Reviews with content warning for Bullying - Anne of Greenville

I wanted to love this, but I just couldn’t. The concept was great. The execution was not. It was very angry and frustrating and took WAY too long to develop. I shouldn’t have been wondering what would happen with 6 pages left. The dialogue and writing was bizarre. Too many questions and uses of “like.” Just definitely not my jam, sadly. It makes me so sad ugh

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queenkath32's review against another edition

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emotional funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

As someone who adores Anne of Green Gables I was really hoping to like this. It was mostly fine, I felt like the plot was pretty standard, and it wasn’t a bad modernization of the setting. In all, though, it ended up feeling very meh. I liked most of the characters, but somehow everyone ended up feeling flat—especially Tanner and Sarah. Where in the original AoGG I find Anne charming and creative, this felt more like a discount version of her character. I liked Berry the best out of everyone in this, especially because I think Tamaki fleshed out her character in a more creative way than other modernizations have done

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thebookpaiges's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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crizzle's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring medium-paced

Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

2.25

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missrosymaplemoth's review against another edition

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3.0

I liked, and didn’t like, a lot of things about this book.

My dislikes:

The excessive use of CAPITALIZATION!
The excessive use of ending sentences with a question mark? Even when it often didn’t make sense?
The, like, excessive use of “like”
Assuming the audience doesn’t know any disco music and listing the artist, album title and year every song was released. It got repetitive and was never not annoying.

My likes:

Anne’s character, personality and narration was mostly really bubbly and joyful.
The end where
Berry’s last name is revealed to be Blythe
was unexpected and really satisfying for me.
Mr. Davidson, Beverly, and Monty the dog.

This is not a retelling of “Anne of Green Gables,” so if you’re coming into this book with that expectation, you will be disappointed, as I was. Around the 50% mark I let go of that expectation and it made for a more enjoyable reading experience. It’s not a bad book, it’s just not what it says it is (an “Anne” retelling). I don’t know how one would successfully go about retelling that story.

I debating even finishing this book because it felt like 250 straight pages of a girl being violently bullied and then the adults around her failing her in the aftermath. I really disliked the resolution as it was crammed into the last 30 pages. It was hard to believe these bully kids could go from being seriously racist, sexist and homophobic to suddenly nice and kind just because

they were put in their place by the drama teacher

. Gilly was annoying. The others were infuriating.

I was surprised this was YA; Anne often read as much younger, and this could have been a middle grade book if the excess swearing was omitted. (I’m not sure what the qualifications for a middle grade book are.) I kept forgetting she was an older teenager.

All in all, I still enjoyed this book. Anne’s character and worldview kept me reading until the end. Anne Shirley is one of my favorite characters of all time, so it makes sense why I’d enjoy it if this Anne was modeled after her.

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lettuce_read's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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erins_bookshelf_'s review against another edition

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emotional hopeful fast-paced

4.5

I loved this so much; it was really cute and fun while also being emotional when needed and it was just great :)

The end actually kind of surprised me because up until Berry said what her dad’s last name was I thought Gilly was supposed to be a genderbent Gilbert, but I’m realizing she was actually supposed to be like a Diana figure and it makes much more sense that way

Anyway this was fun and it’s a nice final book for 2022 :)

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