A review by tragedies
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

 
“And the secret garden bloomed and bloomed and every morning revealed new miracles.”

The Secret Garden is a heartwarming story of two lonely, neglected children as they revive a dying garden and find their lives blooming along with it. I’ve never read this book as a child, but I imagine it is completely different from experiencing it now as a twenty-something college student. While it is a charming adventure full of whimsy and wonder, it is also an intricate study on grief, loneliness, and depression. Burnett explores these themes through the eyes of children who, albeit jaded by their experiences of the world, still viewed it with the innocence and naivety of youth. It felt much like a Studio Ghibli film, showing the world both as it is and as it should be.

“Do you want to live?” inquired Mary.
“No,” he answered, in a cross, tired fashion. “But I don't want to die.”

When I picked this book up, I was looking forward to a delightful cottagecore escape. Burnett delivered that with her lush, vibrant writing, but she also gave so much more. This book was a warm hug, embracing pieces of my inner child that I never knew ached. I’ve never been to a secret garden, much less to a place like North York Moors, but however unfamiliar these places were to me, I couldn’t shake the feeling that this book — wherever it took me — felt like coming home.

“But, strange as it seemed to him, there were minutes — sometimes half-hours — when, without his knowing why, the black burden seemed to lift itself again and he knew he was a living man and not a dead one. Slowly—slowly—for no reason that he knew of—he was “coming alive” with the garden.”
 
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