A review by aliciaclarereads
The Illusionist by Jennifer Johnston

2.0

This book infuriated me. Martyn has to one of the worst, most despicable characters I have ever read. And I just finished Wuthering Heights. (Which I loved, but let's be honest the majority of the characters are terrible people). I somewhat liked the ending, but the book in general just made me angry. I think it would have been better if the author hadn't tried so hard. It seemed that she was desperately trying to have achingly, beautiful prose that was deep and thought provoking. But instead it was fragmented and whiny sounding. I read this for my Irish Book Club at school, and I highly recommend never picking up with book. Unless you want to make a bad mood worse.

This is kind of spoilery, but you shouldn't want to read this book anyway.

It took Stella 220 pages to tell Martyn to go fuck himself. She should've said it the moment he took her book on the train whilst she was reading. Because that's what I would've done. Not fall in love with a manipulative douchebag who would never answer any question she asked.