Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Setting
First, the facts: the action takes place in present-day San Francisco (and other places) over two days in late spring: Thursday, May 31, and Friday, June 1. We really get a California vibe from all...
Narrator Point of View
Who's telling this story? To be honest, we're not sure. It's definitely an outsider looking in, who can zoom into any character's thoughts at will. That makes the narrator a third person omniscient...
Genre
Adventure, Children's Literature, FantasyThe Alchemyst is a mishmash of a few genres, just like it's a mishmash of mythological characters and humans, or modern technology and magic. This book is a...
Tone
One of the best parts about reading The Alchemyst is that we get adventure, excitement, and great characters all wrapped up in a super friendly tone. We get to take part on the journey as if we're...
Writing Style
The author's writing style is very fast-paced, descriptive (it is especially heavy on the sensory details—sights, sounds, scents, tastes, and feels), and simplistic, too. Simplify. Simplify. Simp...
What's Up With the Title?
Um, Mr. Scott? Do you know how to spell? It's alchemist, not alchemyst. Sorry, Shmoopers, the dude knew what he was doing. Alchemyst is simply an old timey way of spelling alchemist, and that old t...
What's Up With the Epigraph?
I am legend.Death has no claim over me, illness cannot touch me. Look at me now and it would be hard to put an age upon me, and yet I was born in the Year of Our Lord 1330, more than six hundred an...
What's Up With the Ending?
What's up with the ending is that it's just the beginning. Seriously, folks—those are the last words of the book:"It is ending, Immortal.""On the contrary […] It is now only just beginning." (4...
Tough-o-Meter
Despite the weird spelling of the title, The Alchemyst is a pretty smooth read. It takes place in present-day San Francisco, so we're used to the way characters talk to each other, and don't have t...