Ratings

Content Ratings based on a 0-5 scale where
0 = no objectionable content and
5 = an excessive or disturbing level of content

Guide to Rating System

LANGUAGE

VIOLENCE

SEXUAL CONTENT

ADULT THEMES

 

Ratings Explanation – Contains Spoilers!

Language: A handful of swear words and several religious exclamations. An old woman comments that the man living next door is a “darkie”.

Violence: A character slices the throat of another with a penknife.

Sexual Content: A young woman’s wet dress clings to her body. A brother is very possessive of his younger sister. Their relationship is strange and I often worried that something inappropriate would happen, but it never did. A character is obsessed with a young girl. He follows her, anxious to take her picture. Although it feels sexual, nothing ever happens. A wedding night is described. His touch sends chills down her thighs. He casts aside her dress and slip. His breath is quick and heavy. It is stated that they make love. A conversation between a doctor and a mother about her married daughter’s sexual physicality and appetites.

Adult Themes: When Nell discovers that she was abandoned as a child, she is crushed. She feels disposable and discarded. When she has a daughter of her own she does not feel bonded to her. The baby always wanted more than she could give. A character is pregnant and not married. A young boy is shunned by his parents. He feels he is of no worth.

-Spoiler Alert!

A woman, who is unable to carry a baby to term, arranges for her husband to sleep with another woman. If she becomes pregnant she agrees to give the baby to the married couple when it is born.

Synopsis

Nell O’Connor is a lovely young woman full of hope for a bright future, but on her 21st birthday her father shares a secret with her that shakes her very foundation and makes her feel foreign in her own family. He tells Nell that she is not his biological daughter, that he found her, all alone on a boat dock 17 years earlier. Nell wants to know who she is and where she came from and, most importantly, why her family would have abandoned her, but her father can answer none of these questions.

When Nell’s father dies, he leaves her a small white suitcase, the only possession 4-year-old Nell had with her when she got off the ship alone in Australia. In the suitcase is a book of fairy tales which Nell feels is somehow the key to her identity. Armed with only a few vague memories of her voyage across the sea so many years before, and the clues found in the suitcase, Nell travels to England in search of her identity. Her pursuit leads her to a quaint cottage on England’s Cornish coast, complete with an almost magical walled-in garden. Nell buys the cottage and plans to leave Australia, live full-time in England, and unravel the mystery of her origins. Her plans are put on hold, however, when her granddaughter, Cassandra, comes to live with her.

After Nell’s death, her sister tells Cassandra Nell’s sad history. Having inherited the cottage in England, Cassandra travels to Cornwall to continue searching for Nell’s true identity. The result is a story full of obsession and family secrets pieced together over nearly 100 years.

This book was truly a pleasure to read. I did find Nell’s reaction curious when she found out she was not her parents’ biological child.  It was certainly an unexpected revelation, but her reaction seemed extreme given that she grew up in a loving home and was treated, not only equally with her sisters, but as her father’s favorite. I suppose her reaction has to be strong enough to motivate her to search for her past identity.

The story highlights the fine line between love and obsession, and when characters cross into the territory of obsession, there are always negative consequences. Morton balances this gothic, obsessive side of  love with the lighter theme that certain people make us whole and bring us “home”, wherever that may be.

Nell’s story is intriguing and Morton’s ability to keep the mystery alive and compelling throughout is a tribute to her writing. Although not written specifically for young adults, I think mature high school students would enjoy The Forgotten Garden.