Illusion

February 13, 2012
Some novelists resist allegory, but Peretti (Monster) embraces it. When Mandy dies in a car accident, Dane, her husband of 40 years and illusionist partner, must carry on without her. But is he really without her? Mandy awakens from the accident in the present, but as a 19-year-old who thinks it’s 1970. The two soon meet as Mandy is experimenting with some new magical powers and trying to figure out just who is behind this grand illusion. Though she calls herself Eloise, she resembles the Mandy whom Dane met 40 years before, and it’s making him crazy. Meanwhile Mandy wonders if she is certifiably crazy herself, but she is soon confronted by dark figures who know why she came back and what could become of her. Peretti captures the irony of how two magicians get caught in a greater illusion than they’ve ever created themselves.