Reviews

A Bit of Earth by Karuna Riazi

creativelifeofliz's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I loved this The Secret Garden retelling and the chance to see Maria figure out who she is and who her family is. 

gold_star_reader's review

hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

kimiloughlin's review

4.0

A fresh take on The Secret Garden.

theliterarylemen's review against another edition

4.0

I received this as an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This retelling of The Secret Garden was lovingly updated & I thoroughly enjoyed every second of it.

Maria is having to grow up while being shipped from place to place after being recently orphaned. Her "sour" demeanor is completely understandable from that perspective and I truly appreciated the care the author put into her grief.

In addition to South Asian rep there's neruodivergent rep.

This is a beautiful retelling, and I definitely recommend.

mezzythedragon's review against another edition

emotional reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

klutzyhands's review

emotional hopeful reflective fast-paced

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

3.0

just_hebah's review against another edition

emotional hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

lkstrohecker's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective slow-paced

naomiysl's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

3.0

A Secret Garden, but make it American Desi. On the whole, this is a good thing to have on the shelves to hand people looking for the Secret Garden. It's not racist, it's not ablest, it's an inoffensive reworking of the story. And now the downsides: There are seemingly randomly interspersed bits of free verse that really break up the narrative in an unhelpful way, and don't seem to really serve a purpose. And though it's a completely serviceable reworking, it also adds very little of note. It also lacks the mysterious baby goth atmosphere of the original. So on the whole, it's fine. Not brilliant, but serves a purpose. 

laufox's review against another edition

Wasn't grabbing me 3 chapters in and was due at my library so I returned it. May pick it up another time.