The Art of Disappearing by Ivy Pochoda

After finishing a few disappointing books lately, I was waiting to fall in love and The Art of Disappearing by Ivy Pochoda was the perfect novel to do that. In The Art of Disappearing Mel Snow meets the magician Toby at an out of the way roadside bar, and the two connect immediately and decide to marry in Las Vegas. Mel knows Toby's magic is different, that it isn't about illusion but that he has a gift and that his magic is real. They move to Las Vegas where Mel works as a textile consultant as the fabric sings to her and Toby works on pursuing his dream of having a Vegas show. As Toby's success grows, Mel learns that his magic may be more dangerous than she ever could have anticipated. When things go wrong, the couple flees Vegas for Amsterdam and move in with a bunch of old real magicians who may be able to teach Toby powers beyond his imagination just as Mel begins to doubt whether or not their love is real- or if Toby conjured her too.

The setting in The Art of Disappearing almost becomes its own character, the desert heat of Vegas and the rainy streets of Amsterdam, Pochoda uses location as a powerful tool in telling her story. However my favourite skill of Pochoda's is her haunting, enchanting, lyrical use of language. The description in the book was velvety beautiful from the very beginning, and her word choice was the perfect way to tell a story that is part magic, part human truth. The Art of Disappearing is what I wanted My Name is Memory to be, it is the perfect blend of the real and the unreal, magic and reality. It is full of unique and powerful characters, and I felt a connection to each of them. I especially loved the way Pochoda described Mel's relationship with her water-loving older brother Max, and the complexity of having to both love somebody and let them go, a theme which dominated the novel. It is a romance without resorting to the cliches of the genre, a love story without being predictable, a look into the human heart with touching and remarkable skill- The Art of Disappearing is a book I did not want to put down and a book I will be picking up again. I am eagerly awaiting whatever Pochoda writes next. *****

Number of Pages: 320 pages
Published: September 2009 
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This review was a part of TLC Book Tours. Click here to read what other tour hosts thought. For the purpose of this review I was provided with a copy of the book which did not require a positive review. The opinions expressed in this post are completely my own. 

Come back tomorrow for an interview with Ivy Pochoda and a giveaway of the book!