*Selected recipes from Pseudonym Bosch’s (PB from here on) secret chocolate cookbook
PB’s all time favourite chocolate recipe :*
• 1 bar of chocolate (Preferably dark)
• 1 Hand
• 1 mouth
Grasp the bar in hand. Stick in mouth. Oh wait! – REMOVE WRAPPER. Then stick in mouth. Now eat. Repeat.
Note:- Speed is the essence in this recipe. Otherwise someone may see you and you may be forced to share.
By reading this, you get the idea why I chose this book. This book is all about chocolate, and you can figure it out through the amuse-bouche (French for ‘amuse the mouth’, a starter in a restaurant, here, a prologue) one of the many new words I came across while reading the book, did any of you know what an oxymoron is?
Anyway, before I get drifted off again, let me tell you the story:
Cass, Max-Earnest and Yo-Yoji are again ready to stop the Midnight Sun, a group of bloodthirsty alchemists with a obsession for gloves, who are up to something deep in a forest. They also believe that this has something to do with the Tuning Fork and Senõr Hugo, a deranged chef but as things unfurl, things don’t turn out to be as expected for anybody.
All the characters can be distributed into two categories:
The Terces Society: The Terces Society (Terces is Secret spelt backwards) is a society resolved to protect the Secret. It consists of:
• Pietro Burghamo: The leader of the society. A retired magician. Smart and intelligent.
• Mr. Wallace: The society’s archivist. An accountant. Quite serious and not funny.
• Lily: A violin teacher, Terces Society’s head of defense and a martial arts master (not a type of person I’d suggest you to cross paths with!).
• Yo-Yoji: A Japanese boy, Cass and Max-Earnest’s best friend. Ideas occur to him occasionally but when they do they are most helpful.
• Max-Earnest : Cass’s sidekick. A factoidologist (although there is no such thing, it means a person who knows a lot of facts) has uncountable allergies, including the saddest of them all, for chocolate.
• Cass : A young survivorlist. Smart and has sharp senses. Her survivor skills get her out of tricky situations. Quite sarcastic. The Midnight Sun: An evil organization with an over-obsession for gloves who will do anything to obtain the Secret. The people who matter in it are:
• Ms. Mauvais: Leader of Midnight Sun. She looks quite beautiful and thus it would’ve been
hard to think of her as a villain if the author hadn’t made her extremely evil.
• Dr. L: Pietro’s sinister twin and leader of Midnight Sun who was kidnapped by Ms Mauvais who turned him evil (Some People!). Handsome with a perfect tan and shiny, silver hair.
• Senõr Hugo: A crazy and deranged one-eyed chef. Making a recipe to acquire the secret.
This book is extremely interesting. Besides the talk of chocolate the thing that kept me glued was the suspense and the author’s dry sense of humour.
There are also interesting footnotes that are very fascinating and full of facts I didn’t know. Did you know that they used melted chocolate instead of blood in black and white movies?
It’s best example is in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho! Wow.
The story is very thrilling and gripping. The language is simple with new words which I am doubtful will be found in a dictionary (hence the author has explained them well). The description is vivid and yet doesn’t get boring. There are no graphics. The Cover page shows a chocolate bar with a torn wrapper which is very tempting and apt. I don’t there is any room left for any kind of improvement in this book.
Pseudonymous Bosch is a pseudonym or as he likes to call it a ‘nom de plum’ which is French for
‘a name of feather’ i.e., a pen name. Because of reasons he cannot disclose but are obvious to those who read his ‘secret’ books, he refuses to reveal his identity but he admits that he has a deep seated for mayonnaise (no wonder he doesn’t want to tell who he is!).
In the end, I’d say that
This book is like a chocolate bar, very tempting and leaves you craving for more.