Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a free ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars.

When I heard about a sapphic Secret Garden retelling by an indigenous author, I was SO excited. I have read from Cherie Dimaline before and enjoyed it, so I am happy to have enjoyed this book, too. I loved the characters, but there could have been more development from the side characters. Mary, the main character, got a lot of good development, but Olive, Flora, and Sophie seemed one-dimensional in comparison. The "evil step-aunt" Rebecca was also pretty one-dimensional. The book was short and advertised for a YA audience, but it read almost middle grade. It was definitely for the younger end of the YA audience. Mary was about 15 but read as a 12 year old. Despite this, the story was enjoyable and cute.

Now don't judge me too harshly, but I have no memory of reading The Secret Garden. I own a copy that I've held onto since childhood, so I must have read it at some point, I just don't remember it.

So I have nothing to base this "remixed" version on - I don't know how well it hits the major beats of the story, or any of that. What I can tell you is that I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Mary Craven's parents have died and she is sent to live with her uncle. She's been neglected her whole life and is therefore a bit unlikeable at the start of the story. She's essentially your typical spoiled rich girl who is forced to move to the country. However, even when she was supposed to be unlikeable you can't help feel a bit sorry for Mary - the author does a great job of making her a sympathetic character.

When she arrives at her new home, the master is away, and she discovers a girl who is locked up in the attic, her cousin who is too sickly to leave her rooms. Then her evil step-aunt Rebecca shows up and the story unfolds. I love having a really terrible villain for our main character to deal with and Rebecca is deliciously awful. I loved the found family aspect of this story too - Mary befriends the Metis "help" that work at the manor and there is even a budding romance between Mary and Sophie that was very sweet.

I will say, I think this could have been a bit more atmospheric and I struggled to figure out a time period - there is very little to go on to place things. But overall, I really enjoyed this story. It's a perfect bridge book for a young teen who isn't quite ready for YA yet but feels to old for most middle-grade! I recommend this one for ages 12+

This is my first Secret Garden retelling. I really enjoyed it. I loved the story and the queer remix! At first Mary is such a brat but as she gets to know the people around her she grows and matures. Rebecca was terrible and I couldn't stand her. I loved the side characters. Flora and Olive were just so awesome. I cannot wait to read more by this author. Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group for the arc in exchange for my honest review.

Now this is an adaptation! Keep the bones of the story but flesh it out into something new and all its own. A sapphic retelling with Indigenous representation and intriguing family secrets. I really enjoyed it! That being said, I will say it feels a little simplified, perhaps for the age range? Maybe not but it felt a bit off. These remixed classic have not disappointed!

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group/Feiwel & Friends for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Netgalley. Upon reading this I realized I did not like the classic this was based off and felt that impacted my lack of interest in this one.

This was very delightful! It was a light hearted read, one through which I breezed with ease. I did find the story quite like the original though, but I didn't mind that.

I really loved this installment in the Remixed Classics series! I loved the way equal weight was given to Mary's family/close friendship with Olive and her romance. I loved the queer romance. I loved the characters. It was just really good!

I did not finish reading this fully because it wasn't very gripping. Also the setting doesn't play the biggest part and I'm like... what's the TITLE and PREMISE of this book? Where is the garden mawma???

The story is very similar to what I remember of the original, but I like the relocation to Canada with the mostly indigenous cast. And the burgeoning sapphic relationship.

I am really enjoying Mary's transformation and blossoming and the easy flow of the story, as well as how it hits all the nostalgia points from my childhood love of the original. It is written on the younger side of YA, almost middle-grade, which I actually like, since it was originally a children’s book. Even though Mary is aged-up, it’s done in a subtle way that doesn’t impact the story too much, besides making room for the gentle love story.

I love Flora, she's such a sweet and cheerful soul, and she guides Mary to a much happier place.

There is perhaps less time spent in the actual secret garden, and I think that could have been expanded, but in a way time with Sophie comes to stand in for time in the garden.

The entire story feels a bit rushed and I would have liked Cherie Dimaline to slow down and really take her time bringing us into Mary's world. Her transformation would feel more believable if it had been drawn out more as well. As it is, it's rushed so much that nothing really has much impact. Even Rebecca's treachery at the end is quickly resolved by Mary's Uncle Crane returning and setting things right in a few sentences.

The audiobook is well done and the narrator does a great job giving voice to the characters. I love Flora's cheerfulness and the way Mary's spoiled petulance gives way to thoughtfulness. It really shows in her voice.

I have loved every entry in the remixed classics series thus far, and I hope they continue it for a good long time because revisiting childhood favorites that are updated to include more diversity is one of my new favorite things and I am so glad that these timeless stories are being rediscovered by a new generation this way. This one fits nicely in with the others.

*Thanks to NetGalley and Feiwel & Friends for providing an early copy for review.

Reading a fresh take on a classic always feels like a bit of a gamble to me. This is especially true of books I read as a child, like THE SECRET GARDEN. I read THE MARROW THIEVES by Cherie Dimaline, though. I loved the writing and the way the author puts characters on her pages. I’ve been following the series of remixed classics a little bit (So far, I’ve only read MY DEAR HENRY, but I loved that one, too.), but when I saw that it was Cherie Dimaline who was retelling THE SECRET GARDEN, I could not wait to check it out.

Just like MY DEAR HENRY, the tone and style of the writing made this book feel like a classic. It’s been a while since I read THE SECRET GARDEN, but especially the scenes in which Mary is outside, working in the garden, felt like a perfect homage to the original story. Those scenes were some of my favorites.

Though the original story is set in England, this one is set in Canada, and that worked perfectly. Instead of Martha and Dickon, we have Flora and Sophie, biracial (Indigenous and white) young women who challenge Mary’s snobberies and help her see her world and her new home in a new way.

I loved the way this story centered so much on the relationships between the female characters. Flora and Sophie are mentors and friends. Mary and her cousin Olive form a strong bond as well. There’s also Aunt Rebecca, Mary’s step-aunt, who runs the household with an iron fist. She is also, perhaps, a representation of who Mary could have become if she’d never embraced changes or personal growth.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions my own.

In short, the writing in this was phenomenal but the plot and pacing still needed some touching up.

If you've not heard of The Secret Garden, it is a "classic" novel about a spoiled little girl that goes to live with her uncle and discovers a sickly cousin and a hidden garden, in that order, and then becomes Not Spoiled. There's more to it than that but its very Christian and white and upper class so it relatability has waned over time.
Into the Bright Open is the most recent in a series of Remixed Classics that seeks to pull representation and meaning out of these older texts for a newer generation. In this, we see Mary Lennox aged into a teenager and falling for a Metis girl named Sophie while trying to figure out who or what is harming her sickly cousin. There is also a garden.

The main issue that taints this novel is that while aging up makes the romance more palatable and able to happen, it removes the innocence and petulance from Mary. Her character is weirdly immature and while one could argue this is supposed to read a childhood trauma, I have doubts that the mother she described in the book wouldn't have been informing this girl of marriage and expectation of a teenager of the time period.
Now, the descriptions were lovely. One thing that drew me to this specific remix is Dimaline as the writer and she certainly does a great job putting us into this true wilderness and viewing it from Mary is a very successful method. However, we spend very little time in the actual Garden and much more in the house than I was expecting.
While I like our sort of, antagonist subplot for its ability to provided needed pressure on the plot, I felt that the pacing at the end let me down. Instead of a confrontation we got a "a few months later" style wrap up that was really a let down to all we had gone through up until that point.

Now as far as the goals of Remixed Classics go, this nails it. The representation is nice, the romance is sweet like young love usually is and the imagery does nail down that magic that the OG had. Despite the few complaints I have, I really do look forward to recommending this to students.

3.5
I'm not familiar with the original Secret Garden so I was struggling to see what was original and what was retold. I did find the main character a bit inconsistent with a fast development. Especially when it comes to the romance, the love interest was introduced very late into the story.

I did like the inclusion of Métis culture and people and this is what I read the remixed classics for

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This retelling of the Secret Garden was so much fun and really reminded me of why I loved the original. I loved that way the story was changed for better inclusion and I loved Mary Lennox and her fierce personality. This book was so fun that I devoured it in a day. I look forward to reading more of these remixed classics because of how fun they seem to be.

Overall, I'm a fan of this remix series and I think this Sceret Garden Remix was an excellent addition. Overall, I enjoyed how it used a lot os aspects from the original story, while mixing in some fresh elements. However, I am not sure that it really worked when aging up the characters. Mary wasn't nearly as sympathetic of a character as a bratty teen as she was as a grieving child. Aging her up felt a little forced and it just didn't flow very well. I did really enjoy the character of Sophie.

3.5 stars rounded up

I received an ARC form NetGalley

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing this eARC.

Into the Bright Open is a Secret Garden remix which follows recently orphaned main character Mary as she settles into life at her uncle's home, and eventually uncovers some of her family's secrets.

I'm a big fan of the Remixed Classics series, and Into the Bright Open is another solid win for me. This book takes a children's story that has a lot of problematic elements and turns and explores them in a way that I found incredibly fresh and interesting. I do think there was a bit of oddness in aging Mary up to teenagerhood, only because there was an element of childlike innocence and wonder that ended up being sort of muted. Still, I loved her growth, and I think this was an overall incredibly solid remix.

Into the Bright Open is a YA reimagining of The Secret Garden with queer and indigenous representation told in 3rd person.

I haven’t read The Secret Garden so I can’t speak to how this reimagining compares, but this was a quick easy read on the younger side of YA (the MC is 15). Mary starts off as quite an unlikable character but she does open up a bit as the story goes on.

I did enjoy the romance in this novel, as Mary is a queer girl discovering love for the first time, and her feelings are never infringed on.

I do wish that the ending was a bit longer as it felt quite rushed, but I also noticed that my copy was only 170 pages while it’s listed as almost 300 on goodreads, so perhaps some changes have been made.

Overall, I didn’t feel compelled by this story. I never really yearned to keep reading, and the ending was too rushed to truly feel the joy.

I recieved an eARC from turn the pages tours on Instagram and Macmillan kids in exchange for an honest eview and post.

I am the biggest fan of all the queer classics retelling stories being published. When I was younger I was enamored with the secret garden. I remember watching it all the time and dreaming about having a grand garden. I did not want the familial trauma, I was okay with missing out on that. When I saw there was going to be a sapphic retelling of this classic I nearly did backflips of joy.

I thought the story stayed true to the original while also having its own creative spin. I thought the pacing was well executed, the development could’ve been a bit stronger but overall I still enjoyed how the story went.

I did think something was missing and it wasn’t until I read someone else’s review that I realized what I had been struggling with. This book would’ve been better as middle grade and not young adult. Mary originally is younger than fifteen and I think the author tried to keep her original characteristics with the retelling but the characteristics Mary had in the retelling don’t quite fit a fifteen year old. Especially in that time period. This was something I struggled with because I kept having the same thoughts of this doesn’t feel like young adult but more like middle grade.

Overall, it was a lovely retelling and I think it’s going to look amazing on my shelf with the other retellings. It was incredible to see a story i loved so much as a child have the representation I yearned for at that time.

Into the Bright Open by Cherie Dimaline

“Love, cherie, love wants us to live. You live for love.”

Into the Bright Open is the newest in the remixed classics series. In this particular one, Dimaline reimagines The Secret Garden.

I throughly enjoyed this book. Dimaline’s writing had me hooked from the beginning and had me rooting for Mary even through her tantrums. I also loved the setting of early 20th century Canada and the the way Indigenous culture was woven in and the racism was not hidden. It helped add dimension to both the story and the characters.

I definitely will be checking out more of the remixed classics and also more of Dimaline’s writing going forward.

Thank you #Netgalley for the #ARC in exchange for the honest review!

Thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan Children’s for the ARC of this sapphic Secret Garden retelling!

I’ll admit I’ve never read the original - I really tend to like retellings but not classics. This was exciting and well paced, and I liked the romance a lot!

"Because, sometimes, even in the darkness, if you just push hard enough, you can end up sailing in to the bright open."

Into the Bright Open is such a wonderful and diverse Secret Garden retelling. Cherie Dimaline both stays true to the original while elevating the story with her diverse cast. I loved how she set the book in Georgia and made it a fresh take on the story.

This remix has everything I could want out of one of my favorite classics. I loved the modern take and really felt as if I knew the characters. I think that I like it even more than the original.

Remixes are not for every9ne so if you are a die hard classic fan, then this might not be for you. There are a lot of prejudices and racism in this book, and while it is not violent it is present.

Overall, I highly enjoyed this book and think it is so quotable, Probably my favorite Cherie Dimaline novel to date. I can't wait to see what else this remix series holds!