The Make-Believe: A Memoir of Magic and Madness Author: Hannah Murray ISBN-13: 978-1-529-15521-1Publisher: Cornerstone Guideline Price: £18.99Hannah Murray did not consider herself famous – famous was the Kardashians, whom she looked upon as royalty while attending a Kanye West gig in New York as just another fan in the crowd. Nevertheless, Murray had the kind of career that most jobbing actors dream of: the key role of Gilly in Game of Thrones, a starring part in the movie Detroit, directed by the Oscar winner Kathryn Bigelow. Murray was famous, sure, but not too famous to be noticed tripping out on drugs, alcohol and bad romances while traversing London’s affluent Shoreditch.These are crucial early moments in The Make-Believe: A Memoir of Magic and Madness, a cosmopolitan vision of the English capital in the 2010s, where corrosive lifestyle patterns left the twentysomething susceptible to mood swings and depression. Her career might have been soaring, but an emptiness inside guided Murray to the clutches of a wellness cult that, for chunky fees, promised to teach ancient magic that helps its members achieve happiness and self-fulfilment.“Magic” is, of course, a nebulous concept, but for Murray the group – simply referred to in the book as “the organisation” – was offering the most fantastical interpretation. She was even given a wand to assist her astral studies. Murray describes, as she slipped further from reality, feeling powerful, important, magical. In one stark scene she asks to borrow a jumper before posing for a photograph, so she can hide her “wings”. A person can sustain such delusions for only so long, and the memoir eventually winds to the actor’s heartbreaking nadir.This is not a book about the hows and whys of psychosis but a play-by-play description of the descent. The writing is often presented matter-of-factly, resembling text from a moment-by-moment journal or smartphone notes Murray was keeping through the haze. This is a starkly honest account made possible by an author determined to describe her experience in small details.One question drives The Make-Believe: culpability. How much did the organisation prey on the vulnerable Murray? In one passage, when Murray is at her lowest point, she texts the organisation’s leader, a man she has become infatuated with, to ask if he has been communicating with her telepathically. He confirms her hallucinations to be true. In these moments the charlatans are revealed also to be ghouls.Dean Van Nguyen is the author of Words for My Comrades