Book review: Born of Illusion by Teri Brown
I've always been fascinated by seances and spirit mediums, tarot readings and magical illusions. I have read quite a few books on this theme set in the Jazz Age when seances and mediums were all the rage, especially because of the number of grieving widows and parents who wanted to contact the spirits of soldiers killed in World War I. The books set in this time period that I really enjoyed are "The Other Side of Midnight" by Simone St. James and "Things Half in Shadow" by Alan Finn. I also liked Jaime Lee Moyer's Delia Martin series about a woman in San Francisco of 1906 who can see and communicate with ghosts. Hence it is small wonder that I picked up Teri Brown's "Born of Illusion" which promised to be about a young and gifted illusionist experiencing frightening visions. While this is part of a series, I figured out from Goodreads reviews that each book is a standalone novel and this one is undoubtedly the best of the lot.
"Born of Illusion" is about a young girl, Anna Van Housen, whose mother is a popular spirit medium in post-World War I New York. Anna has had a lonely and unconventional childhood, moving from place to place, while her mother performed in physic shows in various small towns and cities. Her mother, Marguerite, is a stunning beauty who is always hungry for fame and fortune but has no real psychic abilities. She relies on tricks and fake illusions to make her stage shows and seances seem real. Only Anna knows her secret. Marguerite has also changed her real name to gain popularity and has spread rumours that Anna is the illegitimate daughter of the famous magician, Harry Houdini, and even Anna doesn't know if that's true or another of her mother's elaborate deceptions. Anna is fascinated by magic and has taught herself various magic tricks over the years. Her dream is to perform independent of her mother and become an acknowledged illusionist, which is a difficult thing to do in an age when female magicians are rare and the ones that do practice are not taken seriously.
When the book starts, Anna and her mother have recently moved to New York as a result of her mother having found a well-connected manager, Jacques. Anna is happy that their days of barely scraping through and evading the law seem to be over and that they are now able to live in a well-to-do neighbourhood. Anna is the responsible one in the family, knowing that her flighty and unreliable mother is incapable to being prudent in money or household matters. She has a strange love-hate relationship with her mother - she loves Marguerite but is wary of her controlling and grasping nature. Anna agrees to be part of her mother's stage show in New York, where she demonstrates magical card tricks as the opening act before her mother's psychic act starts. She has always known that she has more psychic talent than her mother and struggles to keep that fact hidden from her jealous mother, as her act gains more popularity. She increasingly wonders if her powers have been inherited from her alleged father, the mysterious Houdini, and feels a strong desire to meet him in person.
Anna has more secrets that she has kept from her mother and everyone else - she is able to sense the emotions of people through touch and sometimes sees uncanny visions of impending disasters such as the sinking of the Titanic and the Spanish influenza epidemic. Her visions suddenly increase in frequency and this time they are frighteningly personal - she sees her mother in danger and feels herself drowning and unable to save her mother. She also starts experiencing emotions of others more strongly, even without touching them. During one of her mother's seances, Anna is unexpectedly able to communicate with a spirit - something that she has never able to do before. To add to her constant feeling of impending doom, the spirit Walter warns her that her life is in danger.
Anna's personal life is also in turmoil. She meets an attractive young neighbour Cole, who she feels a strange connection to. Her senses are heightened whenever Cole is near, but she is not able to trust him completely as he seems to have his own ulterior motive in befriending her. Anna is suspicious of her mother's manager Jacques, whose emotions are obscure to her even when she touches him. She also meets Owen, Jacques' dashing nephew, who seems to be interested in courting her. She accidentally comes across Harry Houdini and cannot restrain herself from revealing her illusionist abilities to him.
Things start becoming more complicated when some of her mother's clients start acting weirdly, she discovers the existence of a society which investigates paranormal abilities and realizes that Houdini himself is bent on unmasking phony mediums. Anna is caught between trying to protect her mother, discovering whether Houdini knows about her existence and fighting her growing attraction to Cole. All the while, she continues to question whether her own mother loves her enough and whether she will ever be able to move out of her mother's shadow.
Who can Anna truly trust - Cole or Owen? Can she reveal her true abilities to Dr. Bennett, an erstwhile member of the Society for Psychical Research? What is Jacques' hidden agenda? How much can she reveal to her own mother? What are her visions warning her about? Can she stop these events from happening in the future? All these questions start plaguing Anna and the reader. Though I managed to figure out the culprit before the final revelation, it was still an engrossing read and one I would not hesitate to recommend to anyone who enjoys a light, paranormal mystery about the coming-of-age of a likable heroine with unusual psychic abilities.
"Born of Illusion" is about a young girl, Anna Van Housen, whose mother is a popular spirit medium in post-World War I New York. Anna has had a lonely and unconventional childhood, moving from place to place, while her mother performed in physic shows in various small towns and cities. Her mother, Marguerite, is a stunning beauty who is always hungry for fame and fortune but has no real psychic abilities. She relies on tricks and fake illusions to make her stage shows and seances seem real. Only Anna knows her secret. Marguerite has also changed her real name to gain popularity and has spread rumours that Anna is the illegitimate daughter of the famous magician, Harry Houdini, and even Anna doesn't know if that's true or another of her mother's elaborate deceptions. Anna is fascinated by magic and has taught herself various magic tricks over the years. Her dream is to perform independent of her mother and become an acknowledged illusionist, which is a difficult thing to do in an age when female magicians are rare and the ones that do practice are not taken seriously.
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| Source: pininterest.com |
Anna has more secrets that she has kept from her mother and everyone else - she is able to sense the emotions of people through touch and sometimes sees uncanny visions of impending disasters such as the sinking of the Titanic and the Spanish influenza epidemic. Her visions suddenly increase in frequency and this time they are frighteningly personal - she sees her mother in danger and feels herself drowning and unable to save her mother. She also starts experiencing emotions of others more strongly, even without touching them. During one of her mother's seances, Anna is unexpectedly able to communicate with a spirit - something that she has never able to do before. To add to her constant feeling of impending doom, the spirit Walter warns her that her life is in danger.
 |
| Source: pininterest.com |
Things start becoming more complicated when some of her mother's clients start acting weirdly, she discovers the existence of a society which investigates paranormal abilities and realizes that Houdini himself is bent on unmasking phony mediums. Anna is caught between trying to protect her mother, discovering whether Houdini knows about her existence and fighting her growing attraction to Cole. All the while, she continues to question whether her own mother loves her enough and whether she will ever be able to move out of her mother's shadow.
Who can Anna truly trust - Cole or Owen? Can she reveal her true abilities to Dr. Bennett, an erstwhile member of the Society for Psychical Research? What is Jacques' hidden agenda? How much can she reveal to her own mother? What are her visions warning her about? Can she stop these events from happening in the future? All these questions start plaguing Anna and the reader. Though I managed to figure out the culprit before the final revelation, it was still an engrossing read and one I would not hesitate to recommend to anyone who enjoys a light, paranormal mystery about the coming-of-age of a likable heroine with unusual psychic abilities.
You had me at Tarot cards, seances, and spirit mediums! I read the rest of the review to familiarise myself with the characters and story line I will come across but am definitely reading this one:)
ReplyDeleteI knew it! This is exactly your kind of book :)
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