Review: Born of Illusion

BORN OF ILLUSION
Born of Illusion #1
Teri Brown
Paranormal Young Adult
384 pages
Balzer + Bray
Available Now
Source: ARC from publisher for review

THE STORY (from author's website)
Anna Van Housen has a secret. A gifted illusionist, Anna assists her mother, the renowned medium Marguerite Van Housen, in her stage show and séances, easily navigating the underground world of magicians, mediums, and mentalists in 1920’s New York. As the illegitimate daughter of Harry Houdini—or so Marguerite claims—sleight of hand illusions have never been a challenge for Anna. The real trick is keeping her own gifts secret from her opportunistic mother. Because while Marguerite’s own powers may be a sham, Anna possesses a true ability to sense people’s feelings and foretell the future.

But as Anna’s powers intensify, she begins to experience frightening visions of her mother in peril, which leads her to explore the powers she’s tried so long to hide. And when a mysterious young man named Cole moves into the flat downstairs, introducing Anna to a secret society that studies people with gifts like hers, she is forced to confront her past and rethink everything she’s ever known. Is her mother truly in danger, or are Anna’s visions merely illusion? And could the great Houdini really be her father, or is it just another of Marguerite’s tricks?

MY THOUGHTS
Born of Illusion is a quiet, deeply intriguing story, one that spiderwebs into various different directions, each thread appearing thin and fragile until we touch it and find an underlying strength and a tactile quality we can't help but want to explore with careful thoroughness. While each thread holds a great deal of potential on its own, not all of them seem completely necessary to ensure the success of Anna's story as a whole, and we find ourselves wondering how our reaction to this tale might have differed were scissors taken to just one or two of those additional lingering threads. There is a delicate quality to this story that holds our interest despite the many shiny facets vying for a share of our attention, a sense that if just the slightest movement is made or our voices rise above a whisper that Anna's carefully constructed world will shatter, scattering the pieces of her into the wind where we might not ever be able to find them all again.

Anna has lived her entire life spending equal amounts of time both confidently performing in the spotlight and discreetly hiding in the shadows, her tricks and showmanship onstage a striking contrast to her real extrasensory abilities off it. She's there in the limelight for all the world to see, but at the same time they perceive nothing more than the smoke and mirrors they take as truth simply because they want to, the reality of her hidden behind far more than a curtain as she keeps her true self locked up tight. She's an easy young woman to root for, the difficulties that accompany having one face that tilts up into the light to attract attention and another that tilts down and away to deflect it hold us transfixed, as captivated by the dualities of her life as her audience is during her magic show.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this story is not Anna's paranormal abilities or life in New York City in the twenties, but rather Anna's complex relationship with her mother and performance partner, one that's an uncomfortable tangle of tension, jealousy, and possibly love, though the love is buried so far beneath the other emotions we can never fully convince ourselves it's truly there. Anna's mother is a star first and a nurturing and caring woman a far distant second, her subtle put-downs and insults camouflaged as motherly concern expertly delivered, honed over years of practice to deliver the deepest cut possible without anyone but Anna noticing. While Anna could have been unbearably frustrating, clinging to the naïve hope that underneath the snide comments and thinly veiled venom lies deep and abiding motherly love, she instead is well aware of the dark games her mother plays and calls her on it several times (though perhaps not quite often enough to soothe our ire), refusing time and again to be the scratching post for her mother's claws.

Anna herself and her relationship with her mother are both highlights of Born of Illusion, and though the story flows well and has a certain ease to its telling that keeps us devouring chapter after chapter, when we finish some questions with regard to the multiple plot threads start to make themselves known. In addition to Anna's visions of the future and her strained bond with her mother we also find ourselves juggling the not-insignificant mystery surrounding Anna's connection to famed magician Harry Houdini, a love triangle, and numerous dangers from a myriad of outside sources, all which have our interest individually but which can be a touch distracting when taken all together in a single story. Also, there's a slight inconsistency with regard to the language, certain sayings and slang from the twenties seeming to pop up at random to remind us of the time period before fading away again and leaving us with a very modern-feeling Anna. Overall though, Born of Illusion, despite its flaws, is an entertaining and worthwhile read, and I will certainly be looking forward to reading more from Teri Brown.

Rating: 3.5/5

Find Teri:

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This book was sent to me by the publisher free of charge for the purpose of a review. 

I received no other compensation and the above is my honest opinion.

Don't forget to to check out my interview with Teri - talking stage names, Houdini, and Anna's mom!