madisonrose1519 's review for:

Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

4.0

adventurous emotional inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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I’m embracing “seasonal living” lately, and I so enjoyed reading this book slowly throughout the Spring! The descriptive language in this book was positively lovely. I have a hard time believing it was written for middle grade readers, but I guess I shouldn’t be so surprised that middle grade readers were reading much more advanced literature in 1908!

I can see why Anne is a classic. It wasn’t super captivating—it took me a long time to finish. But I enjoyed the last quarter much more than the rest. So much so, that now I can’t decide whether to continue the series, which I’d originally not planned to do! I may put it aside for a while and revisit it another time. 

I’m rating this 4 stars rather than 3.75 because the beauty of the language and Anne’s dreamy, joyous optimism and ambition made me SO glad I finally read this book, even if it’s not one of my all-time favorites. My mom wanted me to read it when I was a kid and I couldn’t make myself read it because I felt so strongly about picking my own books. 

The more I think about this book, the more I appreciate how well written it is.

I did feel a bit sad that Anne’s ambitions had to shift at the end, even though I totally respect the author’s choice in letting it play out that way; after all, sometimes life is just unfortunate, and I appreciated the realism there. I also can appreciate that Montgomery wrote the decision I believe Anne would have made if she were real, even if it did “prune and branch out” her ambition a bit more than I cared for.