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3.71 AVERAGE
3.71 AVERAGE
Montgomery really was a wonder at writing about huge families, and even though there's just so many characters in this book, each one has their own story and personality. Some archetypes that may be familiar from her other stories, but still plenty of ill-fated lovers and happy endings to go around. A delight, up until that very last sentence. Gee thanks, casual racism.
Montgomery has such a way with words, from scathing snarky comments to glorious prose about nature. And it's often a joy to read, though I did have a few struggles with this one, despite liking it a fair bit.
Firstly, it reads a bit differently. We basically bounce around in narration from character to character to character to character to character. At the beginning, sometimes it's just a sentence about one character only to have the next five sentences about 5 OTHER characters. There's a lot of names being thrown around and honestly, it was hard to keep track of who was who, unless they were one of the main...10?? For all that it bounced around though, you did feel like it was a complete story in the end.
I had to roll my eyes at so many people here. So many of them were so stupid, and all regarding love. It was slightly frustrating because it was almost hard to believe any of them really in love, they were so fickle or dumb about it. Which made it hard to root for anybody. Most especially Gay I would have liked to bop over the head. Probably Hugh and Jocelyn I most rooted for, and even they to some degree needed a head bopping.
I expected so much more from the stupid jug. I mean, the more it went, the more I knew nothing would come of it, but still, I was promised things, and it was pretty duddy.
Also, dear heavens, I would like to see a family tree for these two families because good grief. Is the whole damn island just these two families intermarrying???? (I know it's not, but it sure seems like it )
But all that being said, it was really genuinely a pleasure to read. Qualms aside, it mostly worked and Montgomery's writing is just so
Firstly, it reads a bit differently. We basically bounce around in narration from character to character to character to character to character. At the beginning, sometimes it's just a sentence about one character only to have the next five sentences about 5 OTHER characters. There's a lot of names being thrown around and honestly, it was hard to keep track of who was who, unless they were one of the main...10?? For all that it bounced around though, you did feel like it was a complete story in the end.
I had to roll my eyes at so many people here. So many of them were so stupid, and all regarding love. It was slightly frustrating because it was almost hard to believe any of them really in love, they were so fickle or dumb about it. Which made it hard to root for anybody. Most especially Gay I would have liked to bop over the head. Probably Hugh and Jocelyn I most rooted for, and even they to some degree needed a head bopping.
I expected so much more from the stupid jug. I mean, the more it went, the more I knew nothing would come of it, but still, I was promised things, and it was pretty duddy.
Also, dear heavens, I would like to see a family tree for these two families because good grief. Is the whole damn island just these two families intermarrying???? (I know it's not, but it sure seems like it )
But all that being said, it was really genuinely a pleasure to read. Qualms aside, it mostly worked and Montgomery's writing is just so
I would have liked it better if it hadn't ended in a racial slur. A product of the times, I'm sure, but ouch.
For a book with so many main characters I thought it would be much harder to follow along, but I found that nearly all of the characters were so distinct that it was easy to follow the "web" of character changes nearly flawlessly.
A somewhat more mature and action oriented book than Montgomery's other books. One of her few that aren't centered around a child character.
Full review: http://iwishilivedinalibrary.blogspot.com/2013/10/a-tangled-web-by-lm-montgomery-review.html
Full review: http://iwishilivedinalibrary.blogspot.com/2013/10/a-tangled-web-by-lm-montgomery-review.html
Probably my favorite L.M. Montgomery book written for adult audience.
L.M. Montgomery is a long time and all time favorite author of mine. She writes the perfect girls story with just the right mix of adventure, drama and happiness. I find her books a comfort to read and have re-read most of her works many times over the years. They are classics for a reason and that reason is they are great. These are true comfort books for me and books I enjoy re-reading again and again.
This book is a little unexpected coming from LM Montgomery, the author of sweet books like the Anne series. This book tells the twisted story of 2 interrelated families, the Darks and the Penhallows, and their strange, strange interractions. It's a bit odd, a bit twisted--shades of Gosford Park without a murder, maybe. It kept me interested through to the end, despite, or maybe especially because it didn't seem like typical LM Mongtomery. give it a read sometime--I think you'll enjoy it.
"A Tangled Web" is one of the very very few "adult" novels penned by Lucy Maud Montgomery. The Canadian author is primarily renowned for her creation of Anne shirley. perhaps the most beautiful creation of a child in all fiction. She also created many other works of children fiction - Emily of Silver Moon, Pat of Silver Busy, Jane of Lantern Hill and more. She achieved immense success as a writer of fiction based on children. But her adult books did not receive as much success. "Blue Castle" was a ver yinteresting book indeed - a woman is pronounced to be suffering from an incurable disease with a limited time to live. The book is about how she tries to achieve all her dreams in the time remaining. The theme is beautiful but Montgomery couldnt make it a gripping account. She meandered and tried to make it as pleasing an affair as the child stories. The well-written story hence fell flat.
"A tangled web" has a good theme. An elderly aunt prepares for her death and as one of her last actions, bequathes her precious heirloom, an old jug, to an unnamed relative to be announded after a year. There is a big family, each one of whose members expects the jug to be their gift. The book is almost completely abou tthe lives of these members and how things change over the course of the year. The theme of the book is very interesting as I said. Being part of a big family myself with strong senior ladies, I could relate to a lot of action early in the book. To me, the book very quickly became a very confusing affair. There are just way too many characters and keeping track of each one of their stories in parallel was too difficult a task for me. By the time you got familiar with the people and relate to their stories, the book was almost over. Due to the number of stories being spawned, I felt a certain shallowness to the characters. I could connect with none. I had the same experience as watching one of the Harry Potter movies - just a quick assembly of different images with no emotinal connect anywhere. This from Ms Montgomery was a huge disappointment. For the most essential win about her "child" books are about the emotional connect you feel with the chief characters. Anne, Mathew and Marila for instance. Ms Montgomery appears to have rather a limited view of what an adult book means. To her, it appears it must means more swearing and more kissing. Otherwise, the adults just seem to be the simpletons they appear in her child books.
Despite all of this, the book is still not a bad read. The disappointment is high only because of the expectations going with the author. Its a typically gay, light read marks Ms Montgomery's books. Once you know to recognize the characters by their name, the chances are you may actually start liking them - at least some. So it may not be a complete waste of time. But dont go into it expecting a brilliance you may (justifiably) expect from the author who wrote "Anne of Green Gables". There is no such flair here. But the prose is lovely as ever and you dont feel bored. Just confused.
"A tangled web" has a good theme. An elderly aunt prepares for her death and as one of her last actions, bequathes her precious heirloom, an old jug, to an unnamed relative to be announded after a year. There is a big family, each one of whose members expects the jug to be their gift. The book is almost completely abou tthe lives of these members and how things change over the course of the year. The theme of the book is very interesting as I said. Being part of a big family myself with strong senior ladies, I could relate to a lot of action early in the book. To me, the book very quickly became a very confusing affair. There are just way too many characters and keeping track of each one of their stories in parallel was too difficult a task for me. By the time you got familiar with the people and relate to their stories, the book was almost over. Due to the number of stories being spawned, I felt a certain shallowness to the characters. I could connect with none. I had the same experience as watching one of the Harry Potter movies - just a quick assembly of different images with no emotinal connect anywhere. This from Ms Montgomery was a huge disappointment. For the most essential win about her "child" books are about the emotional connect you feel with the chief characters. Anne, Mathew and Marila for instance. Ms Montgomery appears to have rather a limited view of what an adult book means. To her, it appears it must means more swearing and more kissing. Otherwise, the adults just seem to be the simpletons they appear in her child books.
Despite all of this, the book is still not a bad read. The disappointment is high only because of the expectations going with the author. Its a typically gay, light read marks Ms Montgomery's books. Once you know to recognize the characters by their name, the chances are you may actually start liking them - at least some. So it may not be a complete waste of time. But dont go into it expecting a brilliance you may (justifiably) expect from the author who wrote "Anne of Green Gables". There is no such flair here. But the prose is lovely as ever and you dont feel bored. Just confused.