Reviews with content warning for Xenophobia - Secret Garden

The book starts with awful characters but then it is beautifully hopeful. Theres a religious motif that I didn’t hate because it felt like more of hopeful than religious

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bringmybooks's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

If I've said it once, I've said it a million times (&if I've never said it before, I'll say it now): listening to audiobooks of classic children's literature is SUCH a good way to revisit these stories as adults!

✨ 𝗕𝗥𝗜𝗡𝗚 ✨ B̷O̷R̷R̷O̷W̷ B̷Y̷P̷A̷S̷S̷

[First things first - this book was written in 1910 and there are some parts of it that really did not age well (specifically around the language used to describe both India and Indian people). It's not throughout the entire book, more so in the beginning as Mary Lennox is learning not to parrot insensitive & incorrect information that she's been told, but it's still not great.]

I know that I have read The Secret Garden as a kid, but I also know that it's been at least 25 years since then and it was WILD how much I had forgotten about so much of this book. I think the 90s adaptation did a really good job keeping the spirit of the story and characters (other than Ms. Medlock, who is way more severe in the adaptation). There was a lot more character arc and growth in the book, and more exploration of other characters aside from Mary & Colin, which I really appreciated.

This was one of the last Audible credits I used before switching to libro.fm, and the narrator [Carrie Hope Fletcher] did an AMAZING job with the story! I can't speak to any other audio narrators, but if you use Audible this was well worth the credit 🥰 Overall this was one I was glad I got a chance to go back and revisit!

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mazzie's review against another edition

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I understand that the story takes place in a time of colonization and that in 1911 many of these views were held for the white audience intended; however, the constant degradation of the South Asian community, especially in a book for children, is extremely tough to be constantly reading. As a person of color, no classic is worth subjecting yourself to ridiculous, persistent hate.

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maeverose's review against another edition

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1⭐️

I’m logging this as a dnf because I heavily skimmed the last seven chapters and don’t feel like I can fairly count it as read.

I want parents who plan on reading this to their kids to read this review please. You’re absolutely allowed to read this to your kids if you want, but if you do, you need to have a conversation with them about how some of the themes in this book are wrong and offensive. Especially if you’re white or able bodied. (This review is by a white disabled person).

I loved the 1993 movie growing up and wanted to read the book for that reason, but wow this book was painful to read. Not only is it incredibly slow and repetitive but it’s full of racism and ableism. With classics I always go in prepared for problematic things so I wasn’t surprised that those things were in there, especially since the movie is very ableist as well. But it was so bad in the book.

The racism

I found it problematic that it opens up with a cholera outbreak in India, followed by some other comments about Mary always getting sick from having grown up in India. To me this implies the author thinks India is a dirty place full of sickness. Mary physically abused the enslaved Indians who cared for her when she was mad and treated them as if their sole purpose in life was to serve British settlers. Mary says at least once that Indians aren’t human, they’re servants. This is never corrected in the book at any point, by other characters or the narrative. Even after she learns to be nice she never seems to change that belief, unless I missed it. It’s kind of just dropped. There are also several racial slurs used casually throughout the book.

The ableism

I have scoliosis so it was both hilarious and annoying anytime Colin freaked out about feeling a lump in his back and cried over becoming a ‘hunchback’. He acted like it was the worst possible fate anyone could have. Which I’m sure was intentional because he’s a very dramatic kid, but it was still clearly coming from an ableist place. At one point they straight up say kids are better of dead than bedridden from illness or disability. And the icing on the cake is the scene where Ben Weatherstaff sees Colin outside and refers to him as crippled, then Colin and Mary are all offended that he dare say such a thing, and Colin proceeds to stand up for the first time to prove he’s ‘not a cripple’, and it was supposed to be this heartfelt, groundbreaking moment… Imagine how that feels for wheelchair users to read? It shows that able bodied people see disabled people as miserable and undesirable. (I re-watched the movie after reading and this scene is in the movie too). There was also a whole message about ‘willing yourself to get better’ and essentially saying that if you’re disabled all you gave to do is go outside and stop being disabled actually. Just try harder. There was absolutely no point to Colin’s whole storyline of being ‘fake sick’ and getting better. The overall message of the book is to be a nice person and you’ll make friends that way. He could’ve just been either able bodied, or better yet, actually disabled and never magically ‘cured’, while still learning to be nice and getting his happy ending.

I understand if you have sentimental attachment to the story, I still have an attachment to the movie even if it’s also very ableist. But it’s important to acknowledge these things, especially if you’re reading or watching it with kids. Personally it shocks me when I see people reviewing this book without pointing that stuff out. Lots of white able bodied people seem to be desensitized to these things, which is very concerning to me.

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