Emily of New Moon

I enjoyed this; it's not as endearing as Anne of Green Gables but it feels more "real" than that idyllic girl and world, even though they're both in the same universe on the same P.E. Island in Canada. I love L.M. Montgomery because she reminds me of how much more I used to appreciate nature, and about childhood and how growing up used to feel. Books like these weave themselves into your day-to-day life and remind you to pause and feel the breeze, sit outside in the dark, notice the black paper-cut silhouette of treetops and how whimsical the world really is if you remember the magic of its newness in your childhood.

I knew before I began this book that I was going to love it. But, oh! I FELT this book. I felt it in every inch of my soul, as a writer, as a dreamer and as someone whose had run ins with Disappointed Houses, the Today Road and the Wind Woman. Of course, I will always be more Anne than Emily, but Elf is a girl akin to a different part of me, and I plan to revisit her often 🌙🦋✨

It took a while for this book to grow on me. I’ve always loved Anne of Green Gables, and I know that for some readers the Emily books are even better. I think that might depend on which heroine you meet first because, while I grew to appreciate Emily Byrd Starr, she’ll never usurp Anne Shirley in my heart. “To love is easy and therefore common - but to understand - how rare it is!” Somehow Emily’s story manages to be both easier and less idyllic than that of Anne. Emily gets to experience the complete love and adoration of a parent, which Anne never did. But Anne’s experience at Green Gables, though Marilla could sometimes be as stubborn and old fashioned as Emily’s Aunt Elizabeth, seemed far more pleasant than Emily’s experience at New Moon. Both little farms sound lovely, and are places I enjoy visiting through their respective books, but Green Gables is clearly better in my mind. Both are orphan girls, but Emily depends upon the charity of callous relatives, whereas Anne finds herself loved by strangers and invited into an odd little family with which she shares no blood ties. And, though they are both charming, romantic, unique little girls obsessed with the beauty of the world around them who dream of becoming famous authoresses, as they term it, I found myself unable to care about Emily anywhere near as much as I cared about Anne. “She will love deeply, she will suffer terribly, she will have glorious moments to compensate.” However, around the time I was 3/4 of the way through this book, my apathy began to dissipate. Emily’s story seemed less predictable than Anne’s, and there are a few things about her story that I have yet to guess. I continued reading Anne’s story even though I was nearly positive about how things would turn out because I love her as a character. I’ll continue Emily’s story because I genuinely want to know where she ends up. There were a couple of very interesting side plots, as well. The portrayal of adults in this book, and the ways in which they treat children, was believably awful. There were quite a few people who I felt deserved a punch in the throat. But they grow and change as the story progresses, just as Emily does. And I did truly grow to care about Emily. She lives life to the absolutely fullest and deeply appreciates every lovely moment. How could I, or her judgmental relatives, not grow to love her? “Life has something for you—I feel it. Go forward to meet it fearlessly, dear.” While I can’t say that I loved this book with my whole heart like I hoped I would, I did really like it, and ended up enjoying it more than I expected after the first few chapters. I’m interested to see where Montgomery takes the story, and what journeys Emily will take as she embarks upon adulthood.

I can't believe it's taken me this long to read about Emily Byrd Starr. I love her. This story had me spellbound. I will be purchasing all of these for my daughters to read someday soon.

Vidunderlig

Everything I remember loving about this book has just come flooding back to me, like it were yesterday. I'd all but forgotten about Dean Priest (my second literary crush - after Tom Sawyer) but he is as charming and mischievous and gorgeously verbose, as he was when I first read about him. I love how the book ends; basically setting us up for the second instalment in this trilogy - 'Emily Climbs' - which I'm going to start in on as soon as I put something together for dinner. I've given this book 5 stars because it's story is timeless, the characters all entirely believable, the foreshadowing is subtle, it is peppered with humour and age-old wisdom and the descriptive prose just beautiful. I always preferred the 'Emily' trilogy to the 'Anne' books by L. M. Montgomery; probably because I always saw more of myself in the raven-haired, book-loving, serious Emily, than the overly-cheerful Anne. I don't have children, but if I had a daughter these books would be at the top of my list of titles interfered to help kindle a love of reading in her. Just perfect!

"You must be thankful to get a home anywhere. Remember you're not of much importance" "I am important to myself!' cried Emily proudly." Emily Byrd Starr is the most relatable character I have ever read about. This book was such a splendid surprise for me, I never imagined ending up loving it as much as I did. To make a short summary, Emily of New Moon follows 12 year old Emily that is left an orphan after her father dies of consumption. Consequently, she is taken in to live with two of her aunts on a lovely mansion called New Moon. Apparently, this book is just another orphan story - but trust me, it's so much more . Emily is an amazing, witty, intelligent girl. She is clearly wise beyond her year, and watching her grow up and develop was such an enchanting journey. This book clearly deals with much more serious and mature topics than her Anne's series, but this book is far from depressing. I actually found it to be utterly hopeful and uplifting. I was rooting for Emily SO much to succeed in all of her endeavours. She was such a loveable and real character, I have to bow down before such brilliant writing. What I loved the most about her is that she stood up to herself, politely, but firmly. She let no one step on her under no circumstances, and she would never kneel before anyone. However, Emily was never bratty. I found her behavior to be very plausible and simply right in that certain situations. This book has the teacher from hell. . No, scratch this. I hope the hell has better and nicer teacher than the first one from here. While her behavior was plausible and legal for that current era, in no way it was less hateable. Bullying a child to such an extent because she was not fitting in deems her unredeemable for me. I also think this book would work very well for anyone who loves poetry. This book is simply poetical, from the vivid descriptions, to the actual poems included in this book through Emily's writing. I will for sure continue with this series as this book is to stay with me for a long while.

Too cute 🍂🧡

3.5/5 stars