Lauren

Alchemy of Secrets is Stephanie Garber’s debut Adult novel which follows Holland as she races against the ticking clock to save her own life.

“But the problem with feelings is sometimes you don’t get to choose them.”

Obviously, by my rating, I really enjoyed this book. However, I can see why people do not. I’m going to try to be fair in my overall review of this book, because I actually think this is a really complicated one. Let’s start with the obvious: the reads exactly like every other Garber book. While this is a positive for me, I can see why someone would be disappointed by this. Holland very well could have even a few years younger and this would have been a YA book. That being said, I’m really not all that stressed about if a book is YA, NA, or Adult, so that really played no part in my rating.

Due to this reading like all of her other books (although set in present-day LA), this book reads like a fairytale. Sure, there are buildings and traffic and iconic stars mentioned, but honestly, I hardly clocked most of it. If you told me this took place in the same universe as Caraval, I’d believe it. There is this sense of found magic and dark whimsy that lives in all of Garber’s books, and this one is no exception.

I’ll be honest in that I realize there was something plot holes in this book (which I’ll get to) and maybe the mystery cannot be solved on your own (I can’t say as I was really just along for the ride on this one - the mystery might be the main plot but it’s not what I was interested in), but I thought this was fun. The twists were somewhat predictable, but a few of them took me by surprise, and some of them I’m still not sure what to think. This book really tries to make it impossible to know who to trust, which is what I was mostly focused on as I’m still not sure. I have seen some criticism that many people don’t believe they’d take time to indulge in stories and act as Holland did if they knew they may die soon, but honestly, to me, it always seemed like she was working toward an answer. She did better than I would have (aka cry and give up).

So here are my actual criticisms:

1. The word “Miscellanea” was used often enough that I noticed it being used. I read this a mix of audio and physical, so I can’t search the book for how many times, but it felt like too many. Saying there was “clutter” or “other items” would have gotten the point across. I don’t know why this bothered me so much, but it did.

2. At one point Holland understands she is going into a dangerous situation and she puts on heels. I know girlie has her head in the clouds, but this was a wild and ultimately unimportant decision (okay, I know why she does it from a story telling perspective, BUT this was already done/shown in a dozen different ways, so it wasn’t necessary).

3. I didn’t love the 2nd POV inserts. I understand they’re there to kind of set the mood, but they didn’t do it for me. I think 2nd POV can be good, but it’s really hard to make it work, and here I think it would have been just as compelling to write it in third or first person instead, and less jarring.

4. January and their mother (I’ll explain more below)

(spoilers beyond this point, unfortunately): . . . . . Let’s pick up where I left off. This was my biggest issue with the book if I’m honest. Holland tells us she loves her sister and appreciates her, and I know she’s outrunning death, but she doesn’t try all that hard to get in contact with her. I can believe she doesn’t know her number (I also don’t know my sister’s number off the top of my head) but January has no other means of communication? Email? Social media? Anything??? If I knew I was dying and I started uncovering all of these secrets about my sister and our family, I would not stop until I got in touch with her. If I was Holland, I would be thinking my sister is dead, especially since there is a small (very unlikely but still present) chance that she worked with or had contact with Adam. At the least, Adam knows about her. It wouldn’t be crazy if he killed her. Which is also why I have to ask, Holland, girl, why do you just trust anyone your sister “sent” without actual confirmation??? Like both people you trusted claimed were sent by your sister (who potentially lied to you and kept secrets), so what’s up with trusting and then not trusting both of them? Girl.

I also find it a little annoying her mother is so ignored. I get Holland loved her father (how old was she when he died? It felt unclear) and I get that her mother has this awful (maybe false, maybe not) reputation, but it felt like the book wanted us to forget she existed. This may have been intentional for something in book two, but I didn’t love all the love her father got and how little thought her mother received.

I also have some questions that I think are intentionally left unanswered for the next book (so really, this is just a reminder for future self):

1. What is up with Chance? He obviously knows something is up, and we got the information about no one remembering Adam, but that never really amounted to anything. I have to assume it will come back up later since at that point we already knew Adam’s power

2. I have a theory that Adam and the Watch Man are working together. I’m actually willing to bet the Watch Man doesn’t really know when people are going to die, but gives out sentences to those that Adam wants something from. From there they live is Adam gets what he wants and don’t if he doesn’t. I might be wrong on this, but it just kind of makes sense (especially because Jake died at his hands and Holland technically did a million times)

3. Another theory I have is that Holland’s ability will be to see diverging timelines, kind of like seeing into the future, but more direct and closer to the present. She basically already does this, so it makes sense.

4. I need to know the situation with Gabe. Obviously he isn’t to be more grey leaning than evil. On one hand, he did leave her with Adam and wanted the Alchemical Heart for himself (for a book 2 reason presumably), but I actually don’t think he’s evil. I might slot him into the Legend or Jacks category, honestly.

5. Did January actually send anyone? My theory is she did actually meet Adam and he did that brain washing thing since the last time she spoke with Holland she didn’t sound like herself. I’m curious if maybe Gabe knows Adam did that to her but can’t say for ~reasons~ and that’s his motivation? Not sure.

“I will love you until the sun dies. And when it does, I will love you in the darkness.”

Iron Gold picks up about a decade after the events of Morning Star (which was by far my favorite of the original trilogy). Although we were left with hope at the end of MS, it turns out war is still brewing and although it appears people have been gaining equal rights, that is far from the truth.

The book does a pretty decent job of reminding readers who the characters are (though there were a few I had to keep reminding myself of) as well as being readers back into the world. The strongest part of this book, however, was the introduction to new (or essentially new) characters and their POVs.

Lydia was by far my favorite character. She shows us the life as a Red is not as improved as the universe is leading everyone to believe. She goes through an amazing character arc, but I don’t want to say too much and risk spoiling anything. Her audiobook narrator was also fantastic and really brought her to life. If I’m honest, assuming I pick up book 5, it is for this character alone.

Lysander’s POV was also interesting. In case you forgot, he is the grandson of (former) Sovereign Octavia from Morning Star. He’s obviously grown and feels more adult. While I found him compelling enough in this book, I’m curious enough about him to look forward to seeing more of him. He is very complex, which I like in a character.

And then there is Darrow. He was already a character I struggled to like (though I liked reading from) in the original trilogy, but he’s honestly the worst in this book. Honestly, the choices he made were stupid. I forgave him a lot in the original series because he was a child, but he’s no longer a child. Instead he is a war obsessed, absent father. How he got Mustang to not only marry him and reproduce with him, I’ll never know. She deserves leagues better. And then his “woe is me” attitude toward the end? Like, dude, you made your bed. Honestly, Brown could kill him off and I wouldn’t even care.

Despite this book being fast paced, I admit I struggled to want to pick it up. I also struggled to focus on it when I was reading. That could be a me thing, or maybe a time of year thing, but I don’t think so. For the first time in this series, I really struggled to see what was happening. Everything was described okay, I guess, but I felt like I could envision a lot of what was happening, especially in fights (which I typically have no problem doing).

I’m hoping this book was a (long) set up book to really lunch the rest of the arc into action. If I can’t get into the next installment, I may DNF the series, which would be a shame. Super minor spoiler ahead . . . . . . I also didn’t love that there was no real overlap with the POVs. I understand why and I can see what it was setting up, but I think having their paths cross more significantly would have helped with my struggle to focus on this book.

4.5

“I love you and I believe in you.”

My Friends is a hard book to summarize. At its simplest, it’s about Louisa, a young, brave, energetic teenage girl learning how people with difficult lives can have profound impacts. It’s about hope and grief, love and the refusal of loss. It’s about the closeness that is so pure only kids can achieve it. It was beautiful.

I must admit, the way I felt about this book changed drastically throughout. Without giving spoilers, I’m going to try to describe why that is, but I do find it difficult. At the start, I was optimistic. The story had a great opener and although it was possibly predictable, that early twist outside the auction surprised me. (This is where I also admit that I rarely read the synopsis of a book before reading it, so I was very misled about who would end up being our main characters. My bad.) Every time I hear someone discuss Backman’s books, I hear that the writing is beautiful but also incredibly simple. I actually fully agree with this, but also, depending on perspective, there is not a soul out there that can convince me this writing style is not explicitly made for adults who read Junie B. Jones. The only evidence I’ll leave for this is this quote from the beginning of the book (around page 10): “it turns out, to his horror, that Louisa isn’t afraid of index fingers, because she isn’t an elevator button, so she merely replied quietly: ‘I don’t work here.’”

As the book progressed and I learned Louisa and Ted were our main characters, I enjoyed how fleshed out they were. This book really isn’t about the plot, but the people and the way people impact other people. While I enjoy this, this is where my interest dipped. Let me preface this with saying I actually really loved the melancholic tone mixed with a hidden thread of hope throughout the story, but I can’t say I love a story in which everyone’s lives just suck. I get that, in a way, that’s the point, but I almost feel like it would have been more compelling if one of the friend’s couldn’t quite imagine what their friends were facing. I think that happens a lot (with kids and adults) and instead of everyone having different levels of awful, it would have been nice if one of them came from a completely average home.

Somewhere after half way but before the final 100-150 pages, I was feeling a little tired of it. It was odd because I wanted to know what happened next, but it just felt like there was no reprieve from the same thing over and over again.

So, to summarize, this book started incredible, then dipped down. It was never bad, but at that point I was thinking it would be a three star. Fine but ultimately forgettable.

Then that last stretch happened. I was reading this horribly sad book, but never once was I truly sad. I expected to cry throughout this book, but it wasn’t until the end that I did, on and off, and then consistently for the final two or three chapters. Funnily enough, it wasn’t the sad things in this book that made me cry (okay, one sad thing, but that’s a major spoiler so I won’t say it but for those who have read the book, it has to do with someone who left them long ago). It was these moments of kindness, of love and community, of family and the terrifying reality of hoping that got me over and over again. It was small lines. At first I just felt myself getting a little emotional, but those lines kept coming until they built moments that I think most people would have to feel something. I don’t believe it raising my rating just because a book has a good ending, but I do when the ending makes the middle make more sense and the book can make me feel something deeply it feels like I’ll carry some semblance of it forever (even if this isn’t truly going to happen).

My quick thoughts on the characters

Louisa: what a star character. She is brave and kind and terrified and has so much to offer. She is a lot like the artist, though with far more drive to do something with herself. I feared when we learned about Fish early on that was going to be the thing that held her back, but it didn’t. If anything, the love for her friend propelled her into grander life with more friends.

Ted: I loved this man. He was incredibly related. He, too, has been hurt by his losses, but watching how he and Louisa interact and truly impact each other’s lives was beautiful. There was no one else who could have helped her (and us) take this journey. And he got just as much from it.

The artist: I don’t think many people will related to him, but I do. Like him, I was greatly unhappy at fourteen. It really is hard to be a kid, and when people don’t understand your differences, life can be even more difficult. Watching the cycle of his life was heartbreaking and beautiful, despite him actually not being the main character (not even in the spoke story)

Joar: If you’ve met enough people, you know this kid. You might not think you do, but you do, and he was written to beautifully. He is loud and crude and pulls all the attention to himself in order to save his friends. He is unwaveringly loyal, and though he doesn’t often have to right words, his love is painfully obvious in every last thing he did.

Ali: I’ll be honest, it took me a moment to warm up to her. I felt like the story had tricked me when she was introduced (silly, I know), but she’s the sort of character that finds her way into your heart without you even realizing she did so.