A little girl becomes orphaned in India and is sent home to England to live with family. She is forgotten about except for the servants. She finds a secret garden and begins to rebuild it with a neighbor kid. The gardening makes her healthy and happy and brings together the broken family that she joined.
It's rather silly, but the India to the moors of England part really intrigues me. It was part of the reason that I liked A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray. I am kind of a sucker for the gothicness of big old English manors.
When I read gothic novels like The Thirteenth Tale or The Secret Garden, I picture everything as dark. There's not enough light inside. It's gloomy outside.
Yes! Thanks for pointing out the similarity between The Secret Garden and the Libba Bray books. I read The Secret Garden several times as a kid, and about 3 years ago I devoured A Great & Terrible Beauty and its sequels. This helps me understand why. :)
ReplyDeleteI liked the first two Gemma Doyle books, but the last one was so wacky. I was not a fan.
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite books ever. I read it for the first time when I was 9 and it's still fantastic almost 20 years later.
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