Reviews

Smoke and Mirrors by Tanya Huff

sarahholland's review

5.0

This is one of my favorite re-reads - I'm not entirely sure why, but there's something about it that makes it appealing to curl up with.

I was reading BC Business magazine today, and found an article about a house of roughly the same vintage as the one in the book! Actually, I started looking at the pictures, and immediately thought that it was THE house. Wrong area of town, doesn't seem to have a ballroom - but I think I recognized a number of other rooms.

Enjoy!
https://www.bcbusiness.ca/Big-Fat-Deal-19-million-for-a-Shaugnessy-mansion-with-spicy-backstory

sandygx260's review

5.0

Simple and sweet. Love Tony, love the story.

kivt's review

3.0

definitely the strongest of the trilogy. i love a good haunted house.

cheesygiraffe's review

4.0

Very good. I love the haunted house and the fact that almost the whole crew is involved. This was scarier than the rest of the books I've read by Tanya Huff. Not much Henry this time around, which is good because Tony needs his independence. He may eventually by a good wizard.

bergamotandbooks's review against another edition

4.0

Most certainly better than the first one in this series!

I'm one of those people that gets really creeped out by ghosts and things like that but I still really enjoyed the plot of this book. (I did manage to read most of it during the day though!)

the_cheerful_necromancer's review

dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

Partially ported over from my now-abandoned Goodreads:

Better even than the first in the series, which I loved in spite of its flaws- I was shocked at how brilliant this one felt!

A really tight, tense haunted-house narrative, with a liberal sprinkling of the macabre and of course, the snark and wit of our protagonist, Tony Foster. I'm amazed at how uncomfortable this haunted house feels, considering the book generally doesn't take itself too seriously. The cast of book one returns almost in its entirety, with only a few new faces, and I think that was a brilliant decision; these colourful characters get the chance to really shine in such a confined space, and they sure do!

This book is a brilliantly navigated urban fantasy, and with a good handful of gay scenes thrown in for good measure, it's undoubtedly a favourite of mine. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Suicide, and Murder

Moderate: Child death, Ableism, Alcoholism, Alcohol, and Child abuse

Minor: Addiction, Cursing, Sexual content, and Vomit

This is a haunted house story. Bad things happened to the former residents of this house, and in visions, we see them EXPLICITLY. One of the victims is a baby, and his death is the least graphic (never described or "seen" in detail by the main character, unlike the others) but arguably most upsetting even so. Ableism:

One of the ghosts is a child/teenager with Down's Syndrome who was abused, mostly via neglect, by his father.

Alcohol/Alcoholism:

One of the members of the ensemble is an alcoholic and murders another member in a drunken rage.

Vomit:

He then dies choking on vomit.

Suicide:

Several of the ghosts are suicide victims, and/or committed murder-suicides. Generally it is treated as a tragedy and not glorified nor villified (with the obvious exception of accompanying murder.)

Body Horror:

One character runs into a magical window and, apparently, breaks ALL his bones. It's not really graphic, but it's a grim image.

Body Horror ENDING SPOILER:

The "thing in the basement" is sort of a man, and mostly a gross amalgamation of human stuff.

Sexual content is BRIEFLY mentioned but nobody actually has sex on-page. There's some cursing, but nothing too outlandish.

scrollsofdragons's review

3.0

Slow start and still way too much focus on film production which I think was why the book felt so very slow for the first part. The characters definitely make this book up more then the plot does because the plot was just a tad repetitive with all the replays and Tony having to go out to do wizardry stuff.

I do completely ship CB and Henry/Tony and Lee but I heard the former aren't in the third book as much which is a shame, they're duo partnership in this was one of the best things of this novel.

alicjaz's review

adventurous dark sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

shaekin's review

4.0

This book was terrifying in a good way, but also in a "there's no way I'm putting this book down and trying to sleep until the bad thing is dead and I have my happy ending" kind of way. Definitely not what I was expecting but that made it that much worse/better. I definitely recommend, however do yourself a favor and read the other series/books first. Makes this one amazing. Also, read in daylight.

saphirablue's review

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

I really like this and I love, love, love, love Tony. <3

Even though this is kind of a classical "trapped over night in a haunted house" story, it still feels different and I loved reading it. The deaths are gruesome but not too much.

I love Tony. His snark. His thoughts. The way he is the hero. Love it!

On to the next part!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Suicide

Minor: Incest