Absolutely charming with picturesque landscapes and an escape back to childhood. Complete with ridiculous antics and beautiful daydreams.
Summary:
Matthew and Marissa Cuthbert of the sleepy town of Avonlea, Prince Edward Island, take it into their heads to adopt an orphan boy to help with the farm. Yet who should show up at the train station but an imaginative and chatty red-headed girl. While the siblings debate on sending her back, her bright spirit and wide-eyed dreams charm them into letting her stay. With her antics, Avonlea and its townsfolk will never be the same.
Verdict: 10/10
I've always heard talk of L.M. Montgomery's timeless series. From a very young age, my grandma tried to convince me to read it, buying me copies of the books and dolls of Anne. I finally caved and picked up the 'mashed potato book' that I had saved for so long. Little did I know how much I would fall in love with Green Gables and her occupants.
I quickly saw why everyone had been suggesting it: Anne's curious and energetic attitude was exactly like mine as a child. Using big words for a young age and letting her mouth and her imagination run away with her at times, Anne is intelligent and witty without being pretentious. I doubt I'll watch any of the adaptations as I just can't picture any actor coming off as genuine as the character. And her honesty makes for hilarious and heartfelt conversations with all that she meets.
Montgomery's characters are perfectly real in their imperfectness. Anne means well but makes little mistakes that seem like episodes out of a sitcom, perfectly summing up the awkwardness of that age. And the author captures any age with a hilarious amount of accuracy, from the drama of middle schoolers to the strict yet sympathetic older crowd.
Not only does the reader feel nostalgic for the innocence of the characters or wishful for a simpler era, but the description of nature is an escape in itself. Most books that go to this extent of describing flowers and trees would bore me - not this novel. Montgomery lets the reader see the romance of the woods or the possibilities of a stream in the same way that Anne does.
My only criticism (if I can even call it that) was the speed of the last fourth. There are various time jumps, but it always feels laid back like a stroll through a simpler life and childhood. The author focuses on a funny incident or an "epoch" in Anne's life and then picks up at the next one however many weeks or months later. However, I felt like ages 14 through 16 just flew by! All of a sudden Anne is in Queen's Academy for a degree, a year's time that only takes up 1-2 short chapters. And the ending which changes Anne and Marissa's whole future is contained in only 15 pages! It didn't feel rushed per se. I just wanted more detail and to see everything develop.
But maybe that was Montgomery's intent. Children focus on what we think of as minutia. Time seems to pass slow from their perspective with a week feeling like a year. While adults have a routine and wait for the next big event, children discover a new exciting adventure every day. So as Anne grows, the spaces between life events and milestones lengthen.
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