Stats
Fantasy
Completed
50 chapters

When I first began this book, I knew I loved it. When I got to chapter 30-ish, I started binge-reading and finished it in a single afternoon. When I was done, I knew I was going to write a praise review on it.

To begin with, it jump-starts with a prologue that is crammed with the most delicious whimsical fantasy world-building ever. If you don't like whimsy, you're not going to like this book. If you adore it (like me) this book is going to send you into the seventh heaven.

But that's not to say the prologue is an info-dump. Far from it! It's just juicy with tidbits, and at the same time pulls off one of the most exciting and question-inducing hooks I've ever read. You'll be asking them, too. Who is the man from Caravel? What happens to Gabriel and the stone?

The story revolves around the Draven family, and specifically Gabriel Draven. From the first page onward Night knit me to this oddball family, with a queer dead mother and a big-hearted father, none of the children quite fitting in anywhere, all coping in their own unique ways. Ren and her hunting, independent and somehow neither girlish nor tomboyish, just her very own person hiding so much beneath the surface. Gabriel, intelligent, creative, and too curious for his own good -- then too scared to face the consequences. Hollis, a peculiar nine-year-old bookworm, seeking entertainment in whatever innovative way he can get it. Dale, married with a baby, quite the most normal of the five, providing a sensible backup here and there though he doesn't play much into the story. Patch, the lovable childish youngest with a strange perceptivity for his six years.

And the plot... well, the author has compared it in a derogatory manner to a slinky, bouncing all over the place, but while I got lost once in the first third of the book with all the geographic leaps, the strong characters and theme carry it through with ease. Does a magical time- and space-traveling stone spark your interest? A book that produces wild trolls and shrugcats? (Don't ask me what shrugcats are, you'll find out if you read the book.) A scared boy with book and stone, and no idea what he's really doing?

I don't know how to describe the world of Glennerdells. And I can only offer in my defense that Night doesn't know either. It's dieselpunk but without the diesel. They have electricity and cars but horses are common transportation. Basically it's a mashup, but it's a winsome mashup that doesn't ask to be explained, just to be loved.

And Night's writing matches it. Strong, and unapologetic, full of vivid, well-timed simile and lilting rhythm, bright with humour, at times bursting into a depth of pure simplistic beauty.

Read the book. And the second, and the third. You won't be able not to. I can't address those two here, or if I did it would have to be brief for the sake of spoilers. I wish I could; there's so much to rave over. But books don't get on my "Read These Before You Die" list for nothing.

If you want a world of rough-and-tumble, of adventure, whimsy, and heartbreaking beauty, read The Book of Secrets. You will not regret it.

Editorial note as of 1/29/19: The Book of Secrets is no longer on Wattpad. It has been accepted by a publishing company and will be releasing August 15, 2019. For further details contact Night herself, and make sure you don't miss out on this amazing book, which I recommend with more fervor than ever before!