Wanderland Reads | Into the Bright Open
Into the Bright Open
Author: Cherie Dimaline
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Summary
In the Remixed Classics series, authors from marginalized backgrounds reinterpret classic works through their own cultural lens to subvert the overwhelming cishet, white, and male canon. This queer YA reimagining of The Secret Garden subverts the cishet and white status quo of the original in a tale of family secrets both wonderful and horrifying.
Mary Lennox didn’t think about death until the day it knocked politely on her bedroom door and invited itself in. When a terrible accident leaves her orphaned at fifteen, she is sent to the wilderness of Georgian Bay to live with an uncle she's never met.
At first the impassive, calculating girl believes this new manor will be just like the one she left in Toronto: cold, isolating, and anything but cheerful, where staff is treated as staff and never like family. But as she slowly allows her heart to open like the first blooms of spring, Mary comes to find that this strange place and its strange people—most of whom are Indigenous—may be what she can finally call home.
Then one night Mary discovers Olive, her cousin who has been hidden away in an attic room for years due to a "nervous condition." The girls become fast friends, and Mary wonders why this big-hearted girl is being kept out of sight and fed medicine that only makes her feel sicker. When Olive's domineering stepmother returns to the manor, it soon becomes clear that something sinister is going on.
With the help of a charming, intoxicatingly vivacious Métis girl named Sophie, Mary begins digging further into family secrets both wonderful and horrifying to figure out how to free Olive. Some answers may lie within the walls of a hidden, overgrown and long-forgotten garden the girls stumble upon while wandering the wilds.
Other Titles in the Remixed Classics Series
- A Clash of Steel: A Treasure Island Remix by C.B. Lee
- So Many Beginnings: A Little Women Remix by Bethany C. Morrow
- Travelers Along the Way: A Robin Hood Remix by Aminah Mae Safi
- What Souls Are Made Of: A Wuthering Heights Remix by Tasha Suri
- Self-Made Boys: A Great Gatsby Remix by Anna-Marie McLemore
- My Dear Henry: A Jekyll & Hyde Remix by Kalynn Bayron
- Teach the Torches to Burn: A Romeo & Juliet Remix by Caleb Roehrig
- Into the Bright Open: A Secret Garden Remix by Cherie Dimaline
- Most Ardently: A Pride & Prejudice Remix by Gabe Cole Novoa
- This Wretched Beauty: A Dorian Gray Remix by Elle Grenier
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Queer Books by Indigenous Authors
📚✨ Let's get into this list of Indigenous queer books! These stories not only celebrate diverse identities but also challenge cultural narratives and promote understanding. By reading these voices, we honor their experiences and enrich our own perspectives.
No one is illegal on stolen land. Posting from Mánu: Yį Įsuwą (Catawba) Territory and Lumbee Land.
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