The Name of This Book Is Secret

The narrator provides some background knowledge on Egyptian architecture, which he says will help readers understand the arrangement of the Midnight Sun’s buildings. He explains that the spa is a near-exact replica of the Egyptian temple to the god Thoth; this becomes apparent when Cass enters the gates and sees that the spa is a giant pyramid surrounded by several smaller buildings. The spa’s arrangement gives it an aura of being “ancient, beautiful, and secret” (189). At the top of the central pyramid is a large orb emitting a very bright light, evocative of the sun—hence the name “Midnight Sun.”

Cass is greeted by Dr. L, who introduces Cass to Owen, her personal butler while she is at the spa. Owen, who speaks with a stutter and does not strike Cass as particularly intimidating, leads her to her room. She initially plans to wait until everyone in the spa has fallen asleep and then sneak out to find Benjamin, but she ends up falling asleep herself. She dreams that she is crawling through a tunnel underneath an Egyptian pyramid, searching for hidden treasure, led by Owen; becoming more claustrophobic by the second, Cass finally emerges to see that the treasure is the two yellow McDonald’s arches. Cass tries to tell Owen that this can’t be right and pleads with him to let her out, but Owen does not comply. Cass is left in her dream with a sense of powerlessness.

Back at home, Max-Ernest attempts to sort through his feelings about what Cass told him before she went to the Midnight Sun. Max-Ernest’s most recent doctor suggested that he is so loquacious because it allows him to avoid processing his emotions; as such, the doctor has recommended that Max-Ernest try naming and sitting with his feelings as they occur, which is just what Max-Ernest does. After realizing that he has many complex emotions about what Cass has done, Max-Ernest contemplates calling Cass to tell her how he feels; her number, after all, is still on his phone from when she called earlier. Max-Ernest realizes that Cass’s phone number would have come up on the Midnight Sun’s phone, too; he deduces that they must already know Cass’s true identity. Max-Ernest tries to call Cass to warn her, but she does not answer. Max-Ernest feels afraid.

Cass awakens to the sound of Owen knocking on her window. He enters and brings her a glass of bright green liquid; he explains that it is an elixir given to each guest. Cass notices that the drink has gold flecks in it, and Owen explains that Ms. Mauvais puts them in the elixirs because gold “promotes long life” (200). Although trepidatious, Cass drinks the elixir and is relieved to discover that it doesn’t appear poisoned. Owen takes Cass to her first treatment, the Gold Bath. Cass promises herself that she will escape the first chance she gets to look for Benjamin.

As she walks through the Midnight Sun with Owen, Cass sees other guests for the first time; she is instructed not to speak with any of them, per the rules of the spa. Cass observes that all the guests are “tan and smooth and perfect-looking” (203), and that they all wear gloves identical to those worn by Dr. L and Ms. Mauvais. After the Gold Bath, Owen takes Cass to her next treatment, explaining that each treatment is specifically tailored to target one of the five senses, which is why the Midnight Sun is a sensorium. The goal of the treatments, according to Owen, is to “b-bring the s-senses b-back into harmo-mo-n-ny with each-ch-ch other” (204). When she asks, Owen verifies Cass’s theory that the concept is “just like synesthesia” (204).

At her next treatment, Cass lays facedown on a table in a solarium while women around her release various scents into the air and ring gongs and tuning forks. The final part of this treatment is a massage, which puts Cass into a near-hypnotic state. At this point, Dr. L appears and takes advantage of Cass’s uninhibited state to uncover the true reason why she came to the Midnight Sun.

Cass awakens, disoriented. She cannot remember what happened, and she briefly fears she revealed her true intentions to Dr. L. However, Owen is waiting for her and is acting normally, so Cass concludes that she must not have compromised herself. After Owen leaves, Cass resumes her search for Benjamin Blake, intending to enter the pyramid. However, on the way there, she spots another guest who is most unexpected: Gloria Fortune. Cass stays out of sight, knowing Gloria will recognize her and give away her true identity. Cass makes it to the pyramid and tries to figure out how to get inside; she concludes that there must be an underground entrance and makes an educated guess as to which of the surrounding buildings might house such a passage.

She enters her chosen building and continues down a hallway until she encounters a door that is painted in gold rather than blue. Determining that this must be the secret entrance, Cass goes inside; the room is sparsely decorated, and instead of walls and a ceiling, it is entirely covered in mirrors. Cass intuits that this is Ms. Mauvais’s office.

While Cass is investigating the room, Ms. Mauvais enters. Cass fears she has been caught, but Ms. Mauvais continues to treat her as Amber Skelton. Ms. Mauvais examines Cass’s ears and offers to have Dr. L give her plastic surgery. Although Ms. Mauvais presents the offer benevolently, the conversation is a thinly veiled play on Cass’s insecurities. Cass is horrified by the suggestion of plastic surgery, but she likes the thought of no longer standing out because of her ears. Ms. Mauvais tries to convince Cass, arguing that having her ears worked on would make her look more like her mother. Surprised, Cass asks what she means, since it’s unlikely Ms. Mauvais has met her mother (either Cass’s real mother or the Skelton mother). Ms. Mauvais replies that she assumed that Cass’s mother has different ears because Cass’s “mother” (the Skelton mother) got married, and “what man would marry a woman with ears like yours?” (218). Ashamed and infuriated, Cass does not respond. Ms. Mauvais leads her out of the room: It is time for dinner, and a “surprise guest” is waiting for them.

Ms. Mauvais leads them to the dinner tent, where Cass is relieved to discover that the surprise guest is Max-Ernest. His appearance reminds her of all the fear and loneliness she endured trying to infiltrate the Midnight Sun by herself; she is very glad to see him. However, she does not give any indication that she knows him, as she doesn’t want to expose her true identity—but it turns out that Ms. Mauvais already knows who she is. Ms. Mauvais reveals that she has known who Cass is since she called to make the reservation, as Max-Ernest feared; however, she allowed Cass to continue her scheme because she wished to meet with Cass.

Ms. Mauvais leaves to bring the “others” to the tent; while she is gone, Cass and Max-Ernest talk. Max-Ernest claims that Ms. Mauvais is “really nice, once you get to know her” (223); he says Dr. L is, too, and that Ms. Mauvais offered to have Dr. L fix Max-Ernest’s “condition” with a lobotomy, which Max-Ernest says is “nonsurgical” and “painless,” and modelled after the Egyptian practice of pulling the brain through the nose. Max-Ernest does not see anything wrong with this and is very cheerful while discussing it.

Cass is flabbergasted but ignores all this to question Max-Ernest on how he found her. He reveals that he told Ms. Mauvais and Dr. L that he had the notebook to secure a meeting with them, but he has not yet given it to them. Cass is furious, but Max-Ernest insists that Ms. Mauvais and Dr. L are not as horrible as she thinks; Cass remains unconvinced. Before they can continue their debate, Gloria Fortune enters, and Cass immediately notices that she is quite changed from her usual demeanor; she appears to have lost weight and is very cheerful and friendly. Gloria reveals that Dr. L enticed her to the spa by giving her a sample elixir.

At this moment, Dr. L enters and tells Cass and Max-Ernest about the “True Science,” “the science of the essence” (227), which all the treatments at the Midnight Sun are derived from. This science is based on the shared “essential substance” (227) that everything on Earth is created from; according to Dr. L, identifying this essential substance is what enables one to work any transformation. Before he can explain further, Ms. Mauvais reenters the tent and announces dinner.

Cass is impressed by dinner; the dishes served render the table “less like a dinner table than a shrine to some jealous and demanding god” (230), so opulent is the food that is served. Cass notices that Ms. Mauvais does not eat any of the dishes; she only drinks what appears to be red wine and then eats a “small quivering mass that pulsed intermittently like a heart” (231), served to no one but her. Cass notices that Ms. Mauvais appears invigorated after consuming this strange dish. After dinner, Ms. Mauvais questions Cass and Max-Ernest about the notebook; she explains that Pietro was a dear friend of hers but he suffered from delusions, that Luciano was his make-believe friend, and the whole story about being kidnapped from the circus was born of Pietro’s troubled mind.

Throughout this exchange Dr. L appears very affected. Ms. Mauvais tells Cass and Max-Ernest that as part of his delusion, Pietro accused Ms. Mauvais of stealing his brother, despite the fact that she would have been “much too young” (234) to have done so. Hearing this, Cass doubts her previous suspicions of Ms. Mauvais. Ms. Mauvais claims they want the notebook because they don’t want the world to remember Pietro as a “crazy person” (234). Cass grows increasingly frustrated as she realizes that she doesn’t have proof for any of the bad things she believes Ms. Mauvais has done. Cass hits the table in frustration, causing Ms. Mauvais’s wine glass to spill, revealing that the liquid within was likely monkey blood. Some of the liquid stains Ms. Mauvais’s gloves; when she removes them, her hand is clearly that of an elderly woman.

Ms. Mauvais does not address the previous reveal. Instead, she coerces Cass and Max-Ernest into giving up the notebook. Dr. L decodes the message at the beginning of the notebook, and Ms. Mauvais reads all the magician’s notes; when she gets to the end and finds the missing pages, she accuses Cass and Max-Ernest of stealing them and demands that they tell her what “The Secret” is. When they cannot, she imprisons them in Cass’s room. Max-Ernest berates himself for trusting Ms. Mauvais while Cass tries to think of a way to escape.

Cass forgives Max-Ernest for telling Ms. Mauvais about the notebook but asks why he came to the Midnight Sun on his own. Max-Ernest responds that he figured out that Ms. Mauvais knew who Cass was and that he came because he didn’t want Cass to be killed. Cass is moved by this, and any lingering conflict between the two is resolved. Dr. L enters, and Cass and Max-Ernest are intimidated by his rage. Dr. L is convinced they are withholding the Secret from him. Although Cass and Max-Ernest do not have any knowledge to give him, Dr. L shares some knowledge with them: The first record of the Secret originated in Luxor, Egypt, in 1212 BC, and since then, everyone who has come into contact with the Secret has died horrific deaths. Dr. L reveals that the Secret is some kind of formula, which he and Ms. Mauvais have searched for their whole lives. Cass deduces that Pietro must have known the Secret and accuses Dr. L of killing him. Dr. L insinuates that Pietro is still alive and that it was in fact Pietro who ripped the pages from the notebook.

Listening to Dr. L talk about Pietro, Cass begins to have a suspicion; to test it, she takes the cotton candy Smoochie she received from Amber out of her pocket and puts it on her lips. The smell of cotton candy gives Dr. L pause, and he takes the Smoochie from Cass to examine it. As he smells it, his eyes fill with tears. He drops the Smoochie, and Cass notices something on the back of his neck that confirms her suspicion. Daisy, the limousine driver, enters to inform Dr. L that “the boy” is gravely ill and that “it” must happen tonight. Without further explanation, Dr. L leaves. Once they are alone, Cass asks if Max-Ernest saw what she did on the back of Dr. L’s neck: a crescent-shaped birthmark, revealing that Dr. L’s true identity is Luciano Bergamo.