The novel follows Ava Perry, who is hunting a vampire responsible for the death of her mother. The need for vengeance against him has become Ava's drive in life, but vampires haven't been seen for ten years so she's started to give up hope, until she finds a group of stage magicians who are able to do impossible magic tricks and realizes they can do real magic.
Ava ends up meeting them backstage and discovering she possesses the same abilities as they do. These magicians are revealed to be an ancient society of magic users. Ava joins them on the condition that they teach her how to destroy vampires and take down her mother's killer. That said, they reveal that she'll have to prove herself worthy and able to compete with them in a deadly show of illusions before they help.
Cruel Illusions provides examples of:
- Archnemesis Dad: Lucius is revealed to be Ava's father and is the ultimate enemy of the novel. He's responsible for centuries of draining of others' lifeblood in order to create immortal magicians. Lucius makes Ava an enemy by being responsible for the death of her mother and stepfather.
- Blood Magic: Since magic in magic users hums underneath the skin and is felt in the blood, blood letting helps to increase the abilities of its user. The more blood spilt from a person, the more powerful the spells. Eventually, it gets to a point where the magic users push themselves to the brink of death through blood letting and become immortal (their magician blood is all used up and instead they gain a hunger for the blood of others to replenish themselves, becoming vampires).
- Broken Masquerade: Zig-zagged. Vampires came out to the world a decade ago in televised appearances to try for peace with humanity. They went into hiding again soon after coming out, after one of their kind killed a child. In the present, the fact the vampires have been gone so long mixed with the fact they disappeared so soon after making their presence known has meant a lot of people have now written them off as an elaborate hoax.
- Clap Your Hands If You Believe: The stage magicians' power is literally tied to the belief of their audiences. Their power is fed by the audiences believing that they can do their magic for real, and that gives the magicians a boost in power allowing them to do it for real.
- Cycle of Revenge: The first vampire Numerius killed Lucius' sister after he first became a vampire. Lucius responded to this by killing Numerius' sister. The two have now spent centuries as archfoes trying to hurt each other more and more. It's escalated to the point that their organizations (Lucius' Society of Magicians and Numerius's vampires) are now in constant conflict with each other.
- Daywalking Vampire: Vampires normally are weak to sunlight and will turn to dust when in contact with it. That said, a vampire that consumes the blood of a magician gains the ability to use magic itself for a few days and, more importantly, be able to move and walk in sunlight.
- Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: Roman is a vampire, but doesn't prey on humans like others of his kind. He only takes blood that he buys from willing hosts and also hunts both vampires who hurt people and other magicians who are using their powers to abuse others.
- Immortal Procreation Clause: Magicans who take the immortality spell cannot have children, because their bodies are frozen at the age that the spell was cast. Hence, the biological functions required for conception and pregnancy will not occur.
- Longest Pregnancy Ever: The pregnancy of Ava's mother lasts centuries, as she was pregnant with Ava before becoming immortal. Becoming immortal in the series causes biological functions to freeze, hence she became trapped like that for centuries. She was only able to give birth to Ava in the present day after becoming mortal once more.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: Lucius, the leader of the Society and a major villain in the novel, is revealed to be the father of heroine Ava Perry.
- Master of Illusion: Magicians specialise in illusion magic, being able to craft perfect illusions that are able to trick whoever is under them into thinking they're real. They're so sophisticated that they can fake a person's age by crafting wrinkles on their face or trap someone in a plane of nightmares.
- Monster Progenitor: Numerius is the first vampire. In ancient Rome, he was a magician who studied Blood Magic and discovered the ability to gain immortality. He discovered that when the Blood Magic is pushed to its brink and all blood within a magician is used, it results in an immortal body, albeit one that must now eternally consume the blood of others to keep itself going, and if it drinks a person dry of blood, it will turn that person into a vampire too.
- Monster/Slayer Romance: Roman is a vampire and ends up in a romantic relationship with Ava, a member of the vampire slaying group of magicans called the Society. Played with in that Roman hides the fact that he's a vampire from the rest of the Society and they think he's just a normal member of their magician organisation and are unaware of his true nature as one of their enemies.
- Our Vampires Are Different: Vampires are former magicians who experimented with Blood Magic and started to perform blood letting more and more in hopes of gaining the ultimate power. Eventually, these magicians pushed themselves beyond the brink of death and used up all of their magically enhanced blood, becoming immortal (the first vampires). These newly created vampires now have to feed off the blood of others in order to replenish themselves, and anyone whose blood they drain completely will rise up as a vampire themselves. They can be killed by a lot of the normal vampire killing methods found in media: a stake through the heart, weakness to sunlight, being burnt to ashes or decapitation. In addition, vampires are incapable of healing wounds inflicted by wood, as it is a natural element, so it reacts badly to the "unnatural elements" of the vampire body.
- Shout-Out: The book has tons of references to classic vampire media:
- Ava walked into her brothers watching the vampire film The Lost Boys.
- Parker's foster mother planned to throw her son a Star Wars themed birthday party. Parker's sister Ava gives him a The Last Jedi DVD as a birthday present.
- 30 Days of Night is mentioned as a film that terrified heroine Ava years back.
- Magician Xander tells Ava to not "Go all Buffy on him". He also jokes that he does think that Buffy"s Xander kinda deserved to be stabbed.
- The Great Gatsby is mentioned as one of Ava's favorite books, and the extravagant party that the society ends up hosting is compared to one of Gatsby's parties.
- Ava ends up watching Tomb Raider with her friends. She ends up helping them pick who they think is the hotter Lara Croft: Angelina Jolie or Alicia Vikander.
- Vampire Hunter: The Society of True Magicians are an ancient order of magicians who date back to the days of ancient Rome and who hunt vampires. They were founded by Lucius, who was the former friend turned Arch-Enemy of the first vampire Numerius after Numerius killed Lucius' sister. Now the society train magicans in the arts of magic and teach them how to fight and destroy vampirekind.
- Vampiric Draining: The Society possess a garden with special vines where their failed applicants are drained of blood, kept healthy and fed and in stasis all the while. The blood draining is required to feed the immortality spell that keeps the members of the Society running.
- Victor Gains Loser's Powers: A Magician killing a vampire will gain all of the abilities the vampire gathered over its lifetime. It also works vice versa, as any vampire who kills a magician gains their powers through drinking their blood.
- Voluntary Vampire Victim:
- Vampires that want to be able to live with people without needing to kill them often take a willing host who allows them to feed off them.
- Before the main events of the book, Vampire Hunter Roman met a vampiress turned against her will who was dying, and he helped her by letting her feed off him. The two became lovers for a time afterwards.
- You Killed My Father:
- Before the book begins, Ava is hunting the vampire who killed her mother. Turns out the death was arranged by her father, Lucius, who becomes the new target of her payback.
- Magician Lucius's grudge against the first vampire Numerius is due to Numerius killing Lucius's sister. He's never forgotten, even after centuries, and still hunts Numerius to avenge her.
