Reviews

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

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bxnnny's review against another edition

hopeful lighthearted mysterious reflective fast-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

3.0

this was such a cute, sweet, lighthearted book! i loved the descriptions of the garden coming to life as the children did - it made me wish i'd bought one of the illustrated editions. i liked the idea that nature heals the soul and body and i loved dickon's character and his deep connection to nature and animals.

i did expect the book to have more magical and fantasy elements, more similar to maybe a narnia type of thing. i did also find the story to become very repetitive and wish the focus had been kept on mary and not shifted so much to colin. there were also a lot of grammatical errors, like commas and periods in random places. it happened so much and was very distracting and annoying. i don't know if this is just the case with this edition or with all of them but i feel like the book's been out long enough where this shouldn't be an issue and it was very disappointing to see how frequent it was.

Content Warnings

maddim's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

4.0

plagiarizzim's review against another edition

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5.0

“Where you tend a rose, my lad,

A thistle cannot grow.”

I’ve been feeling a little lost and sad recently, and picking up a childhood favourite was so healing for me. I used to listen to The Secret Garden on a CD, narrated by Thora Hird, at night as a child, and I can still hear it so vividly. I can still see the same images I imagined as a child. A true testament to how much I love this story (and how often I listened to it). I took my time with this book and really savoured it. A lovely experience with a lovely book.

ninnicannotspell's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I always love her books, somthing wery old fairytale about them. I feel like I can see Dickens and the Moor

babagardener's review against another edition

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hopeful inspiring relaxing medium-paced

rhi_xo's review against another edition

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hopeful lighthearted mysterious relaxing 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

3.0

this was a really sweet book with some lovable characters in it (especially Dickon). I really liked the message of how you can expel bad thoughts with good ones & the positive effects of using your body & being outdoors. the story itself was different than what I expected it to be & I don’t know how I feel about the focus shifting from Mary to Colin. It would have been cool to get a glimpse into the kids’ futures to see how they turned out, but all in all it was a very sweet story.