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r_reads2winnie 's review for:
The Blue Castle
by L.M. Montgomery
The Blue Castle is a coming-of-age romance novel by L.M. Montgomery with a feminist element. I thought it was a young kid novel much like Anne of Green Gables. I had no idea she wrote for adults.
The protagonist is Valancy Stirling. She is 29 years old. She is unmarried and not particularly beautiful. Pretty much everyone in her family is overbearing. They make fun of her age and appearance. They think she is undesirable. They tell her what to wear and how to wear her hair. They call her Doss even though she doesn’t like it. Her own family is basically bullying her. The Blue Castle is her imagination to escape from the tension and her misery. One day, she receives an erroneous medical diagnosis. Thinking that she has a brief time left on the earth, she decides to stop pleasing other people, start living her life to the fullest, and be happy for the first time. Valancy’s revelation shocks her family.
I couldn’t stop rooting for her. Of course, there is a man, but he is not exactly her savior. He loves her the way she is. I love it! Even though the protagonist is a 29-year-old woman, I think I would have liked this book as a middle schooler. I saw a little bit of Jane Austen's influence in this book.