A review by flopsiful
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective slow-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

3.5

It is a really beautiful book that displays how important nature connection is to our health. I love an author who can name a specific bird species and just the descriptions of spring were so vivid. It felt even more meaningful given how old the book is (1911?) that the skylarks are still doing their same song and dance and the daffodils and snowdrops are still popping out through the frost. It just gave me so much hope at nature’s resilience and how it continues its routine year on year in the face of adversity. It made me realise I need to find more books where nature is a character. 

The main deduction for me is for the phonetically written Yorkshire accents which was oof, hard to read - especially when all the main characters were picking up the accent! It really slowed down my reading comprehension which given that the pace already felt quite slow, made getting through some of it feel like it was an age! Also the racism was oof at the start and is obviously of its time, that was only really present in the first third.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings