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kittykornerlibrarian 's review for:
Rilla of Ingleside
by L.M. Montgomery
I can't understand how anyone who can write a character as charming as Anne Shirley can write a character as boring and irritating as Rilla Blythe. This book is about the Blythe family on Prince Edward Island in Canada during World War I. The prose is overwrought and the dialogue is pretty awful most of the time. Everyone is busy being noble and brave for the Cause, and they are all convinced that God is on their side. Montgomery should have stopped with the books in which Anne herself is the main character. I never want to read this again.
Well, I did read it again with lowered expectations. I will never empathize with a character who cares more about being a social success than going to college, oh, right, that's Rilla, the main character. The spotlight is shared mostly between Rilla (oh, those diary entries, ugh) and Susan, who talks even on for pages at a time. It's hard to imagine a more implausible love story; Ken and Rilla supposedly fall in love based on sitting out one dance together and one visit to the house when nobody else was home. And I'm sorry, Ken is an arrogant jerk, asking a girl of sixteen to sit around waiting for him when he goes off to battle, based on these two flimsy encounters. It is discouraging to see Anne become so boring and conventional. I don't know why Montgomery didn't write about Nan or Di, it would have been way more interesting.
Well, I did read it again with lowered expectations. I will never empathize with a character who cares more about being a social success than going to college, oh, right, that's Rilla, the main character. The spotlight is shared mostly between Rilla (oh, those diary entries, ugh) and Susan, who talks even on for pages at a time. It's hard to imagine a more implausible love story; Ken and Rilla supposedly fall in love based on sitting out one dance together and one visit to the house when nobody else was home. And I'm sorry, Ken is an arrogant jerk, asking a girl of sixteen to sit around waiting for him when he goes off to battle, based on these two flimsy encounters. It is discouraging to see Anne become so boring and conventional. I don't know why Montgomery didn't write about Nan or Di, it would have been way more interesting.