you’re going to have a strong female protagonist and write about her journey towards emancipation, then don’t only introduce her on page 66! Don’t let her slip backwards into conformity just as she’s finally getting somewhere! Don’t let the men always overshadow her! Don’t let her become a damsel in distress just to showcase the courageous virtues of your male characters!

(And yes, I am putting Eliza’s actions into the context that she was a woman in London in 1885. Come on. Loosen your corset a little, at least, Miss Eliza.)

On top of all of this, I was also astounded to note that Thomas switched perceptions between her characters as if even she didn’t know who she was supposed to be writing about. One moment I would be in Eliza’s head, but then the next moment Devil’s outlook would take over without warning. That’s the danger with writing in third-person perspective – you have to be so careful about switching between characters and throwing the reader all over the place. And Thomas fell right into that trap.

Around two-thirds of the way through, I couldn’t take it any more.

 

But I persevered, because I’d already struggled through 380 pages. I could handle two hundred more. (I’d just like to point out that a novel this long-winded could definitely have been cut down by at least two hundred pages.)

Then I got to page 454, and my face did this:

At which point I decided Eliza was not worth my efforts (I’d screamed at her for just about the entire novel), and that my hope for humanity had diminished by a further eighty percent or so.

What a waste of good ideas. The Illusionists had so much potential, and it really was quite upsetting to see it spiral towards inadequacy, then below that to distastefulness. Additionally, Thomas has a truly beautiful style. It’s a pity she threw it away.

Rating: A very generous 2/5 because it started off relatively well.

Recommended to: Real illusionists who want spare paper to use as kindling in their arson tricks.

The Last Word

I’m putting the spoiler in this section, because I have to acknowledge the event that takes place on page 454. If you’re going to read the novel (although, why?) don’t read on.

Okay. From around page 300, there are zero climactic points in the novel apart from the event that occurs in the very last pages, which might have been tragic had I not lost the ability to care by then. The only time I had a change in emotion large enough to constitute a reaction was from pages 454 to 459, and that reaction was to throw the stupid book at the wall.

In this period, Eliza finds out that her husband, Devil, has been sleeping with another performer because he feels like she’s pushing him away (she is – but only because she’s just given birth to his baby). She threatens to cut off a key part of his anatomy (at which point I got excited because she was finally showing some initiative). But then they have furious animal sex and she forgives him.

How is this a portrait of a self-governing intellectual, who aims to forge her own path? To me, it seems like a fragile collection of dangerous emotions desperate for male attention – entirely not the image of a modern woman, even for Eliza’s time. Come on, Thomas. Step up your game.

The Forsaken by Lisa Stasse

Date finished: 26 November 2014

Rating: 2/5

View on Goodreads.

My disappointment in this book is making me feel physically ill. Forgive me for the clichéd teacher-like term, but The Forsaken had so much potential. I went in with so much excitement and anticipation, and came out feeling like the book had physically drained me of every ounce of perseverance I possessed.

I feel like I’ve been cheated out of what could have been an incredible read. Even with similar concepts to The Hunger Games and The Maze Runner, there were so many unique aspects that could have made The Forsaken an unforgettable story. But something just wouldn’t click. Overall, I fount the plotlines jagged, resulting in random, unsatisfactory climaxes and confusing twists that were generally quite unnecessary, and had no contribution to the core storyline. Everything seemed to happen in random bursts of energy, and the experience of reading it was almost like driving down a dirt road in a Toyota – bumpy, unpleasant, and often invoking feelings of slight nausea.

For me, the main problem area of The Forsaken was character development. Perhaps if there had been a single character in the book that I could have related to, reading it would have been much more enjoyable. David was flat, Liam was weirdly soppy, and Gadya was seriously bipolar and possibly a sociopath. I found it extremely difficult to connect with Alenna. If she had any strong personality traits other than being impulsive and intensely loyal, they were very badly portrayed. Despite the entire book being narrated from her perspective, and her frequent italicized thoughts (which I found very annoying for no apparent reason), by the time the novel ended I felt like I barely knew her at all. She was transparent, fluffy and annoying, and I couldn’t understand her logic in about 99% of the situations she faced.

My last comment is on the insta-love that appeared between Alenna and Liam. I cannot stand love stories that start with the love-at-first-sight “I-spotted-him-leaning-against-the-tree-and-couldn’t-look-away” garbage. The fact that Alenna couldn’t get her priorities straight made me want to rip my hair out. She wants him, swears she won’t touch him and will focus on surviving instead (I actually respected her for about three seconds when she made this decision), and then chases after him like an overexcited puppy. She’s known him for three days and then decides to risk her life for him, claiming it’s love. That’s not love; that’s stupidity and desperation.

I really wanted so much more from this book. Perhaps my high expectations at the beginning ruined it for me – I don’t know. It was a struggle to finish, and looking back I really do wish that I might have enjoyed it.

The Finisher by David Baldacci

Date finished: 30 August 2014

Rating: 2*

View on Goodreads.

I have extremely strong feelings about this book – not all of them good ones – so forgive me if this turns into a rant.

The golden inscription set under Baldacci’s name proclaiming him the Sunday Times Number One Bestseller gave me high hopes for this novel, as did the first page, printed on bright red paper with the following attributes to Baldacci:

“David Baldacci is the author of twenty-seven books for adults, each of which has become both a national and international bestseller. His astonishing career started with ‘Absolute Power’, which was adapted into a major motion picture starring Clint Eastwood. David’s books have sold more than 110 million copies worldwide and have been translated into more than forty-five languages. Together with his wife, Michelle, David established the Wish You Well Foundation to promote family literacy. David and his family live in Virginia, USA.”

Forgive me if I’m mistaken, but under normal circumstances I would take these achievements as a warning that the novel should be the most incredibly badass, phenomenally written piece of perfection on the planet. Combined with the blurb on the back, which reads, “Enter a village imprisoned by its fear of the unknown. Where curiosity is discouraged, and no one has ever left – or wanted to. Until now,” I expected something as good as ‘The Hunger Games’, or even better. Not to mention that my parents read Baldacci’s novels almost religiously, so when they saw he’d written a teen fiction, they practically threw the book at me and told me I had to read it.

Given that I’ve rewarded ‘The Finisher’ with two stars rather than five, I’m sure you’ve guessed that it did not measure up to my high expectations.

If anything, the single red page of achievements should not have been viewed as a warning, or even an indication of how good the novel should have been, but rather as an excuse. “Yeah, this book may be the biggest failure on the planet… BUT LOOK AT ALL THESE OTHER PRETTY THINGS I’VE WON SO I MUST BE A GOOD AUTHOR AND YOU’RE WRONG IF YOU CRITICIZE ME.”

If the intention of the bright red page was to make me doubt my – now extremely low – opinion of the book, it failed.

I’ll start off with the things I found right with ‘The Finisher’. There are only two, really – one for each star I awarded the book. The first is that I cannot deny that Baldacci writes action-filled fight scenes very well. The action in ‘The Finisher’ might just be enough for Hollywood to churn out yet another movie with Baldacci’s name flashing for a second or two at the end, though perhaps this time there will be no Clint Eastwood to draw in a semblance of an audience. The second good thing I could find in the story was Baldacci’s decision to have a female protagonist, who single-handedly defeated just about every single male antagonist that she came into contact with. Although, now that I think of it, his feminist approach to the story might just have been a way to gain respect from female teen readers.

This brings me onto my next point. I hated the way that ‘The Finisher’ was written. The protagonist, Vega Jane, was a girl with whom I was totally unable to relate. As I have said over and over again in many of my other reviews, this can absolutely destroy a story’s chance at success. All realistic and likeable characters have something to which the reader can relate. Furthermore, the storyline itself was disjointed and random. The perfect comparison for the storyline is of a feverish dream, where everything may make sense to the person dreaming it (in this case Baldacci) but when he wakes up and tells it to others (perhaps the readers), they realize that the dream made no sense at all, and the images that may have seemed bright and exciting in the dream-world were actually just the jumbled confusion of a crazed mind.

To conclude, I was disappointed with Baldacci’s work. ‘The Finisher’ had so, so much potential to be a phenomenal read, but it was sloppy and annoying. Perhaps it is better suited to younger readers who are not so consumed by the necessity of beautiful writing, and desire action over quality.

Teardrop by Lauren Kate

Date finished: 1 January 2014

Series: Teardrop, #1

Rating: 2*

View on Goodreads.

What a mediocre way to start 2014.

Seventeen-year-old Eureka won’t let anyone close enough to feel her pain after her mother’s death. As she uncovers an ancient tale of romance and heartbreak about a girl who cried an entire continent into the sea, her mother’s death and the appearance of mysterious boy Ander seem connected, and her life takes on dark undercurrents that don’t make sense.

To be perfectly honest, I have a sort of weakness for Lauren Kate’s novels. I have no idea why – every time I read them, I just disappoint myself. I loved Fallen, but I only dragged myself through the next two books in the series because I had hope for the story. Then I gave up. I have a feeling this series is going to be the same.

I really want to give Teardrop more than two stars… but it was just so iffy. The idea for the story was there, and Lauren Kate’s writing was almost there, but I felt so detached most of the time. I don’t know whether to blame this on the two dimensional characters or the holes in the storyline, so I’ll criticize both.

I felt no sympathy for Eureka (and that name… ugh). At all. I found her irritating and dull, and for the majority of the book I found myself shouting at her to FEEL SOMETHING and DO SOMETHING. I had no connection with her, and I think that was because of her flat personality. It might have had something to do with the third person narrative as well – which I personally don’t like, as it purposefully removes you from the main character, almost like putting a wall up between the actors and the audience so that you can’t really see what’s going on inside. I get using third person narrative if you are continually switching points of view between characters, but Teardrop only really focused on Eureka’s point of view, so I really didn’t get it.

Furthermore, I have to point out that I hated Ander. I found him weak and stupid and useless. He needed more emotion, more passion. He was just the typical “perfect boy”, and that really irritated me, because there is no way that a boy can be that calm and collected all the time. I actually don’t think he showed a single emotion throughout the entire novel.

Onto the holes in the storyline… Sweet holy alien babies, I got so incredibly irritated with that stupid Book of Love. Wasn’t it supposed to be this massive, ancient hardcover book? Well then why did we only get snippets of the story that made absolutely no sense at all? It just jumped around as though the reader was supposed to fill in the blanks on his or her own. I hated that. I want to know exactly what was in that book. I need to know the full story, and see all the illustrations. I think Lauren Kate should write a separate Book of Love with the entire story and the illustrations and notes from Eureka and her ancestors. I would so read that. (Sort of like The Codex that’s just been released from The Mortal Instruments series.)

But that wasn’t all (wow I’m really ranting now, aren’t I? I’m sorry.) There were holes in the actual storyline itself, not just the Book of Love. I needed more explanations, more detail in what was going on. And not just “filler chapters” – those are terrible. I don’t care if you leave out a whole week in the story (as an author, that’s totally your decision) so long as the rest of your writing is the perfect balance of summary and detail. As a reader, I love using my imagination in a novel, but too much freedom leaves me feeling confused and desperate for details. I hope Lauren Kate’s further novels in the series fill in the blanks, and answer my questions, otherwise I will be severely annoyed.

I really wanted to love Teardrop. Don’t get me wrong – it was okay. It just wasn’t all there. I only hope that Lauren Kate expands on it, and improves it tremendously along the way – and that I don’t lose interest in it as I did with the Fallen series.