Anne of Green Gables

Anne of Green Gables  - L.M. Montgomery I really hated this book the first time I tried to read it.

I still hate some things about it now.

The only reason - and I mean the only reason - that I was even tempted to give it another go was because of the wonderful web series Green Gables Fables. I didn't really mean to start watching it, but the acting charmed the pants off me. And eventually the characters did too.

Second time round I found this... okay.

The prose is unforgivably purple. Not to mention repetitive. There's a lot of ridiculous god-bothering and sentimentality of a Christian nature that I don't really approve of, plus much moralising and such along the same lines. Marilla is an asshat a lot of the time. There are numerous "kids say/do the darndest things!" moments, which, puke.

But the basic story is quite sweet, Matthew is a dear (even if I wanted to strangle him every time he said "well, now...") and I rooted for Anne a good bit harder than I would have before. The last few chapters of the book are especially well done, and I wish more of this tone had carried over into the sequels, as I think it's genuinely good writing. Plus, I'm fairly invested in Shirbert now, so that helped a bit.

Just goes to show how your mind can change!