By Cherie Dimaline
Feiwel & Friends, 2023. 224 pages. Young Adult Fiction
If you enjoy The Secret Garden - whether the book, the musical, or the many movies that have been made - you must add Into the Bright Open to your list! Like its inspiration, The Secret Garden, this book places 15-year-old Mary Craven in the late nineteenth century, but in Canada instead of England. After the unexpected deaths of her parents, Mary is uprooted from Toronto to live at her estranged uncle's manor on Ontario's Georgian Bay, which is the territory of the native Métis people. Mary begins to explore and ask questions about the mysterious manor, including her chronically ill cousin Olive who is confined to bed in the attic, and a locked garden whose gate can only be opened with a missing key. With the help of a charming, intoxicatingly vivacious Métis girl named Sophie, Mary begins a journey she will never forget.
I was delighted to pick up a "Secret Garden Remix," couldn't wait to sink back into the beautiful melancholy of Mary's world, and looked forward to the new characters I knew I would find inside. Mary's unwavering dedication to her cousin, Olive, and their many servants at the manor, will remind the reader why they fell in love with Mary for the first time.
If you like Into the Bright Open, you might also like:
By Kalynn Bayron
Bloomsbury YA, 2021. 373 pages. Young Adult Fiction
Briseis has a gift: with a single touch she can grow plants from tiny seeds to rich blooms. When her aunt dies and wills her a dilapidated estate in rural New York, Bri and her parents hope that surrounded by plants and flowers, she will finally learn to control her gift. But their new home is sinister in ways they never expected -- it comes with a mysterious set of instructions, a walled garden filled with the deadliest botanicals in the world, and generations of secrets. There is more to Bri's sudden inheritance than she could have imagined, and she is determined to uncover it.
By Ryan La Sala
PUSH, 2022. 340 pages. Young Adult Fiction
Mars has always been the lesser twin, the shadow to his sister Caroline's radiance. But when Caroline dies under horrific circumstances, Mars is propelled to learn all he can about his once-inseparable sister who'd grown tragically distant. Mar's genderfluidity means he's often excluded from traditions -- and expectations -- of his politically-connected family. This includes attendance at the prestigious Aspen Conservancy Summer Academy where his sister poured so much of her time. But with his grief still fresh, he insists on attending in her place. What Mars finds is a fairytale not meant for him. He seeks out his sister's old friends: a group of girls dubbed The Honeys. They are beautiful and terrifying -- and Mars is certain they're connected to Caroline's death.
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