Reviews with content warning for Emotional abuse - The Blue Castle

Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery

10 reviews

bibiran's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective 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? Yes

5.0

the beauty with which l.m. montgomery described both the scenery of nature and the character's mental transformation was STAGGERING

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jerida's review against another edition

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emotional funny 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? Yes

5.0

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helenafaustina's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing medium-paced

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

4.5

This book kept getting better and better, and I'm glad I picked it up.

The first thing I'd like to say is that this would be a great book to read for anyone who wants to get into creative writing. There is a lot of descriptive writing with beautiful similes, prose, and things like that that are not only enjoyable, but would be really good for students to pay attention to.

It's a cozy book, full of twists and turns. It gets rather crazy at some points, and there was a lot of shocking plot twists that I didn't expect, although I did predict one from the beginning that I'm proud of myself for. I'd like to reread this knowing all that happens. The writing, in true Montgomery fashion, is gorgeous. As a nature lover myself I absolutely relished those parts. Romantic tropes came up, but it wasn't cringy, and it was enjoyable and sweet.

The only think that made me take away a half star was that during Valancy's rebellion, her attitude towards swearing was weird. She was decent in every way, but she had become weirdly tolerant of it to the point of considering doing it herself. It was an odd point in her character development.

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rinnavv's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted relaxing sad 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? No

4.0

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town_scar's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful mysterious relaxing medium-paced

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

4.75

Only knocking it down a peg because I was 50% through the audiobook before it could hold my attention. But the ending blew me away, so I'll have to buy a paperback of it someday to give it a reread. Unlike my beloved Anne novels, this one has one steady arc of plot rather than a slew of vignettes.

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spootilious's review against another edition

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reflective medium-paced

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

2.5

Read: October 29, 2023
Title: The Blue Castle

Author: LM Montgomery

Genre: Historical Romance
Rating: 2.5 / 5
Review:

I wasn’t sure what to expect going into this novel. I have never read Anne of Green Gables, then again from what I have heard, this book is nothing like those. So, I suppose that is a good thing. Regardless, I was pleasantly surprised by The Blue Castle. It is certainly quaint and adorable but feels far different from any other historical piece I’ve read.

The Blue Castle and may things about it that I do not care for of course. The representation of woman alone is enough to have me sighing (though it was expected, the cruelty of these women were not), the beauty standards as well were repetitively shoved in the readers’ face and the amount of time the main character was called ‘Not pretty’ to her face was quite annoying. The story line was extremely predictable and at points the author grew a bit longwinded on subject that weren’t relevant to the plot; and many of the characters were interchangeable to the point I couldn’t remember who was who.

All that being said, I enjoyed this book immensely. The writing was beautiful. Despite the lengthy bits, the story only seemed to drag in the first half of the novel but really picked up midway. The premise was adorable and I love the moral even if the ending was utterly unrealistic.

Quotes:
“Fear is the original sin. Almost all of the evil in the world has its origin in the fact that someone is afraid of something. It is a cold slimy serpent coiling about you. It is horrible to live with fear; and it is of all things degrading.”

TW:
Body Shaming, Chronic Illness, Classism, Cursing, Emotional Abuse, Gaslighting, Religious Bigotry, Terminal Illness.

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melliebean28's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.25

It had a very depressing start, but once it picked up oh boy did it whirlwind. Not much to say without ruining the story except that you must must must read this book!!!

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asiaasiaja's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

Beautiful prose, a great and well fleshed-out protagonist, one of my most favourite romance books of all time.

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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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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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