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Review: Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery

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Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery

Anne of Green Gables (Anne of Green Gables #1)
Lucy Maud Montgomery
Puffin Books
Published August 28, 2014 (Orig. 1908)

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About Anne of Green Gables

The cherished favorite featuring everyone’s favorite red-headed orphan, now in a deluxe hardcover edition with beautiful cover illustrations by Anna Bond, the artist behind world-renowned stationery brand Rifle Paper Co.

Anne, an eleven-year-old orphan, is sent by mistake to live with a lonely, middle-aged brother and sister on a Prince Edward Island farm and proceeds to make an indelible impression on everyone around her.

Anne Gets Into a Lot of “Scrapes”

I remember reading this series to my daughter when she was in fourth grade. We both enjoyed the wild stories about Anne, Matthew, and Marilla and their neighbors at Prince Edward Island. It’s funny reading this book now, in the days when people are so quick to challenge a book, and thinking about some of the scenes and the age group we target this book toward.

For example, Anne accidentally gets her best friend drunk, which causes no small stir. At one point, her teacher shows obvious romantic interest in one of the other students. If a middle grade book published today included those scenes, would people be so quick to accept it, the way we are with Anne of Green Gables?

Perhaps because this is a book that many parents grew up reading or hearing about, it feels like a safe story and isn’t scrutinized the same way that books being published today might be.

I love this series, and I’m not a fan of book bans, so I’m not at all arguing that we should take a closer look at classics and start banning them, too. I do think it’s appropriate to consider the historical context of the work and to reflect on classic literature through the lens of equality, to note things like references to colonialism, which may be tempting to take for granted. Noting those things helps us realize how unchallenged and accepted those ideas were in the time a particular book was written.

My Review

For me, scenes like the one in which Anne accidentally gets her best friend drunk reflect information about Anne’s character and her life before coming to Green Gables. She often gets into “scrapes,” as she calls them, over information she might have known had she grown up with Matthew and Marilla or information she would not have known had she had a more sheltered upbringing with a family on Prince Edward Island.

Her behavior routinely challenges the people in her community, who think of themselves as being the most upstanding and proper. Most often, Anne eventually charms these judgmental characters with her sincerity and exuberance. I love that about her and about the people in her life (that they allow themselves to warm to her).

I love the author’s use of the omniscient point of view. Usually I prefer a close first-person narrative, but Montgomery has a keen sense of when to zoom into a particular character’s viewpoint to deliver a meaningful observation. She reveals Marilla’s surprising love for Anne and shows Matthew’s debilitating shyness.

I also love the strong characterization of the cast. Anne remains dramatic and imaginative. Diana loves Anne’s whimsical nature but remains more practical herself. Marilla grumbles and fusses, but underneath it, her soft heart is moved by her love for others. Matthew is the sweet, softhearted, quiet man who does what needs doing without making a fuss about it.

The novel also centers women as characters, from Anne and Marilla to Mrs. Rachel Lynde, the woman who knows everything going on in the neighborhood, to Miss Stacey, Anne’s teacher, to Mrs. Allen, the minister’s wife and a mentor to Anne, to Anne’s best friend Diana and the other girls she knows from school.

Conclusion

It’s such a sweet book and so full of insight into love and humanity. My older daughter was nine when we read this book together, which turned out to be the perfect age for her.

I enjoyed this reread, and I suspect it won’t be the last time I revisit Anne of Green Gables.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
Characters are white. Marilla has chronic headaches and a degenerative vision problem. The text describes some characters as fat, often implying that it’s an asset.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Anne’s teacher has what appears to be a romantic relationship with one of the older students.

Spiritual Content
Anne attends church, and Marilla instructs her to say her prayers every night. There’s a bit of commentary about Christianity off and on throughout the book. For instance, Anne speaks critically of a minister’s prayers, saying it seems like he’s not interested in the words he’s saying or has forgotten their meaning. She questions why paintings of Jesus always show him looking so somber.

When she meets the new minister’s wife, she reflects that Mrs. Allen’s faith brings her joy and comfort and that she’s the kind of person who would be a Christian even if she didn’t need to in order to get into Heaven.

Violent Content
Brief reference to colonialism (people settling on Prince Edward Island). Anne witnesses the death of a person close to her and experiences profound grief after the loss.

Anne relates the plot of a story she’s written to Diana. The tale involves a woman who pushes her best friend off a bridge. The woman’s lover leaps into the river after her, but both drown. The story concludes with the murderer having a mental breakdown and being confined to an institution.

Drug Content
Anne mistakenly offers her best friend Diana currant wine instead of raspberry cordial. Diana drinks three glasses of the beverage and goes home drunk, scandalizing the neighborhood.

Other Negative Content
Brief body shaming. Early in the book, a neighbor criticizes Anne for being too skinny and ugly. Anne retaliates by calling the woman fat. Later, Anne suggests a schoolmate could not play the role of the fairy queen because she’s plus-sized and a fairy queen “should be thin.”

Marilla makes a derisive comment about Italians (not wanting them around or in her house).

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. All opinions are my own.

Review: The Medici Heist by Caitlin Schneiderhan

Book Review and Content, Historical, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , , ,

The Medici Heist
Caitlin Schneiderhan
Feiwel & Friends
Published August 6, 2024

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About The Medici Heist

Welcome to Florence, 1517, a world of intrigue, opulence, secrets, and murder. The Medici family rules the city from their seat of wealth, but the people of Florence remember the few decades they spent as a Republic, free from the Medicis and their puppet Pope, Leo X.

Sharp-witted seventeen-year-old con-woman Rosa Cellini has plans for the Pope and the Medicis – and, more specifically, the mountain of indulgence money they’ve been extorting from the people of Tuscany. To pull off the Renaissance’s greatest robbery, she’ll recruit a team of capable Sarra the tinkerer, Khalid the fighter, and Giacomo, the irrepressible master of disguise. To top it all off, and to smooth their entrance into the fortress-like Palazzo Medici, Rosa even enlists the reluctant help of famed artist and local misanthrope, Michelangelo.

Old secrets resurface and tensions in the gang flare as the authorities draw closer and the Medicis’ noose pulls tighter around Tuscany itself. What began as a robbery becomes a bid to save Florence from certain destruction – if Rosa and company don’t destroy each other first.

Get ready for an absolute swashbuckling riot, beginning with a ‘mud’ pie to the Pope’s face, and ending with a climatic heist that would give Danny Ocean a run for his money. Bursting with snark, innuendo and action, Medici Heist is your next un-put-downable obsession.

My Review

I can definitely see the comparisons to Ocean’s 11 with this book. It does have a heist in which a team of people, each with a particular area of expertise, work together to steal something, and their motives are not always what they seem. Instead of being a modern-day tale, this one is set in sixteenth-century Italy, though.

I’ve read several novels written by screenplay writers, and it’s going to sound weird, but I am starting to feel like I can tell when it happens. There are certain things that I keep running into in these books. In some scenes in The Medici Heist, I felt like what I was reading would make a cool movie scene, but it didn’t always translate well to a novel format.

For example, the opening scene begins from the perspective of a child who barely appears in the rest of the book. There is some circular storytelling, where toward the end, we reference the significance of that moment again, but it was strange to start a novel from the viewpoint of a character who never does anything important or even really appears on scene again in the book. But I could see a movie opening that way much more easily.

I like that the story has an ensemble cast (this might make it a good choice for readers who enjoyed Six of Crows) and that each character has a secret or hidden objective or motive that comes into play as the heist takes place. I also enjoyed the way that Rosa and Sarra’s relationship evolves. They were once as close as sisters and then drifted apart. They begin the story with very different feelings about the past which they have to work through. I loved how that worked out in the book and the way it impacted the overall story.

On the whole, this one started a bit slow for me, but around chapter nine or ten, I started investing more in the characters and their relationships. Readers who enjoy historical fiction or heist adventures will want to check this one out.

Content Notes for The Medici Heist

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Two characters are gay. Main characters are Italian.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
A very enthusiastic kiss between husband and wife at a wedding. The observer describes them gazing at each other lustily during the ceremony. Kissing between two young men.

Spiritual Content
The Pope and a Cardinal are characters in the book, though he’s not very admirable ones. Characters visit a chapel to pray in several scenes. One worries that going against the Pope, God’s mouthpiece, means going against God, but hopes that God understands their reasons.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Battle violence. A fire destroys a building. Riots erupt in the streets one night.

Drug Content
Several characters are (or appear) drunk. Soldiers try to arrest two drunk men who are fighting. In the end, they’re simply escorted somewhere to sober up.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: Coyote Lost and Found by Dan Gemeinhart

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Coyote Lost and Found
Dan Gemeinhart
Henry Holt & Co.
Published March 5, 2024

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Coyote Lost and Found

It’s been almost a year since Coyote and her dad left the road behind and settled down in a small Oregon town. . . time spent grieving the loss of her mom and sisters and trying to fit in at school. But just as life is becoming a new version of normal, Coyote discovers a box containing her mom’s ashes. And she thinks she might finally be ready to say goodbye.

So Coyote and her dad gear up for an epic cross-country road trip to scatter the ashes at her mom’s chosen resting place. The only problem? Coyote has no idea where that resting place is—and the secret’s hidden in a book that Coyote mistakenly sold last year, somewhere in the country. Now, it’s up to Coyote to track down the treasured book . . . without her dad ever finding out that it’s lost. It’s time to fire up their trusty bus, Yager, pick up some old friends, discover some new ones, and hit the road on another unforgettable adventure.

My Review

I have a friend who loves voicey middle grade with a southern feel to it, and this book immediately made me think of her. Coyote is an absolute wonder. She’s unconventional and a little wild, kind of a loner, and has such a huge heart. I really like Rodeo, her dad, as well. He’s got a very hippy sensibility and definitely wouldn’t be everyone’s pick for best dad, but his temperament really works with Coyote, and he works really hard to make sure she has what she needs.

This is a book about grief. It’s a book about saying goodbye to someone you’ve already lost, and how sometimes grief is a journey, and on that journey, you have to say goodbye more than once. Some of the scenes in which Coyote and her dad talk about or around their losses were so poignant. I cried more than once.

It’s also a story set during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, so it has an underlying uncertainty and loneliness to it. It doesn’t have to do with the pandemic at all, really, but the shutdowns and fears about the virus impacted different characters and scenes in ways that made me think.

The only thing I kept waiting for and felt like was missing from the story is more information about Coyote’s sisters. She lost her mom and two sisters in a car accident long before this book (and another about Coyote and her dad) takes place. While this book focused on the loss of her mom, I felt like it was a little odd that she never named her sisters or had any memories of them or longing for them specifically. I haven’t yet read COYOTE SUNRISE, so it’s possible her relationships with them are explained more fully in the other book.

On the whole, I loved Coyote’s powerful voice and the sweet and silly rituals she shares with her dad and the lucky people they bring into their lives. I can definitely see fans of Kate DiCamillo’s contemporary novels or fans of Gillian McDunn loving this book.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
Coyote’s best friend is Latine American. Another character is Asian American.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
See violent content.

Romance/Sexual Content
Coyote gets uncomfortable when she realizes her dad may have romantic feelings for a neighbor.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
A white clerk threatens an Asian American customer, holding up a baseball bat and saying racist things.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support this blog. I received a free copy of COYOTE LOST AND FOUND in exchange for my honest review. All opinions my own.

Review: A Bit of Earth by Karuna Riazi

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A Bit of Earth
Karuna Riazi
Greenwillow Books
Published March 14, 2023

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About A Bit of Earth

Maria Latif is used to not having a space of her own. But what happens when she feels the sudden urge to put down roots in the most unexpected of places?

Growing up in Pakistan, Maria Latif has been bounced between reluctant relatives for as long as she can remember–first because of her parents’ constant travel, and then because of their deaths. Maria has always been a difficult child, and it never takes long for her guardians to tire of her. So when old friends of her parents offer to “give her a better life” in the United States, Maria is shipped to a host family across the world.

When Maria arrives on Long Island, things are not quite what she was expecting. Mr. Clayborne has left on an extended business trip, Mrs. Clayborne seems emotionally fraught, and inexplicable things keep happening in the Claybornes’ sprawling house. And then Maria finds a locked gate to an off-limits garden. Since she’s never been good at following rules, Maria decides to investigate and discovers something she never thought she’d find: a place where she feels at home.

With a prickly main character, a sullen boy, two friendly allies, and a locked garden, A BIT OF EARTH is a reimagining of THE SECRET GARDEN.

My Review

I probably say this every time, but I feel like it’s always a little bit of a risk to read a reimagined version of a childhood favorite story. One of the reasons I was excited about this is that it centers on a girl from Pakistan with an inclusive cast.

I loved the way this book highlighted and connected Maria’s rigidity and contrariness with her grief and loneliness. This is present in the original story, too, but I loved the way the author brought those parts of Maria to the page. I felt like I understood Maria’s character and her heart in a way that I’m not sure I ever understood the main character from the original.

Another fantastic but unexpected element of the story for me was in the relationship between Maria and Lyndsay. She’s the second wife of Mr. Clayborne, the wealthy couple who has taken Maria in. Not only does Maria find a way to bring life back into the neglected garden, but she also helps Lyndsay’s courage to blossom again. I loved the way the story captured that transformation and celebrated the relationship between those two girls.

Readers who enjoy reimagined stories will like this one. I think readers looking for realistic fiction about a lonely girl and the way that gardening helps her find herself again will also love this one.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Maria is from Pakistan. Additional characters are Desi, too.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
Maria attends a Milaad, which she tells Lyndsay is a religious celebration.

Violent Content
None.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support this blog. I received a free copy of A BIT OF EARTH in exchange for my honest review.

Review: The Dark Fable by Katherine Harbour

Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Dark Fable
Katherine Harbour
Bloomsbury
Published January 30, 2024

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About The Dark Fable

Magical heists. Deadly secrets. Come along for the ride . . . if you dare. This heart-stopping, seductive fantasy is perfect for fans of Six of Crows.

Evie Wilder is an orphan who has gone through most of her life unnoticed . . . until she’s caught up in a dramatic heist and captures the attention of the Dark Fable. They have chosen her for a she can turn invisible. This skill would make Evie a treasured asset to the legendary group of thieves known for spiriting away obscure and occult artifacts.

Evie cannot resist their allure and is eager to join this newfound family. But she discovers there are more skeletons in the Dark Fable’s past than she could have ever imagined. And these secrets might be the answer to her own tragic past.

No one is who they seem to be and the price of uncovering the Dark Fable’s cryptic history just might be fatal . . .

My Review

I’m starting to realize that I have a real interest in low fantasy, or stories set in the “real world” with additional fantasy elements, in this case, special abilities. THE DARK FABLE is kind of a single point-of-view SIX OF CROWS but set in Los Angeles? There’s a close-knit team led by a dangerous guy who definitely holds back information and has ulterior plans/motives, committing heists of expensive artwork and artifacts. So there’s a similar vibe. The main character is new to the crew, and she’s got her own past trauma, ulterior motives, and cards she keeps close to the vest.

All of that setup really had me interested in this book. I liked some of the characters a lot more than others. Mad, short for Madrigal, was probably my favorite. She winds up being the main character’s closest ally. I liked their friendship and how she looked out for Evie.

I struggled with two things about the book, and unfortunately, they’re both spoilers. I’ll put them below in a spoiler section for anyone who doesn’t want to see them. One element is kind of a trope that just isn’t one I prefer in stories, so that’s very much a personal preference, and I think unless you have tropes you feel very strongly about avoiding that have to do with when information is revealed, this probably wouldn’t bother you.

The other thing was also just weird to me. The characters keep asking themselves and others this question throughout the entire book. It feels like a deeply important question because of the way they consistently come back to it, like how they feel about themselves and what they’re doing hinges on the answer to this question. I didn’t feel like the question was answered satisfactorily, which made it harder for me to really enjoy the last bit of the book because I kept thinking, wait, what?

Conclusion

I liked the blend of Los Angeles and magic elements. I liked the characters. The plot went in some directions that didn’t always work for me, but I think those amount to personal preferences. I think if you enjoyed FOUL LADY FORTUNE by Chloe Gong or GILDED WOLVES by Roshani Chokshi, then check this one out.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Major characters are white, I think. One heist team member is Black, and another is Indigenous. One is bisexual.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used pretty frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between a boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
The main character has a guide she pictures in her mind. She also has the ability to disappear. Her allies have other abilities, too.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Battles between heist teams or mercenaries and heist team members. Evie remembers events surrounding her parents’ murders. Other characters have been murdered or died by suicide– sometimes the truth is unclear.

Drug Content
Characters drink alcohol. One character creates poisons and other solutions that cause adverse effects on enemies, from stunning them to killing them.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support this blog. I received a free copy of THE DARK FABLE in exchange for my honest review. All opinions my own.

Spoilers for The Dark Fable

Read on if you want spoilers on the two things that I struggled with about this book. Select the text below to see it.

The characters in the heist team keep asking themselves, “What are we?” They each acquired a supernatural ability during a traumatic experience. Is this an evolutionary advance? Do they have magic? Did this come from somewhere? They are really interested in figuring this out. Late in the book, like maybe 80 percent through, Evie asks her mentor this question point-blank. Her mentor responds like, “you haven’t figured it out yet? You’re possessed by demons.”

She’s like, it’s no big deal. You’ve got magic power, so enjoy it? Understandably, the team has a hard time processing this, but they come to accept it pretty quickly. I don’t know. I thought it was really weird. Like, definitely the kind of thing that I would have wanted to know earlier in the book so everyone had more time to explore what it meant and how they felt about it. Plus, demons? Really?

The other thing I had a hard time with is more in the vein of a trope. I’ve seen this in other books, but I had a hard time with it then, too. The main character has a whole set of ulterior motives and plans that the reader isn’t privy to until late in the story. It can make for a shocking reveal; it just feels disingenuous to me to have a character in a close first-person point of view hiding THAT much for THAT long. It’s a me thing. If I didn’t mind that, I would have enjoyed the book a lot more than I did.

Review: The Summer Queen by Rochelle Hassan

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The Summer Queen (The Buried and the Bound #2)
Rochelle Hassan
Roaring Brook Press
Published January 23, 2024

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About The Summer Queen

This captivating sequel to THE BURIED AND THE BOUND draws readers into the twisted and irresistible world of the Fair Folk—perfect for fans of THE CRUEL PRINCE and THE HAZEL WOOD.

As a new coven, Aziza, Leo, and Tristan faced evil and triumphed. All that’s left is to put their lives back together, a process complicated by the fallout from painful secrets, the emotional and physical scars they now carry, and the mysteries that still haunt them.

But with the approach of the solstice comes the arrival of strange new visitors to Blackthorn: the Summer Court, a nomadic community of Fair Folk from deep in Elphame. They’ve journeyed to the border between the human world and fairyland, far from their usual caravan route, to take back something that belongs to them—something Leo’s not willing to lose.

Refusing to give up without a fight, he makes a risky deal with the Summer Court’s princess and regent. The challenge she proposes sends Coven Blackthorn into the farthest, wildest reaches of Elphame.

But when you play games with the Fair Folk, even winning has a cost.

My Review

I fell in love with Rochelle Hassan’s middle grade debut and devoured THE BURIED AND THE BOUND, so it was never a question as to whether I was going to read THE SUMMER QUEEN. I love the magic-alongside-our-world in this series. The characters are so great! It only took me a couple of days to read this book, and I thought about it so much between my reading sessions. I’ve already gone back and reread some of my favorite passages.

Like the first book in the series, THE SUMMER QUEEN follows the points of view of Aziza, Leo, and Tristan. They’re an interesting trio who joined forces in the first book to defeat a powerful hag who had killed Aziza’s parents. All three characters have super distinct personalities and voices, so I never doubted whose perspective I was reading.

The book is packed with adventure and high stakes. Leo joins the Wild Hunt without really understanding what he’s doing, only knowing if he wins the hunt, he can rescue his sister. Of course, joining means that he, as a human, is taking on a powerful, experienced foe from among the Fair Folk. Pretty intense.

There’s also some star-crossed love happening. Leo has been cursed to forget his true love, and he can’t stop trying to find this person… and can’t tell when he’s standing face to face with them. I couldn’t help hoping that a breakthrough was coming with every new chapter of the book.

All in all, this sequel more than lived up to my expectations. If you like THE LUMINARIES by Susan Dennard or Julie Kagawa’s Iron Fey series, definitely add this trilogy to your list. (And start with book one, THE BURIED AND THE BOUND.)

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Aziza is Pakistani American. Tristan is gay. Leo has been in a romantic relationship with a boy before.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used somewhat frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between two boys. References to sex.

In one scene, Leo discovers that one of the Fairies assaults the servants. He doesn’t witness anything, but overhears a conversation and sees bruises on someone afterward.

Spiritual Content
Some characters have the ability to perform magic. The story contains fairies and magical creatures, such as pookas, nymphs, and others. Two characters are necromancers and have the ability to summon spirits of the dead and control shadow creatures.

Violent Content
Situations of peril.

Drug Content
The fairies try to convince Leo and his allies to drink Lily wine (which makes them very vulnerable to suggestion) or fairy food, which can also enchant them in some way. Aziza remembers a night spent celebrating with her friends with vodka and beer.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support this blog. I received a free copy of THE SUMMER QUEEN in exchange for my honest review. All opinions my own.