A review by cassiealexandra
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

5.0

How I lived without this story in my life until now, I have no idea. I am in my mid-thirties and have never read Anne or watched any television or film adaptation. The term “kindred spirit” and even the names Gilbert Blythe and Diana Barry seemed vaguely familiar, but I could not have told you much besides that I knew it was about a pre-teen girl with red hair.

Oh, how I was missing out. I was tearing up early on and continued to have misty moments throughout. Anne brought out the true romantic in me, and by this I mean the visionary, the imaginative, and the adventurous parts that lie dormant in later life. It’s a story about friendship and acceptance. It’s a slow burn, not between Anne and Gilbert, as you may be thinking, but between Anne and her adoptive mother, Marilla. At the same time it may be love at first sight for Anne and Matthew.

I savored this story and don’t know if I have all the words to describe what it awakened in me. My only complaint is that the pace seemed to slow slightly in the middle, but that could have been my personal reading pace. It reminds me, though, of the phrase, the days are long but the years are short. Anne’s days were long and languid, but by the end of the book, I could hardly believe she was grown. I’m sure Marilla felt the same.

The bottom line: I can’t wait to read this to my daughter when she’s a little older, and there’s no way she’ll wait until she’s 36 to experience the beauty of this classic. On to the rest of the series for me.

— NOTES —
Genres: middle-grade, classic
POV: third-person
Content: orphans, death of loved one