The Secret Series (Books 1-5)

The Secret Series is a collection of five books by Pseudonymous Bosch.

The Name of this Book Is Secret (Book #1)
If You’re Reading This, It’s Too Late (Book #2)
This Book Is Not Good For You (Book #3)
This Isn’t What It Looks Like (Book #4)
You Have to Stop This (Book #5)

 

 

 

Warning Spoilers!

My Thoughts: According to Wikipedia, this series was inspired by the Series of Unfortunate Events.  My daughter loves both and has read each multiple times. I can see similarities between the two series as the style and humor are very similar.  I prefer these books more as I found it both funnier, more educational, and not too dark.   Both series had villainous adults after children.  This series had reliable adults characters, which was missing from the Unfortunate Events series (my blog post on this here).

The plot of this series is about an evil group called the Midnight Sun.  They have created an elixir of life.  Their goal is to acquire knowledge of the “secret.”  The heroes of the series are part of the Terces Society (secret backwards), which protect this “secret,” yet have no knowledge of the secret themselves.  Towards the end of the book, we finally learn the secret: “To get to the other side.” The book never interprets the meaning of this secret.  This is left up to the reader.

While this book was not Christian, it was effortless for me to see a Christian theme in this series. We need to continue forward to “get to the other side.”  We shouldn’t get stuck in any stage, as just as Ecclesiastes chapter 3 details: there is a season in life for everything.

This series had villains that wanted to live forever.  They were enslaved by their desire for knowledge and earthly pleasure. They seemed unhappy, miserable, and driven by a never-ending goal. I kept asking myself, throughout the series: Why do these people want to live forever?

At the very end of the book, when we discover the secret, the author juxtapositions it with all the main characters moving forward in their lives.

1. One brother leaves the Midnight Sun and asks his twin brother for forgiveness right before he dies.
2. The twin brother grants him forgiveness and then disappears, which signifies him moving on.
3. The grandfathers move out of their business and start a new adventure.
4. Cass’ mother moves forward by starting to date.
5. Cass and Yo-Yogi take their friendship to the next level and touch hands.
6. Max-Ernest’s graduation speech as they move forward from middle school to high school.

 

We must continue forward toward our ultimate goal of heaven and union with God.

“This perfect life with the Most Holy Trinity – this communion of life and love with the Trinity, with the Virgin Mary, the angels and all the blessed – is called ‘heaven.’ Heaven is the ultimate end and fulfillment of the deepest human longings, the state of supreme, definitive happiness (CCC 1024).

“To live in heaven is ‘to be with Christ.’ The elect live ‘in Christ,’ but they retain, or rather find, their true identity, their own name. For life is to be with Christ; where Christ is, there is life, there is the kingdom (CCC 1025).

We can’t be like the Midnight Sun as they were slaves to their earthly desires and spent hundreds of years seeking fulfillment but never reaching their goal. Every day we continue to move closer to “the other side.”  We can’t spend too much of our time focused on earthly treasures:

Mt 6:19-21: Do not store up for yourselves treasure on earth, where moth and decay destroys, and thieves break in and steal.  But store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroy, nor thieves break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.

We have no need to fear moving forward in life.  God has great plans for us:

As we move towards “the other side” we should continue to

“We can therefore hope in the glory of heaven promised by God to those who love him and do his will. In every circumstance, each one of us should hope, with the grace of God, to persevere ‘to the end’ and to obtain the joy of heaven, as God’s eternal reward for the good works accomplished with the grace of Christ. In hope, the Church prays for ‘all men to be saved.” (CCC 1821)