Just as Neil Gaiman's
The Graveyard Book
reworked Kipling's
The Jungle Book
for a modern audience with a liking for the supernatural,
Devilskein & Dearlove
is a darker, more edgy, contemporary reworking of Frances Hodgson Burnett's classic
The Secret Garden.
An orphaned teenager is taken in by a reluctant distant relative, and in her new home makes an unexpected friend and finds a secret realm. It has shades of the quirky fantastical in the style of Miyazaki's (Studio Ghibli) animated films like
Spirited Away
and
Howl's Moving Castle
(originally a novel by Diana Wynne Jones).
Alex says "As a child
The Secret Garden
was one of my first favourite novels - one of the first I relished reading by myself. Although
is very different, it was inspired by that novel and its themes."
"Alex Smith's quirky imagination knows no bounds." - André Brink