Another brilliant, enchanting story from the magical story teller Liz Hyder. The Illusions is set in Victorian Bristol and is a story about magic, early film making and Victorian illusions. It follows the story of two strong female characters who are ahead of their times, Cecily and Eadie both whom are determined to achieve their destinies whilst struggling with their own losses. Then enter George Parris into their world a young man who is set to become the greatest magician and the story was set for me. I couldn’t stop listening to this audiobook and the narrator is just superb. I felt transported into their world and I was invested in all the characters ( and booed the villain of the story.) I would buy anything Liz Hyder writes!!

Have you ever looked at someone and been able to see objectively that they are extremely attractive; that there's a reason other people are swarming all over them. And yet there's something indefinable that doesn't work for you? That's kind of how I feel about Hyder's work. She writes original story with great historical detail, interesting characters and hints of magic in a historical setting. Her writing itself is beautiful and she has a knack for finding the lesser observed corners of Victorian/ Edwardian history. And yet for some reason I just don't fully connect. I read this and enjoyed it, and was still slightly dissatisfied. I guess the magic here is not accessible to me and that's probably far more of a me thing. I want to be immersed and yet I'm just not. Still a good book and if the subject matter interests you, give it a go because Hyder does a great job with it.

The Illusions was a lively little surprise. I had less than a week to listen and I was unable to finish in that time, but what I did accomplish listening to was an engaging story of which I couldn't wait to hear more. I'm disappointed I did not get to finish but look forward to doing so at a later date.

I loved this audiobook. It was beautifully written and beautifully read, with the perfect mix of history and wonder and a brilliant cast of characters. I really enjoyed the Bristol setting too. I'm feeling slightly bereft on my walks now that I've finished it!

Magical and full of chuckling. Definitely recommend.

Audiobook review: ‘The Illusions’ by Liz Hyder aka @londonbessie

Bristol, 1896: a young girl suspects she has an impossible gift but is afraid of what it might lead to. A young woman knows she has the technical genius to make great strides forward in the new art of ‘living pictures’, but, with her father dead and brother missing, can she find the backing she needs to keep the family business going while she makes a name for herself? Two aging magicians plan to hang up their wands and cloaks with their greatest trick yet. Two younger conjurors compete to be declared ‘Britain’s next top magic act’, but one of them is prepared to play the dirtiest tricks in the book… and as for the book itself, that’s another mystery entirely.

I have to confess, I hesitated to request this to review from @netgalley as supernaturalist Victorian isn’t usually my thing, but I’m so glad I did. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

From the off, the characters and the world were drawn with such energy and colour I found myself grinning. When the line ‘You’re allergic to moustache glue’ was deployed as a put down, I was wholeheartedly won over and chuckled, gasped in wonder, and shed several tears with the wonderful cast, plus shook my fist at the beautifully sinister bad magician.

Hyder’s passion for the theatre shines through, as does her skill as a storyteller. The historical context is fascinating. Setting stage magic alongside early moving pictures showed both in a new light for me, plus made me appreciate ‘The Wizard of Oz’ on a whole new level. I was only sorry I couldn’t zoom back in time and sit in the audience. There’s also a significant dog, which is never a bad thing.

Anna Burnett narrates the audiobook beautifully. The only niggle I had is that in the audio, there’s nothing to indicate when a scene shifts to a new POV and / or location within a chapter, which often made it temporarily confusing as to where we were and who we were with. I expect this isn’t an issue with the print version, where page layout would make it clear.

Big thanks to @netgalley and @manilla_press for the review copy.

Wonderful and enchanting, I totally LOVED this big hearted story. The late nineteenth century was an exciting time for the development of new technologies and moving films play an important role here.

A truly lovely book and fantastic narration.

I loved this behind to scenes to early magic shows and film. Its clear that Hyder loves working with history and spinning tales that do an excellent job of pulling the reader in.

Our cast of charaters are a fantastic found family and I loved getting to know them all. The narrator also does an excellent job of capturing each person and ensurses that they are distinguishable from one another.

This "steampunk" kind of story about the magicians, illusions and the beginning of film industry is not bad per se, but it could be better. There is a group of "good" characters fighting one evil character and there are several obstacles on the way, yet there is very little of surprise, twists or unexpected moments, all plot events point to the set ending (even the big "cliffhanger" moment at the end is in reality not that surprising).
Also the modern kind of thinking and behaviour (including the LGBTI+ topics) in the historical novel feels off.

The narration is fine.

*A big thank-you to Liz Hyder, Bonnier UK Audio, and NetGalley for a free audiobook in exchange for my honest review.*
Another book by Ms Hyder which did not disappoint me. The illusions and powers of a new medium appearing on the horizon at the end of the 19th century bring about opportunities for those who dare. Historical fiction which entertains, educates and offers some thrills - a perfect combination for me.

4/5⭐️

The book took a while to pick up the pace but once it did it was amazing !!!
Story of true friendship and support.
I really enjoyed the LGBT part as well, it was very well done, in a very historically accurate manner.
Very well researched.
The ending was just …. Well magical !!!

I really enjoyed The Gifts so I was looking forwards to reading this. Overall I think I was underwhelmed by this story of magicians and early film makers in Victorian Bristol, which had a lot of promise but in the end, for me, it failed to deliver. It took me a long time to get through it because it failed to grab me from the start.

Judging by the book's afterword, the author did a lot of research for the book surrounding magic and early work with film, but I didn't feel that there was the same attention to detail given to the period in which the book was set. I never got much of a sense of the places in which the action was taking place, it felt really that it could have been taking place at any time or place in history. The characters too were a bit bland and lacklustre, strange for magicians because you would think they would be more flamboyant, but they all blended into each other, particularly the women, and I found it quite difficult to remember who everyone was.

I'm not sure what the point of the "real" magic was in the book, since so little was made of it.

Some of the arguments for actions the characters didn't take in the book made absolutely no sense at all, which was frustrating. Without wanting to give too much away, there's an incident that happens where it is universally decided that nobody will believe their word if they take it to the police because of a lack of evidence, but then later in the book information is revealed without any evidence and the same people seem to have absolutely no concern that they will be believed. It felt odd and inconsistent - another example being who gets forgiven for doing bad things and who doesn't, and which characters others feel they owe loyalty to and which they don't. It was weird and frustrating.

The final few chapters of the book feel like the cliche scene at the end of a high school teen movie where the bad guys get their comeuppance and it actually made me cringe. It's a shame because the part after that made for quite a good ending.

I listened to the audiobook, which might have been part of the problem. There wasn't enough of a pause left between scenes so they just seemed to run on into each other, which was confusing in a book with multiple perspectives. The narrator also was terrible at injecting any sense of panic or danger into a scene - there was an incident where one of the characters was in severe physical danger and I had absolutely no idea how serious it was because her tone was so flat and might as well have been remarking upon the weather.

Set in Victorian Bristol, this is a tale of numerous intertwining stories. Cecily Marsden, is just a young woman when her mentor and con-artist Arthur takes her under his wing. After performing, a big storm rolls in and scaffolding falls from a nearby house, crushing and killing Artur and leaving Cecily alone. Devastated and believing herself to blame, she runs to one of Artur’s confidantes Roderick Scarret to see if he can help, only to find this may have been a mistake as he is not all he seems.

At the same time Eadie Carleton is running a photography company, innovative in the novelty of moving pictures and soon finds herself crossing paths with illusionist George Perris who wishes to use her technology somehow in his show. Soon all their paths will collide.

Written in the same vein as The Gifts, this tale of magical realism set in the 1890’s takes you on an exciting journey of illusions, magic, seances, rivalry, trickery and women’s struggle with the patriarchal society of Victorian England. I enjoy how Liz Hyder makes women at the very forefront of her work, but I did find that some of the characters needed more depth and there were a lot of similar characters, which made it confusing at times.

If you are interested in an atmospheric, mysterious and magical book, in a victorian setting this is well worth the read.


The narrator had a lovely, clear and engaging voice.

This historical fiction has con artists and a splash of Magic, of both the real and stage magician variety. A nice slow paced story kept me engaged and interested, although wasn't particularly gripping.
I thought it was a sequel to The Gifts so I went and read that one first but it actually doesn't follow on at all. I enjoyed The Gifts more, it was much darker. I usually like high fantasy with lots of world building and magical chaos, but these two books are just real world with a little undercurrent of supernatural. I would recommend them both, so 5 stars.

I requested an eARC of this novel based solely upon the strength of its fantastic cover art, which fits right in my wheelhouse, only to realise belatedly that this is by the same author as ‘The Gifts’. Nevertheless, I persisted with ‘The Illusions’ to see if Liz Hyder’s approach to historical fiction had undergone any sort of transformation, since, sadly, I couldn’t write a favourable review of that debut novel earlier this year.

However, far from being refashioned, I find that the problematic elements of Liz Hyder’s style abide, and that my points of concern remain the same. Principally, that Hyder’s characters are indistinguishable, one from the others, in emotion, articulation, and motivation (the pursuit of success and/or love being the only storylines here).

Some of this might be due to the fact that I found Anna Burnett’s vocal performance of ‘The Illusions’ audiobook colourless by comparison to Tuppence Middleton’s narration of ‘The Gifts’. Burnett’s reading compounds the issue: she proves unsuccessful in animating Hyder’s characters vocally. The cast, in narration, should be full of panache and vitality; these flamboyant entertainers could be enlivened with a spirited performance, yet I found them unexciting, unvaried; too samey to hold my interest. (Perhaps it is no fault of the voice performance; it’s interesting that I find myself writing practically the same review as for Hyder’s other novel.)

In ‘The Illusions’, we have Eadie Carleton and we have Cecily Marsdens, and there really isn’t much to distinguish the inner voices or the speech of these two female main characters. Then we have George Perris and his own swappable counterpart (who is so bland that I have literally forgotten his name, as I write this! He was Perris’s assistant, then Eadie’s assistant, and he is the paramour of Harriet). There is also Lewis, Eadie’s brother, and Ollie and Ollie’s brother. But these are, again, interchangeable with the other male characters (save Skarratt). Furthermore, there is George’s sister Harry, who is a cookie-cutter replica of Eadie. And with all this multitude, the novel is over-heavy on love stories.

I could speculate upon whether Hyder’s problem with character drive is because she is working from factual history, but if the historical figures caught her attention in the first instance, then surely they can be fictionalised as similarly arresting on the page!? I really tried to love ‘The Illusions’, because the bare story effected such a strong pull on me, and perhaps I’m going to be the outlier amidst rave reviews, but I just kept asking myself, where is the stagecraft in the text? Hyder’s writing here, with this subject, could be dramatic and theatrical, full of gusto, as exuberant as these stage performers must have been! Yet there is no zest here, no zing, even with an element of the supernatural thrown in. The touch of magical realism is underdeveloped and, as a result, appears to be frivolously tacked on.

Not dissimilar to her debut novel, this, Hyder’s second novel doesn’t manage to get the wheels of the story moving until quite a distance into the book. And, likewise, ‘The Illusions’ flops glumly at its conclusion (glumly for me, personally; I see the conclusion pleases other reviewers). Nonetheless, I will continue to follow Hyder’s career, because her choice of subjects and areas of research are markedly within my sphere of interest when it comes to fiction genres, and I hope that I’ll find that sparkle in her upcoming work.

Thanks are due to Bonnier UK Audio for the kind opportunity to listen to the audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

This is a great escapism novel. Historical fiction full of magic. I loved the feel of the story, you're immersed in Victorian society. I enjoyed the story but didn't feel like it was deep enough, i cant put my finger on it but i felt the same about Hyder's first book.

This was my first ever audiobook, and having read liz's debut book as an arc i went into this with high hopes knowing i love here creativity in her storytelling, strong female characters and perspectives with amazing plot twists.

Unfortunately i found this hard to follow, mostly due to a lack of differentiation in the accents, and the lack of difference in tone between genders. Only one character had a distinguishable accent and it was a scottish one, besides that it was very generic british accents and so hard to follow unless your only concentrating on the audio and nothing else.

I think i wouldve rated it higher as a book overall if reading the book alone or at least in tandem with the audio overall.

overall though, i did enjoy the story overall, magic weaved with mystery and intrigue the whole way through. harmful frauds and real magicians, and to an extent found family and betrayals.

A great listen - I thoroughly enjoyed the audio of this story - it was easy to get into and the story gripped me from the beginning. It featured a quirky cast of characters and lots of themes that I love in a story. The storytelling was stunning and the magic - both illusion and magical realism was captivating.

I enjoyed the themes of found family and the focus on the women in this story. The slow burn of romance was good too. The overall story had a cosy and whimsical feel about it - a world that was easy to escape into for a while.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my audio copy of this story.

Paired my signed copy with the #ALC from #NetGalley.

Late 19th century. Set in Bristol. Magicians, early moving pictures, séances, found family, betrayals, and a show with a grand final. Likeable and 'authentic' characters.

The narration was good. I had to crank it to 2.25x though to roughly match my reading speed

The Illusions me ha recordado un poco a The Beatiful Ones, en el sentido de que la fantasía es tan leve en el desarrollo del libro que si se retirara este pequeño elemento el libro seguiría siendo coherente y completo. Es por esto a los lectores de género, que son los que habitualmente pueden leer mis reseñas, que en The Illusions van a encontrar poco.


No obstante, es un libro casi costumbrista con unos personajes entrañables y un entorno más que atractivo, ya que aúna los trucos de los mejores magos en los escenarios con los principios del cine y sus imágenes en movimiento, donde todavía era posible sorprender con una nueva tecnología que hoy forma parte de nuestro día a día.

El reparto de la novela es bastante coral, desde la joven que hereda la empresa de fotografía a la muerte de su padre y lucha contra viento y marea por mantenerla a flote en un mundo eminentemente masculino al mago que trabaja con un ilusión por hacerse un nombre en los escenarios. Todo aderezado de malentendidos románticos bastante edulcorados, con un maniqueísmo extremo en la descripción de los personajes, problemas a los que no damos importancia durante la lectura porque al final queremos que los buenos ganen y los malos fracasen.

Estoy segura que en el buen sabor de boca que me ha dejado el libro ha influido de manera muy positiva el trabajo de Anna Burnett, la narradora. Ha conseguido transportarme a finales del siglo XVIII solo con sus palabras y su buen hacer.

En cuanto a la trama, no es para nada compleja. El libro está situado en Bristol, que en aquella época era prácticamente la segunda ciudad más importante del Reino Unido, y se nota el meticuloso proceso de documentación que ha llevado a cabo Liz Hyder al escribir el libro, bastante bien explicado en la parte final de la novela. Creo que ha conseguido aunar muy bien ese aire fantasioso y espectacular de los espectáculos de magia en vivo con una historia no demasiado original pero si bien hilada y narrada.

Si hace poco hablábamos de The Only Purple House in Town como un ejemplo de cozy fantasy, The Illusions sería un ejemplo de cozy ficción histórica.

I loved The Gifts by the same author and I am delighted that The Illusions was equally as good. The story, an historical fiction about illusionists and early film pioneers, is a real treat. The book cover is wonderful and the narration was perfect for the story. Looking forward to reading more from Liz Hyder. Thank you to Net Galley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.