I made it only ⅕ of the way through A Curse of Illusions before reluctantly having to DNF it. I thought the concept of this book was strong, and had a lot of potential, but I could never envision myself recommending this title to anyone in its current state.

It honestly felt like I was reading an early draft, with various awkwardly structured sentences, unnecessary repetition in the prose (for instance, a character hands another a note explaining that it’s marked “urgent,” and then the prose informs us that it’s marked urgent, as if for the first time.) At one point, a chapter begins in the middle of a sentence- starting “and for too long,”- it’s not even mistakenly capitalised. There’s also a habit of words being used not quite incorrectly, but in very strange grammatical contexts: “I didn’t expect you to arrive this timely,” rather than “I didn’t expect your arrival to be this timely,” or “Dozens of tables line in front of Sara,” rather than “There are dozens of tables lined in front of Sara.”

Besides being unpolished, the prose was also incredibly rote and difficult to engage with, with an incredible amount of “telling,” rather than “showing”. There’s a lack of emotion that permeates everything in this book, especially the dialogue, which was particularly stilted and unnatural. Sader seems to struggle greatly with establishing tone. For instance, one character describes the memories of the murders she’s commited as an assasin, in a scene where she is becoming overwhelmed with guilt “pop[ping],” into her head. This casual, cutesy word just doesn’t belong in a scene like this: “crowding,” or even “rushing,” would have preserved the emotional tone more succesfully.

I wasn’t attached to any of the characters, nor did I feel like the world was thought out, but I would caution anyone to take those comments with a pinch of salt, as I didn’t progress very far through the novel, and there was time for these elements to improve. The exposition I did get on the magic system was confusing, and the insights into characters also had an extremely unnatural feel to them– the reveal that one of them has severe amnesia, for instance, comes as a casual diversion dropped in the middle of a sentence. I had hoped these elements would be strong enough to buoy me along, despite the technical issues with A Curse of Illusions, but unfortunately, that simply wasn’t the case.

I don't think this book is a lost cause, but I think it's a very long way from being a strong story.