Return to the Secret Garden

I must be the only person ever who
1. loved The Secret Garden with every fiber of my being
and
2. found this to be a worthy sequel.

Yeah, I usually detest 'sequels' written 100 years after the original was published. Yeah, stuff happened that I didn't want to happen. No, it's not perky and cheerful and filled with the singing butterflies of childhood innocence, like the Burnett's original.

But this one doesn't betray or misrepresent or alter beyond recognition any of the characters - and I can't think of a higher compliment.

And I still love that irascible, cantankerous, agonizingly difficult Mary Lennox.

I don't remember much about Return to the Secret Garden except that I found it absolutely horrible and consider it a massive and unforgivable insult to both Frances Hodgson Burnett and anyone who has read and adored The Secret Garden. Now, I would not have minded if Susan Moody had changed the characters somewhat (I mean, children do grow up and change), and I also would not have minded even some controversial topics. However, changing Colin into some kind of bisexual deviant who calls out Dickon's name wile having sex with Mary and so on and so on really was and still is not my idea of an even remotely acceptable sequel to The Secret Garden (in fact, Return to the Secret Garden is one of the few books I have ever actually wanted to show more burn, and that is saying a lot). Truly, one of the worst and most distasteful books I have ever read (and for those who might claim that Susan Moody's writing style is interesting and that one should give this book a chance, well I tried to give Return to the Secret Garden a chance, but the massive changes to the characters, the fact that the book read like a cheap gossipy romance made me feel ill and insulted to such an extent that I never even noticed or more to the point cared all that much about Susan Moody's writing style, narrative flow, word-building, so angered and disgusted was I at and by the contents, the themes). show less

Liked the idea of a sequel to The Secret Garden, but the execution was appalling. Can't recommend it at all.

Poorly imagined, poorly written, poorly executed. Frances Hodgson Burnett is probably rolling over in her grave.