Although Stephanie Garber is well-known for her best-selling Caraval series, her latest novel is being sold as her first novel for adults.
From the publisher: It starts with a class in an old movie theatre.
Folklore 517: Local Legends and Urban Myths, taught by a woman called the Professor.
Most students believe the Professor’s stories are just fiction. There isn’t a man in Hollywood who you can call to find out the time you’ll die. There’s not a haunted hotel bar in Los Angeles that the devil likes to frequent. There’s no such thing as magic.
But . . . most students don’t have the same tragic past as Holland St. James.
Now a graduate student, Holland is hoping to use her thesis to rewrite her past by proving that some of the most infamous deaths in old Hollywood were actually murders committed by the devil. She has no idea that this quest will lead her into a deadly world of century-old secrets and unimaginable lies and onto the path of two very dangerous men, both of whom are willing to do whatever it takes to find a magic that will either forever alter Holland’s life or completely destroy it.
I think that for many urban fantasy readers this one will tick a lot of boxes. Holland St. James is a student in Los Angeles, enrolled in a secret graduate course in Legends and Urban Myths, (Folklore 517) where acceptance is only possible through selection. She’s a twin, with her sister January off working elsewhere, who have a tragic past – their father, a famous film director, was murdered by their mother before killing herself about fifteen years ago.
Now with a change of surname (to avoid the resulting publicity) Holland is enjoying the graduate student lifestyle, and hanging out with her friends Chance, Cat and Eileen. Her graduate dissertation currently being written, perhaps unsurprisingly, looks for a link between the Devil and some of these so-called Hollywood murders. Some might say that she was looking for the Devil himself, or at least an answer to the question of why her mother did what she did, possibly being persuaded by the man himself.
Generally though, things are ticking along nicely, until all of this changes. Holland suddenly receives a mysterious message, informing her that she needs to contact the First Bank of Centennial City. She needs to open a safe deposit box that had been left for her by her father – but she only has a few hours to do so as the lease on the box is about to expire.
Holland is both reluctant to do so and excited about this. What could this be? Could it be the answer to her many questions? Money? A fortune now matured? A confession letter? A copy of the legendary missing script her father was working on when he died?
Her visit to the bank begins a series of meetings, with dodgy characters who may not be what they seem to be, headlong chases around the film sets, bars and night spots of Hollywood, the potential uncovering of long-held secrets, not to mention the solving of a puzzle, which must be done before 11.59pm on Halloween, when it has been prophesised that Holland will die.
It is clear that this one has the setting of a modern-day mystical Hollywood – think La La Land without the musical songs, but with magic. Holland travels from hotel and bar to film studios and Hollywood homes, and all of this, often with a glorious Art Deco setting, gives the book a nice sense of glamour. References to old film stars like Humphrey Bogart and Veronica Lake and movies like Casablanca help make this feel a little like a love letter to old Hollywood, from the days of the big studios, before television.
The idea of secrets being held and uncovered also seems to be a major part of the novel. (The clue’s in the book’s title!) Much of the book is about deception, withholding secrets or uncovering them, and there are many instances where poor old Holland finds it difficult to believe anything or anybody. At times some of the solutions to her problems are a little too pat, and some of the characters are dismissed a little to glibly for my liking, but generally there’s enough to keep you going and not think about them too much, but it all comes right in the end.
In short, I really liked this one. For an ‘adult’ novel there’s not too much to scare away the younger readers – there’s no explicit sex, the language is fairly tame (only one “Fxck” as far as I can remember – hardly the stuff of most Romantasy fiction.) Immersed in a love of old Hollywood, Alchemy of Secrets is a dark academia novel with a nice sense of place, characters you can care about and a plot that builds up tension up to the end. Stephanie’s first foray into adult fantasy shows an author who has done her journeyman apprenticeship to now write this – a work clearly written with love and heart. One to just go with the flow and settle down with as the nights grow darker – a wonderful Autumn read.
And I must lastly comment on the quality of the proof given for review – not something we do too often! But the quality of the proof, with its gold inlay cover, hidden message and a printed edge was one of the best I’ve ever seen. Really attracted me to the book.
© 2025 Mark Yon
Hardback | Gollancz
ALCHEMY OF SECRETS by Stephanie Garber
October 2025 | 384 pages
ISBN: 978 139 9634 182
