Reviews with content warning for Death - The Blue Castle

Just a lovely read with beautiful descriptions of nature and well written, vibrant characters. Really want to go and live on a secluded Canadian island now.

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refusetoshine's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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plantbasedbride's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

What a magical, lovely, emotional, and heartwarming book! I feel my heart has grown three sizes upon finishing it. Glorious descriptions of the magnificence and fleeting essence of the natural world, vivid characterization, and a protagonist to fall in love with and root for with abandon.

The Blue Castle will undoubtedly become a new comfort read that I will keep with me always!

Trigger/Content Warnings: fatphobia, racism, use of “queer” to mean strange or odd, terminal illness, death of an infant

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maurabee's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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bluejayreads's review against another edition

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hopeful lighthearted slow-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No

5.0

It's a tragedy that the Anne of Green Gables series is L.M. Montgomery's most popular work, because The Blue Castle is objectively better.

Okay, maybe not objectively, but I never could get into the Anne books and I adored this one.

Valancy Stirling has spent her life stifled by her controlling mother, her overbearing extended family, and being homely and unmarriageable, which make her a social pariah. When the doctor tells her she has only a year, and quite likely less, to live, she realizes she's going to die without having ever really lived. And she realizes that she won't be around to face the consequences, so she might as well do what she wants.

And so she starts doing what she wants and not doing what she doesn't want, starting with spending time alone when she isn't sleeping (yes, her mother/family were that controlling). The scene where she starts displaying her newfound independence over lunch with her extended family is an absolute delight. Valancy has never been allowed to do anything that hasn't gone through a rigorous approval process from the entire extended family, so she has plenty of wonderful ways to rebel, from wearing her hair how she wants to reading during the day to taking care of an old friend with a terminal illness.

And it is fantastic. Every single moment I've ever had of wanting to tell my relatives to mind their own business and let me live my own life got to live vicariously through Valancy. Even though the story is haunted by her impending death, it is a sweet and optimistic story of Valancy finding happiness and falling in love for the first time in her life. And, as one would expect from this kind of story, it has a happy ending.

Is it trite and fairly predictable? Yes. I guessed most of the twists while reading, but I'm sure I could have guessed the one that I didn't anticipate if I'd thought about it. Someone who didn't like it could call it "predictable" and they'd be right. But it was light, and fun, and cute, and overall just so entertaining. It's not at all a serious read, but it is delightful just the same.

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