Review - The Art of Disappearing by Ivy Pochoda

TITLE:    The Art of Disappearing: A Novel

AUTHOR/EDITOR:    Ivy Pochoda
INFO:    Hardback, Fiction, 311 pages
PUBLISHED:   St. Martin's Griffin, 2010
ISBN#:   978-0-3123-85859
HOW'D I GET IT:   Received from TLC Book Tours for Review

FROM GOODREADS:  How do you know if love is real or just an illusion?  


When Mel Snow meets the talented magician Toby Warring in a dusty roadside bar, she is instantly drawn to the brilliant performer whose hands can effortlessly pull stray saltshakers and poker chips from thin air and conjure castles out of the desert sands. Just two days later they are married, beginning their life together ...more How do you know if love is real or just an illusion?


When Mel Snow meets the talented magician Toby Warring in a dusty roadside bar, she is instantly drawn to the brilliant performer whose hands can effortlessly pull stray saltshakers and poker chips from thin air and conjure castles out of the desert sands. Just two days later they are married, beginning their life together in the shadow of Las Vegas, where Toby hopes to make it big. Mel knows that magicians are a dime a dozen, but Toby is different—his magic is real.


As Toby’s renown grows and Mel falls more and more in love with his wonderments, she starts to realize that Toby's powers are as unstable as they are dazzling. She learns that he once made his assistant disappear completely, and couldn’t bring her back. And then, just as Mel becomes convinced that his magic is dangerous, a trick goes terribly awry during his Strip debut.


Exiled from the stage, Mel and Toby flee the lights of Las Vegas for the streets of Amsterdam where a cabal of old-time magicians, real magicians like Toby, try to rescue him from his despair. But he’s haunted by the trick that failed, and obsessed with using his powers to right his mistakes, leaving Mel to wonder if the love they share is genuine or merely a fantasy, conjured up by a lost magician looking to save himself from being alone.


Ivy Pochoda’s spellbinding and cinematic storytelling seamlessly fuses timeless magic to modern-day passion. Haunting and beautiful, The Art of Disappearing is an imaginative and captivating love story destined to enchant readers for years to come.

MY TAKE:   I would like to thank TLC Book Tours for inviting me to do a review of this book for the tour.  

This book was a very interesting read.  I thought that the premise of the story was very well thought out.  The book starts with the quickie Vegas marriage of the two lead characters and proceeds from there.  They don't know each other at all, but are pulled to each other like magnets or magic! 

Mel's relationship with fabrics and textiles is interesting as they "talk" to her.  She gets stories from pieces of material.  The author does an amazing job of describing this connection and what Mel hears and sees. 

Toby is a magician who really does have magic.  He isn't your run-of-the-mill illusionist or rabbit in the hat magician.  He literally pulls things out of thin air and sends things there too.  This is where the problems start for him.

Ms. Pochoda has created a very readable story of love, loss, and magic that will leave you wondering "what if"?  She is a master of the art of description.   I am looking forward to seeing what comes next for this talented debut author.  This book would be a great choice for a book club or discussion group.  Thanks again to Lisa at TLC Book Tours.

MY RATING:    3.5/5

WHERE TO BUY IT:  Amazon, The Book Depository, IndieBound

 

~~~~~ Disclaimer:  All opinions expressed on this blog are 100% my own.  I do not receive monetary compensation for my reviews but do utilize affiliate links.  I may receive books in  order to facilitate a review, but this does not guarantee a good review - only a completely honest one.  Each review post denotes how I obtained the book.