Reviews with content warning for Racism - The Secret Garden

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.

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leaterary's review against another edition

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fast-paced

2.5

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crusoe's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful inspiring lighthearted 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

3.5

This story is very pleasant to listen to even if little happens. While the moral of the story is quite on the nose and parts are repetitive, there is something wonderful about exploring the mystical moors, the house and its grounds through the eyes of a child.

Through a modern day lense, the story can be interpreted as slightly ableist and more than a little racist. For that reason I don't think it should count as a 'children's classic' anymore.

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fyre_flies's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted 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

4.5

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emmiremmidemmi's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful inspiring lighthearted relaxing fast-paced

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

4.0

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ittybittybookshelf's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful inspiring lighthearted 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

4.75

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ariajb's review against another edition

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It was slow, nothing happened in the bit that i got through besides racism and barely sensical dialogue.
This feels like something you’d have to suffer through for school but since I was trying to read for fun,, I’m stopping

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