✨ The Alchemy of Secrets Review: I Trusted Everyone and That Was My First Mistake (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
⚠️ Trigger Warnings
Graphic violence
Death / illness
Sexual assault
Emotional abuse
Murder
🚨 Spoiler Warning 🚨
Full spoilers ahead—including the ending.
📚 Overview
The Alchemy of Secrets by Stephanie Garber is her adult debut, and it genuinely feels like she took her signature magic and said, “what if we also add paranoia and a ticking clock?”
Set in Los Angeles, we follow Holland St. James, a folklore grad student who learns she’s going to die at 11:59 PM on Halloween unless she finds the Alchemical Heart.
No big deal. Just a normal day.
💭 My Thoughts
I had such a good time with this.
It’s fast, twisty, and has that “just one more chapter” energy that turns into accidentally reading half the book in one sitting.
It reminded me a lot of Angels & Demons in the way you’re constantly chasing clues under pressure—but then it layers in magic, memory manipulation, and characters who are… let’s say flexible with the truth.
Every time I decided someone was trustworthy, the book immediately proved me wrong.
🔍 Plot Summary (Spoilers)
Holland visits a strange shop connected to the Watch Man—a figure who can predict when you’ll die.
Shortly after:
Her date Jake admits he was hired to spy on her and needs to kill her
He ends up dead anyway
Holland gets her own deadline: midnight on Halloween
To survive, she has to find the Alchemical Heart.
She’s pulled into a web of people she absolutely should not trust:
Gabe, who kidnaps her but insists he’s helping
Adam, her new advisor, who is charming in a way that feels very intentional
The Professor, who turns out to be running a magical bank
Her missing twin, January
At the same time, Holland discovers her father left behind a screenplay filled with clues, sending her on a scavenger hunt across Los Angeles.
💎 The Necklace
At one point, Holland realizes her necklace combined with January’s forms a piece marked with the symbol of the Alchemical Heart.
So she believes:
👉 this is the Heart
👉 this is what everyone is after
It fits too perfectly not to be true… which should have been a warning.
👻 Mason (and What We Think We Know)
We’re introduced to Mason Bishop, Adam’s brother, who is trapped as a ghost at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.
For most of the book, Mason is positioned as the dangerous one.
According to Adam:
Mason committed violent crimes
Mason created the whole “devil” persona tied to power and influence
Mason even murdered their father
So naturally, Mason reads as the villain.
🔁 The Truth + The Twist
Then everything flips.
At the Roosevelt, Holland learns:
She’s stuck in a time loop
She has lived this night many times
And every time… Adam is the one who kills her
And then the bigger shift:
👉 Adam has been lying about Mason
It wasn’t Mason pulling the strings—it was Adam.
Adam committed many of the crimes
Adam built the narrative
Adam used Mason as the scapegoat
Mason isn’t the mastermind. He’s the one who got blamed and then literally trapped.
And as a ghost, he’s the one who helps Holland understand the loop and break it.
💔 The Ending
With minutes left:
Adam does what he always does—manipulates Holland, gains her trust, and stabs her to take the necklace, believing it’s the Alchemical Heart.
Except—
👉 it’s not
As Holland is dying, she realizes the real Heart is the Professor’s journal, which has been with her the entire time.
She uses it to:
Heal herself
Break the loop
Turn Adam into a ghost
✨ Why Mason Comes Back
Holland chooses to bring Mason back to life, and this actually felt really earned to me.
Because:
He helped her break the loop
He was wrongly blamed for Adam’s actions
He’s been trapped and punished for things he didn’t do
It’s less about “he’s perfect now” and more about:
👉 he was never the villain he was made out to be
And Holland, finally seeing the truth, chooses differently than the story she’s been told.
🌀 Final Moments
The Alchemical Heart turns out to be sentient (as if things weren’t already wild enough).
Holland is given the chance to bring her parents back—but chooses not to.
Instead, she:
Sends the Heart into the future
Ends the time loop
The book closes with Holland refusing to fully trust the Bank (correct decision) and finally getting a call from January.
🎭 Final Thoughts
This was such a fun, twisty, slightly chaotic ride.
It kept me guessing, it moved fast, and it constantly made me question everything—which is exactly what I want from a book like this.
Also—I will never trust an “Adam” again in fiction.
5 stars. Easily.
And I will absolutely be reading more from Stephanie Garber.
📚 Recommendations
If you liked this, try:
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue – V.E. Schwab
Ninth House – Leigh Bardugo
The Atlas Six – Olivie Blake
The Night Circus – Erin Morgenstern
Recursion – Blake Crouch
Okay but seriously—
who did you trust first… and how fast did that completely fall apart? 😅
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