Author: L.M. Montgomery
Series: Anny of Green Gable #4
Narrator: Maria Cusick
Publisher: BookStream from Spotify
Genre: YA, Historical, Classic
First Published: June 1936
Book Description: Anne Shirley has left Redmond College behind to begin a new job and a new chapter of her life away from Green Gables. Now she faces a new challenge: the Pringles. They're known as the royal family of Summerside--and they quickly let Anne know she is not the person they had wanted as principal of Summerside High School. But as she settles into the cozy tower room at Windy Poplars, Anne finds she has great allies in the widows Aunt Kate and Aunt Chatty--and in their irrepressible housekeeper, Rebecca Dew. As Anne learns Summerside's strangest secrets, winning the support of the prickly Pringles becomes only the first of her delicious triumphs.
Thoughts:
This is a very quick, easy-to-read story. Yet is the least Anne Shirley story so far.
The story is told in letters, so the adventures are thrown in without the need to build them in a nice flowy narrative. I guess this makes it easier to write different episodes in the story for the author.
The formula we have seen so far in the stories still finds a way to be included here. So we have Anne, as she moves to the Principal of the Summerside High School, but the new place and its inhabitants are not exactly happy with her arrival. Since day one, she notices there is a feeling of animosity. The reason? Small-town politics and the fact that she's the newcomer there.
Of course, that means she finds a cranky person, who dislikes her at first glance. As the story progresses she starts to break their exterior shell and people end up falling for her and considering Anne a great friend.
But the friendships start to feel flimsy, she keeps meeting people, having a hard time, while they decide to actually like her and become bosom friends. But then the next book comes along and those friends are no longer important at all, not mentioned - we barely see Diana or her other friends. I guess this is a realistic thing, once you move on from life its rare that you continue to be close to people who you grow up with or your college friends. But still, that doesn't mean I love to see it in books. In this case, it feels like it's just the secondary characters are not treated as people, they're just plot points. The twins she is supposed to be helping raise barely make an appearance anymore. It feels annoying that they are just used for the plot. Montgomery has not made them round characters, they're just plot points. So it leaves you feeling like they are not supposed to be people, just a means to an end.
For me, the epistolary novel is one I enjoy and I am always looking for other examples of them. So it wasn't awful that it was told in this style. That was not a problem for me, but I can see how it might not be enjoyable for everyone.
This was used for the challenges:
Classics
Series
Buzzwordathon: Weather words
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