Forget the circus because the balancing act Steve Almond performs in this novel, All the Secrets of the World, would put tightrope walkers to shame ... Known to some for his work as a co-host on the Dear Sugars podcast, Almond manages to channel the empathy intrinsic to that long-running advice program into the characters that make this novel a breathtaking success ... At times a race-to-the-finish mystery, this book can also rightly be categorized as a searing meditation on the multigenerational traumas endured by a family of undocumented immigrants. And yet, despite boasting a veritable universe of story lines, All the Secrets of the World impressively manages to sew all its loose threads back together before the final page arrives.

The fates of two Sacramento families collide most spectacularly ... [an] ingenious plot ... Almond paints a satirically astute portrait of Reagan's America ... With cleverly overlapping subplots and a memorable cast of characters that includes a polygamous cult leader living on a Mexican ranch, Almond's meticulously researched novel is a triumph of storytelling powered by a central theme: the perilous disconnect between those who control or abuse systems of power and the individuals who are at the losing end of the power dynamic. A sensitive storyteller admired for his rich, diverse literary work and his quirky brilliance, Almond, a former co-host of the Dear Sugars podcast, skillfully embellishes his realist drama with notions of the magical and celestial, the mysteries of the desert and the fascinating biology of the creatures that call it home.

... incredibly ambitious while also featuring some unexpected touches—scorpion biology and Nancy Reagan both play significant roles ... Almond is grappling with a lot of weighty themes...But while the large-scale tragedy that plays out is thought-provoking, the novel’s stranger digressions—like glowing scorpions—are what endure ... Almond’s first novel is ambitious and empathic but sometimes unwieldy.

Almond fans have waited long and hard for his debut novel and crustaceous hell does it deliver. All the Secrets of the World is a masterful, nervy, complex and confrontational work that flays the white beasts of power, excoriates the American dream, and serves up a ferocious indictment of the Fourth Estate, all while encased inside a brilliant Gobstopper of a book that changes flavor, shape and hue the longer it sits on the tongue, staining us with its unflinching, irresistible honesty ... Teenage drama? Police Procedural? Social Satire? Desert cult odyssey? Assume you are reading one kind of story and witness the ass in you and me. Almond’s constant subversion of expectation not only rejects categorization but it also keeps readers turning pages. Even my husband, who’s practically allergic to novels, found himself rapt all night, duly wrong about the soporific effects of fiction. Almond injects his bitter truth serum into storytelling so propulsive, characters so alive, and language so dynamic that it’s impossible to put this sucker down. No wonder it is Zando’s first ever title: the secret of this book lies in the breadth of its reach ... his careful attention and ability to illuminate his extensive cast of characters, their secrets and truths, that lends them their profound humanity.

... page-turning ... If there is a weakness to this book it is in the incongruity between the two paths it follows from this point onward. Marcus’s story, which involves a polygamous Mormon compound in Mexico, is bizarre and largely unbelievable. The official scapegoating of Antonio Saenz, however, is carefully and convincingly presented, building to a devastating portrayal of systemic injustice ... The novel’s dark, exciting ending finds Lorena searching for the missing scorpion researcher with the help of a police officer tormented by his role in railroading her brother. Mr. Almond’s writing is always swift and absorbing, even when the book grows somewhat miscellaneous, and a sense of enigma persists beyond the final explanations. There are some secrets that remain hidden simply because no one is willing to believe them.

Almond has crafted an insightful debut novel ... It's a plot replete with treacherous relationships, punishing landscapes and biblical allusions. Marcus' beguiling but dangerous scorpions serve as an oft-effective metaphor that Almond returns to — perhaps a bit too frequently — throughout the book. Meanwhile, Almond crafts some beautiful prose ... Tony is an equally credible character, his insecurities and psychological wounds explored in vivid flashback scenes ... Conversely, some of Almond's flash-forwards — closing-act scenes that tell us what becomes of the characters in decades ahead — have a hurried quality that saps some of the book's narrative energy. This is a forgivable shortcoming in an otherwise well-constructed novel. Almond lived with some of these characters for decades, so it's easy to understand why he had a hard time saying goodbye ... Almond, a white man, will likely be criticized in some quarters for trying to imagine the inner lives of vulnerable people — women, in particular — with Central American roots. Though more than a few complaints of this sort are ahistorical and appear to be lodged by people who've not read the book in question, they're worth considering if a writer seems to sensationalize, fetishize or in some other way exploit his characters' plight. Almond doesn't, though — not at all, which will be obvious to anyone who reads this imperfect yet compassionate novel.

Almond stuffs his debut novel with a lurid if convoluted story of teen friendship and crime in the Reagan era ... The truth about Marcus is a yawner, and whatever deeper message Almond tried to imbue is lost in the outlandish plotting. The author’s fans will have fun with this Day-Glo rendering of the early ’80s, but in the end it falls short.