The Name of This Book Is Secret

Throughout the novel the narrator refuses to share any details that he thinks will enable the reader to identify places or people. He reasons that he does this to protect the reader—however, this does not prevent him from continuing the story and involving the reader in it. What are the narrator’s goals in conveying this story? How do they affect the way the narrator is characterized and the way the reader reads him as a character? Alternatively, how does this lack of detail affect the way story’s setting and worldbuilding? What other methods does the author use to worldbuild instead? What is the purpose behind the author’s choices?

Discuss the narrator’s relationship with the reader. How does the author construct the persona of narrator and reader alike? Why does the author utilize framing and fourth-wall breaks? How does it affect the way the story is told?

The narrative emphasizes the unique traits, skills, and differences of each character, such as Cass’s survivalism and Max-Ernest’s loquaciousness. Some of these characteristics are presented as hindrances, while others are shown to be empowering. Discuss the significance of personal differences in the text. How do these traits hurt or help the protagonists? How do the characters overcome negative traits and draw strength from positives ones? What is the narrative’s ultimate message about individuality and personal differences?

Discuss the role of the illustrations in the novel, both in the chapter title pages and within the text itself. What do they contribute to the construction of the novel’s world? How do they add to the experience of reading the novel?

Cass and Max-Ernest must solve many riddles and puzzles in the novel. Many of the riddles are linguistically based—in order to crack them, Cass and Max-Ernest have to pay attention to the spelling, the arrangement of letters and words, to recognize linguistic patterns. What role do codes, in general, play in the novel? How do they act as a symbol of the Secret world and as a device for structuring that world? What is the narrative significance of the fact that the codes are all linguistically-based?

Because the narrator is treated as a separate character in the novel, there is a distinction between the narrator and the author. Discuss this distinction—what does it mean to be a narrator? What does it mean to be an author? How does this impact the story being told and the way the reader understands the narrator as a character?

Discuss the character of Dr. L/Luciano Bergamo. How is he characterized in both of his identities? Is his persona as “Dr. L” separate from his identity as Luciano Bergamo? Does the narrative portray him as a villain or a victim?

In the novel, synesthesia is used by some of the characters as a method of communication or a unique way of perceiving the world that grants special. Why is synesthesia so significant in the novel? What other ways do the senses show up in the novel, and how do they function as an aspect of the Secret world? Thematically, what is narrative trying to say by connecting the concept of blended senses to a “real” experience of the world and immortality itself?