My heart has suffered irreparable damage, thx

Full review now posted! I DID IT! I actually managed to read all the way through the Anne of Green Gables series, all 8 books worth. They’re not long books, and 8 might not sound like very many, but these are still technically classics and that would a good bit of classic reading in a row. While the books weren’t all as wonderful as the first, none of them were bad and I feel like reading the series in its entirety was worthwhile. Out of all of the books, this last one was probably my least favorite. It was much more solemn than those preceding it, as it took place during the First World War. Getting a view of the war from the Canadian Homefront, and through the eyes of Anne’s youngest daughter as she’s on the cusp of womanhood, was very different and definitely interesting. We don’t often give much thought to how wartime affects life for those left behind at home after the soldiers ship out, especially those in countries outside our own that don’t see any fighting on their own soil. Rilla, Anne’s youngest, has her life radically altered just as she enters her fifteenth year. She’s a fun-loving girl who loves to laugh, and has no desire to plan for the future. The night of her first “grown up” party ends with the announcement that war has been declared in Europe. Before she can wrap her mind around what’s happening, every young man in her life is gone, fighting a war on foreign shore. Rilla has to grow up. She rises to the occasion and becomes a young woman that the whole community can be proud of. As with all the books, there are still funny situations. Rilla adopts a little war-baby, and her efforts with him add some much needed levity. There was also a faithful little dog who refused to leave the train station until his master came home from the war, which was a heartwarming addition. But as I said earlier, there was a solemnity to this book not present (as often) in the others due the addition of war into the plot. Montgomery did a very good job of capturing the tension and strain of those who have to stay home and just wait on news, and a masterful job of showing characters who have to bridge the divide between mourning and moving on with their lives. I’m very glad that I can now say that I’ve read the Anne of Green Gables series in its entirety. I think it’s helped me develop a classic habit, which I’m going to do my best to maintain by always having some classic I’m reading, even if I’m only reading a chapter or two a day in addition to the other books I’m reading. It was a practice in endurance, but I feel like it paid off!

This was my favorite book of the series when I was a teen, and I have to say it still is (after book one, Anne of Green Gables, duh). The main reason I have to dock half a star is because there was far too much listing of dates and names pertaining to the Great War that started to feel like reading a textbook, and I definitely just skimmed over those paragraphs. I never before felt like Montgomery had been padding for word count like other readers claim in the rest of the series with nature descriptions, but this rote rambling off cities and people on the literal other side of the world was 100% padding.

Aside from that, though, this book has done irreparable emotional damage and I cried just as hard reading at 30 years old as I did as a teen.

Publication Date: First published in 1921 Publisher: McClelland & Steward ISBN: 0553269224 Age Group: YA/Adult Genre: Romance/Historical/War Source: My Bookshelf Lootability: **** The final instalment (excluding The Blythes Are Quoted/The Road to Yesterday) of the Anne of Green Gables story. It is the tale of Rilla Blythe, youngest and most care free of Anne and Gilbert's children. Young Rilla is almost fifteen and is keenly anticipating a thrilling and exciting few years before she turns nineteen - unfortunately for Rilla, her whole world is turned upside down by the English declaring war on Germany, a war we will recognise as World War One. What I Liked: So nearly fifteen that she claims it, Rilla at the beginning of the novel throws us back to the youthful Anne Shirley of Anne of Avonlea. Not nearly as ambitious as her mother, Rilla has the same dreamy appeal of our old beloved favourite. Possessing much of her Mother's sweetness, outright spunk, and imagination, Rilla is the girl in each of us. Her character growth shows the necessity of an almost instantaneous maturity caused by the sacrifices and uncertainties of the Great War. Her growing affection for Jims, the war baby she adopts, and her determination to be a heroine regardless of what happens prove her to be a strong protagonist. The appeal of Rilla is feeling yourself grow alongside her. There is an added sweetness in the sweet mystery of her romance with Kenneth Ford that makes her character, and her story, glow. One of the things I appreciate about Montgomery is her willingness to make sacrifices - her characters understand the pains and suffering of war. She doesn't talk about the atrocities of war and keep her characters in a protective bubble, they must suffer with the rest of the world. Read more: http://raidingbookshelves.blogspot.co...

3.5/5

I cannot believe it's over. So bittersweet!