Into the Bright Open: A Secret Garden Remix

A Governor General’s Literary Award in Young People’s Literature Finalist



"Aching and emotionally immersive. ... A rich and verdant revival of a classic." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review



A newly orphaned girl is sent to the Canadian wilderness to live with relatives she's never met, only to discover her new home is full of secrets both wonderful and horrifying in this lyrical retelling of The Secret Garden.



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 the 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 Metis girl named Sophie, Mary begins digging further into family secrets both wonderful and horrifying to figure out how to free Olive. And some of the answers may lie within the walls of a hidden, overgrown and long-forgotten garden the girls stumble upon while wandering the wilds...



This queer YA reimagining of The Secret Garden subverts the cishet and white status quo of the original.



The Remixed Classics Series



In the Remixed Classics series, authors from marginalized backgrounds reinterpret classic works through their own cultural lens to subvert the overwhelmingly cishet, white, and male canon.



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