Smoke and Mirrors by Barry Jonsberg

Title: Smoke and Mirrors

Author: Barry Jonsberg

Genre: Contemporary

Publisher: Allen and Unwin

Published: 30^th January 2024

Format: Paperback

Pages: 272

Price: $19.99

Synopsis: Grace McKellon isn’t a ‘people person’. All she needs is her magic tricks and her wise-cracking grandmother – until a new friend comes along and promises to make her a social media star. A wonderful and intriguing middle fiction novel from an internationally acclaimed, bestselling Australian author.

I don’t know about love. I suspect the emotion that others apparently feel all the time is just . . . absent from me. Like there’s an ingredient missing from the recipe. The possible exception is Gran.

Grace cares about only two things: performing magic and her cantankerous gran. Gran shares her prickly personality and spiky sense of humour, and she’s the only one Grace lets into her tightly locked heart – until she meets Simon, a schoolmate who promises to help her turn her magic tricks into a small business and social media stardom.

When Gran is diagnosed with a terminal illness, Grace moves in to become her primary carer. With the help of Simon and some sleight of hand, Grace is determined to bring joy back into their lives. And when she confronts her worst fear, she realises maybe her heart doesn’t need to stay locked away after all.

A funny, compelling and fresh story from the author of the bestselling books My Life As An Alphabet and A Song Only I Can Hear.

~*~

Barry Jonsberg’s latest novel, Smoke and Mirrors deals with heavy issues – life, death, terminal illness, and alcoholism, as well as friendship, grief, and learning to trust people – all of this is hinted at in the first few chapters, where a lot of things are hinted at or foreshadowed, as the book moves through layers of a complex family life. Grace McKellon isn’t that into people – she’s been orbiting her mother ever since tragedy struck their family – a tragedy that is hinted at throughout at first, and it’s one of the aspects that we need to stick with Grace and her determination not to let anyone in to find out what is really behind the grief and fracturing of her family. Rather than spend time with her mother, who has her own problems, Grace checks in on her grandmother, always hoping things will be okay. Grace been worried about her grandmother ever since her dad died when she was six – part of the story that deals with grief throughout the generations and the different ways Grace, her mother, and her grandmother have dealt with the world over the past decade.

Now sixteen, Grace is practically raising herself, talking to Jake in moments of loneliness, and throwing herself into her magic. Simon, a friend from school helps her turn it into a business. Yet as Grace moves in with her grandmother to care for her through a terminal illness. This adds to Grace’s tumultuous world as she navigates school holidays, loneliness and caring responsibilities – something that many people tell her she’s too young for. In allowing Grace to deal with these issues, this novel shows that life isn’t perfect, and everyone has different experiences and has to go through different things. As Grace muddles through her time caring for her gran, she’s determined to make it work, and show everyone around her that she doesn’t need help. As a middle grade novel, it does deal with some rather heavy issues that people of all ages can face, and it can show readers what like can be like for people around them. It is a novel that I think readers need to be ready for – in the sense that they feel they can cope with the themes that are quite adult in nature but are written about for a younger audience in a touching and accessible way.

While I read this book, I thought Grace was a bit prickly, but soon came to understand why – everything she has been through, she’s worked hard to protect herself and the events of the book as well as her trauma from the past. And slowly, as Grace begins to trust the reader, we get to see a little more of her, but not too much at once. It is a novel that is filled with many layers and themes that are relevant to readers of all ages, but in particular those aged ten and older who might be going through what Grace is going through, or know people who are going through something similar. Smoke and Mirrors can evoke empathy and sympathy, helping people understand the different ways everyone lives, grieves and comes to terms with what is going on in their lives. It is a story with darkness and light, and the discovery of what really matters in life, and who is really there for you. Barry has taken a cynical character with lots of walls and given her a chance to express herself through what she loves – magic. Magic and tricks are used throughout as a metaphor for life and what life throws at you, and it is this thinking that helps Grace resolve things and find ways to make the world a gentler place – even if it is only temporarily. I felt that this was effective, and maintained throughout to keep the illusion up, so to speak. It leads Grace to making decisions that she might not have made had the premise of the book not kicked things off in the way it did. This worked well, as it played into the idea of what belief in something – anything – can do. Overall, I think this was an interesting and powerful book that readers aged ten and over will find something to connect with and understand as they read, and come to terms with the difficulties and the uncertainties of life in the safe realm of literature.