Secret (Pseudonym Bosch) Books In Order

Publication Order of Secret Books

The “Secret Series” is a series of five novels by Pseudonym Bosch centered on Touch, Taste, Sound, Smell, and Sight. The tales are often interrupted with secret information and short side stories throughout the series. Bosch has long been suspected to the pseudonym of Raphael Simon, though he disputed the claims until it finally came out after three years in 2016 that he was indeed the author of “The Secret Series”. The name Pseudonym Bosch is a play on the name Hieronymus Bosch the artist. Even as he is a homosexual in real-life he has asserted that his pseudonym is not necessarily gay. The pentalogy of The Secret series was followed by a spinoff series titled the “Bad Books” that focused on Paul Clay the brother of the lead character Max-Ernest. Bosch has also written a do it yourself mystery titled “Write This Book” that is half guided mystery half written adventure.

The “Secret” series of novels is all about Max-Ernest, Cass, and Yo-Yoji, three middle school children that belong to the Terces Society. Terces is a group that has charge of a mysterious secret that it will defend at all costs from the Midnight Sun Society, that would steal it if they got the opportunity. In fact, one of the side plots in the series is the Midnight Sun society employing alchemy to try to find the secret, and how the Terces Society stops them in their tracks. The first novel of the series was titled “The Name of this Book is Secret”, which was published in 2007. The last title “You Have to Stop This” was published in 2011 and tied up many of the secrets of the series. Each novel in the series is about one of the five senses. The first novel is about smell as Max-Ernest and Cass struggle with trying to decipher the Symphony of Smells. In the second novel hearing is the theme tackled through the Sound Prism. In the third novel focused on taste the protagonists deal with a super dark and magical chocolate that is the key ingredient in the making of the Tuning Fork. The fourth novel is about the double monocle that influences sight. The fifth novel that is centered on touch is about a mummy’s finger.

The “Secret” series has often been compared to the Lemony Snicket books with their secretive themes. Right from the start, Bosch introduces a lot of secrets such as the introduction being a series of Xs. The chapters will sometimes use negative numbers, go backwards, adopt a countdown format, and even sometimes miss chapter numbers altogether. Another standout feature of the novels is Bosch’s constant warnings not to read the novels, emergency drills about how to react to somebody finding you reading them, and quizzes on how to survive in a secret society. All the novels come with decoders, codes, explanations, recipes, and other miscellaneous information about the secrets in the narratives. While seemingly a jumbled mess, it works really well as Pseudonym Bosch keeps up a fast pace and is never boring. All the novels have the same theme of the children facing up to a dark enemy, but there is a feeling that the secrets are revealed little by little over the course of the series. Moreover, the children also develop and change character over the course of the series. Coming with some creepy stuff and villains that could be arguably be said to be worse that Count Olaf these are some intriguing series of narratives. For instance, there are inference to cannibalism in one of the novels where a human looking creature thrives on consuming the human flesh of the villains. Nonetheless, even as the novels traverse quite some dark waters, they are geeky and fun with their magic and fantasy elements making for some great reading. The trivia and random facts thrown into the stories and the appendices are interesting. However, the real fun is in watching the lead protagonists figure out the big secret and try to prevent the villains from stealing it from them.

“The Name of This Book Is Secret” is the first exciting new novel of “The Secrets” series of young adult novels by Pseudonym Bosch. Similar to the novel “The Series of Unfortunate Events” the novel is all about the lead protagonist Cass. Cass is a young middle-schooler who considers herself a survivalist who can survive anything alongside Max-Eernest, her best friend and sidekick. The mystery filled adventure opens to Cass’s grandfather discovering the Symphony of Smells in a box in his antique store. The lead then finds herself in a deep web of murder, mayhem, and magic. The two children set out to investigate the Symphony of Smells and soon learn that the artifact that grandpas had found is more of a cry of help. The cries of help coming from The Symphony come from a magician that had disappeared a few decades past. The children then go on a quest to rescue the man and find themselves in a secret spa, where massages and manicures are secondary to the quest for mortality.

“If You’re Reading This, it’s Too Late,” is pseudonym Bosch’s second adventure mystery novel that follows from the events of the first novel. Max-Ernest and Cass are still on a quest to find the “Secret”. Their new journey also includes trying to locate the homunculus. The two protagonists are joined by Yo-Yoji a new boy that recently joined their school. Yo-Yoji seems very interested in the Secret and constantly bugs Max-Ernest and Cass to tell him more about it. The two do not fully trust the new guy and Cass cleverly distracts him while they slip away to try to complete their quest. In the second novel, the mission of the two has become even more critical given that they are ranking members of the Terces Society charged with protecting the secret of immortality. But despite their care, they fall into the hands of their enemy the Midnight Sun. who trick Max-Ernest and Cass into boarding their vessel. They are now held prisoner by their worst enemy. Will they find the homunculus and even more pressing how will they escape their captors?