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Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'
Into the Bright Open: A Secret Garden Remix by Cherie Dimaline
11 reviews
ribbonquest's review against another edition
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
Mary is still an unpleasant girl, but aged up from 10 to 15 so she can have a crush on Sophie, the free-spirited local girl. The setting is now Ontario and the locals are all of indigenous blood (the world "half-breed" is used a lot.)
Graphic: Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Racism, Vomit, Death of parent, and Colonisation
bunnypunk's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Racism, and Abandonment
Moderate: Medical trauma and Classism
Minor: Death of parent
crystalisreading's review against another edition
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Ableism, Confinement, Racial slurs, Racism, Colonisation, and Classism
Moderate: Child abuse, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Abandonment
Minor: Genocide, Forced institutionalization, Car accident, and Lesbophobia
Threats of being sent to Indian boarding schooljashanac's review against another edition
3.0
A Secret Garden "remix" set in Canada with Metis characters and a sapphic romance. Mary Craven's parents die leaving her orphaned and she is sent to live at the country manor of her uncle she has never met.
Re-Readability:
I don't see myself re-reading this one. I didn't dislike it, but I didn't find any element captivating enough to want to experience it again.
Writing:
There were some lovely lines and I do enjoy Dimaline's overall authorial voice.
Characters:
I enjoyed the characters overall, but there was something kind of bugging me and I couldn't put my finger on it until toward the end... someone mentioned hearing rumors about Mary's terrible tantrums... and I realized that in this book, she never actually had any. We saw a few moments in the beginning of her being a bit surly or snotty, and stomping her feet... but very much NOT the Mary that we know from the original story.
I'm not even very familiar with the original book -- I've only read it once, in adulthood -- but the 90's movie was a childhood favorite of mine (and very closely matches the original book).
So then I realized that not only was Mary watered-down... but so was Olive (meant to be Colin, from the original). Due to this their "growth" in this story was not actually very obvious and also any mention of it felt unearned.
Plot:
Another thing I felt was lacking a bit, was the actual garden itself. There wasn't enough description of it to set the magical atmosphere like there definitely was in the movie, and also was in the original book. I didn't feel the magic of the secret garden much at all, and I missed that.
The pacing also was a bit off for me -- the final few chapters felt very rushed and the reunion between Olive & her father was SO abridged that it was a bit odd to me. It felt awkward & stilted.
I do like the addition of more of a conversation happening around a minority group in this reimagining -- that is definitely an element of the original book that was very much "of its time" -- the racism on the page without much said about it. Having the servants of the house be Metis and therefore Mary having more interactions with them meant we got a deeper conversation in that regard and got to actually see some of their experience from their perspectives.
Themes:
Human need for companionship. Friendship. Found family. Bravery. Love. Colonization.
Graphic: Confinement
Moderate: Child abuse
There's an element of a parental figure purposely keeping a child "sick" and confined.rosemina2016's review against another edition
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Child abuse and Racism
brooketreads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
I did find the story predictable. As I said, I haven’t read The Secret Garden so I have no clue how closely it follows that. I found the pacing a little off - this may be just me. I’m not really a fan of historical fiction, so this may have been some of my issue.
Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Racial slurs, and Racism
Minor: Death of parent and Classism
spacerkip's review against another edition
2.5
Some of the reasons this didn't quite click are entirely personal - I found the third act conflict pretty triggering (child abuse involving isolation and subjecting someone to harmful medical treatments), so I skimmed through a lot of the last chapters. I also wish there was more time spent in the titular secret garden. I remember there being a lot of attention drawn to different plants and how to tend a garden in the original, and I would have enjoyed seeing this translated with Ontarian plants and wildlife.
All in all, an enjoyable read! Gonna keep going down the list of these remixes.
Moderate: Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Racism, Grief, and Death of parent
Minor: Sexism and Classism
queersubtext's review against another edition
- 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
4.25
Moderate: Child abuse, Racism, and Gaslighting
tlaynejones's review
3.75
Graphic: Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Racism, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Classism
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, and Vomit
citrus_seasalt's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.75
I did, however, really like the pacing of the queer romance. I was appropriately happy when Mary realized her feelings for Sophie, the two's dynamic was genuinely cute, and I liked that unlike a few YA novels, this wasn't a first love scenario. Mary's sapphic identity was revealed earlier on in the story, she originally spent the time thinking about a former crush-slash-almost-friend(which doesn't go anywhere, lol, it's just nice to see childhood crushes represented like that), but later on she develops an actual love for Sophie.
Easily, the Indigenous characters were the most fleshed-out besides Mary. (Which isn't surprising, considering the author.) Flora was a fun addition of much-needed snark when Rebecca was introduced.
Some of the story notes felt repetitive, though, like the titular "bright open" motif. I get that it was used only when needed, but my annoyance came from the tell-not-show writing. Some of the themes of community, loneliness, and different kinds of love could've been gathered from analysis and not spelling them out imo.
Works very well as a children's/middle-grade book, though, if you remove the occasional cursing.
Graphic: Chronic illness
Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, and Racism
Minor: Grief, Death of parent, and Lesbophobia