55 pages • 1-hour read
Alchemy of Secrets
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Symbols & Motifs
Content Warning: This section of the guide features depictions of graphic violence, illness or death, substance abuse, and emotional abuse.
The Alchemical Heart
The Alchemical Heart is the novel’s central symbol, representing the ultimate power to control and rewrite stories, from personal histories to the fabric of reality itself. It is the source of all narrative potential, making the quest for it a dangerous confrontation with the nature of truth, memory, and legacy. Holland’s quest is driven by a desire to reframe her family’s tragic ending. This positions the Alchemical Heart as a tool for defying a predetermined narrative and seizing control of one’s fate. The Heart’s ability to change form—from a rumored historical artifact to the Professor’s journal—reinforces its deep connection to the theme of Storytelling as a Form of Magic and Manipulation. The ultimate source of magic is revealed to be a literal book of stories, cementing the theme that storytelling is the most potent and treacherous form of magic in the novel’s world, capable of both revealing and concealing the truth.
The stipulation that the Alchemical Heart must go to “someone who needs it but doesn’t want it” (249) evokes Arthurian legend. Like the Holy Grail, its inheritor should be pure-hearted—a rule that emphasizes the dangers of abusing its power. The Heart’s final incarnation as a sentient being, Manuel Vargas, demonstrates the scope of its magical power as “an object […] capable of thought and choice and action” (306). Significantly, Holland decides to use it to grant herself an ability; rather than resurrecting her parents or rewriting the past, she chooses to write a new story for herself. Holland’s decision to send the Alchemical Heart into the future to be discovered by another honorable seeker signals her adherence to the Heart’s moral code.
The Wizard of Oz
Holland’s love of old Hollywood movies is inspired when she first sees The Wizard of Oz at the age of four. The film is her introduction to the magic of storytelling as she is immersed in the fantasy world that unfolds on the screen. The movie also becomes inextricably linked to Benjamin Tierney’s treasure hunts as Holland’s father hides a pair of ruby slippers for his daughter to find.
The Wizard of Oz motif recurs throughout the novel, expanding on Garber’s themes. Holland’s quest to find the Alchemical Heart, thereby saving her own life and reclaiming her family’s legacy, echoes Dorothy’s determination to return home to Kansas in the movie. Furthermore, both characters initially look to powerful figures for help. While Dorothy seeks the Wizard of Oz, Holland believes that the Professor can help her locate the Heart. In both cases, these figures associated with magical authority turn out to be frauds who have gained power by manipulating narratives. The Wizard of Oz emerges as an unremarkable man who creates the illusion of magical powers through fakery and mythmaking. Meanwhile, the Professor’s role as an academic expert who provides the key to urban legends is a front for recruiting students to the ruthless First Bank of Centennial City. Ultimately, both Dorothy and Holland undergo a coming-of-age as they discover their own agency, realizing they possessed the key to their quest all along.
Parallels with The Wizard of Oz are further underscored by Garber’s visual descriptions in Alchemy of Secrets. Both stories employ color to dramatic effect, creating an intense Technicolor landscape. Green is particularly symbolic, as the description of the imposing jade-green tower of the First Bank of Centennial City deliberately echoes that of the Emerald Castle in the Emerald City, ruled by the Wizard of Oz. Holland’s account of how “An entire wall of green stained glass cast the [Professor’s] office in glittering emerald light” (161) underscores how this color is associated with corruption and deceit. This emphasis on superficial beauty concealing darker truths links to the novel’s exploration of the corruption beneath the glamor of old Hollywood.
References to The Wizard of Oz in Garber’s novel also serve as a reminder of the price the movie’s teenage star paid for her success. While playing the child protagonist, Dorothy, Judy Garland was given “pep pills” (amphetamines) to cope with the grueling working conditions, leading to a lifetime of substance use disorder. Garland’s exploitation highlights the corruption that Hollywood glamor sought to conceal.
Time
Holland’s visit to Curios & Clockwork at the start of the novel sets in motion the novel’s recurring motif of time. The protagonist is drawn there by the urban myth of the Watch Man, a character who can accurately predict an individual’s death date and time. The news that she will die at 11:59 pm on Halloween unless she finds the Alchemical Heart provides a pressing deadline that drives much of the narrative’s tension. Holland’s preoccupation with checking the time underscores the challenge of achieving her goal in the finite time allotted. This tension makes time a potent dramatic device and a consistent metaphor for the constraints of mortality. The unnaturally rapid sunset Holland observes as the hour of her death approaches emphasizes the narrow time window in which she must act while symbolizing the impermanence of human life.
Throughout the narrative, Holland experiences the disruption of time’s linear nature. The Regal is depicted as a retreat from the ruthless march of time, as a minute inside the hotel equates to an hour in the outside world. Similarly, inside the Bank, the Professor suspends time with her magical hourglass as she uses her powers of manipulation on Holland. Furthermore, Holland frequently experiences déjà vu, such as when she sees Gabe’s “familiar” scar. These incidents demonstrate the disconcerting feeling that Holland gets when time’s universal rhythm is interrupted. The protagonist’s sense of reality is destabilized, and her ability to interpret events is impaired. The final revelation that Holland is experiencing a time loop where she repeatedly dies and time resets itself explains these episodes. The accompanying nosebleeds she experiences illustrate the inevitable cost of disrupting the natural flow of time.
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