Book Review: Illusionarium

Title: Illusionarium

Author: Heather Dixon

Rating: ☕ ☕ ☕ ☕ (4)

I have a little confession to make regarding Illusionarium. Actually, I have two confessions. First, although I like the steam punk aesthetic, I’ve never really read a book that had the steam punk classification. Second, I didn’t choose this book because of the theme, blurb, or even the author. To be honest, I chose it because I love the work of cover artist Nathalia Suellen. I’ve been following her on Tumblr ever since I saw the cover for Splintered by A.G. Howard. 

In Dixon’s Illusionarium, we meet Jonathan Gouden; in his own words he considers himself to be “sort of.” He’s “sort of” tall, and “sort of” smart.  He loves learning about medicine and science and takes pride in his job as his father’s apprentice, but he also looks forward to leaving his frozen home for the capital and the academy, where he will study to become a surgeon. But, before he can leave, a deadly disease takes hold of the entire country, including his beloved mother and sister. Jonathan decides to risk everything to find a cure and save his family, even if it means betraying his father and his country.

Jonathan is a great character: he’s impulsive, naïve, and doesn’t always see the big picture. Basically, he’s a 16-year-old boy. He’s so desperate to find a cure to save his mother and sister that he puts his trust in a strange chemical called fantillium that causes shared illusions –illusions that can be manipulated by those with the skill to do so. Throughout the story, Jonathan waffles between trying to do the right thing and becoming like the people he’s fighting against. I love that Jonathan doesn’t always choose to do the right thing, that’s human nature, humans make mistakes, and Jonathan makes quite a few, but he learns from them and tries to do better. 

To help him (albeit reluctantly) on his journey is a one-eyed soldier named Lockwood. In the beginning, he and Jonathan detest each other. Lockwood sees the world in black and white – he doesn’t understand why Jonathan is willing to go to any lengths to secure a cure for the disease ravaging the country. If it can’t be obtained through honorable (read: legal) means, then it can’t be done. At first I really disliked Lockwood. I couldn’t understand how someone could turn a blind eye (no pun intended) to the suffering of the citizens around him. Throughout the second half of the book we learn a little bit about Lockwood’s past, and how it has influenced his view of the world. He still ticked me off a bit, but as the story went on I started to like him more and more. If the author wants to write a prequel or sequel with Lockwood as the main character I will almost definitely read it because I feel there is more beneath the eye patch (and I would really like to know the rest of the story on how he got that eye patch…). 

I really enjoyed this book. The world building was great and I really loved how the author described Jonathan’s process for creating illusions. They didn’t just appear with a thought, there was a fairly complicated method involved in their creation. Dixon spent a lot of time on the illusions and the parts where Jonathan was on the run, which caused some parts to be rushed or underdeveloped. There are sections that I wished were fleshed out a bit more, especially those with Jonathan and Lockwood. I’m giving this book a 4 because it kept my attention (which is in short supply these days) and I really did love the story.