Book #80: Emily of New Moon by L. M. Montgomery

I loved, loved, loved Anne of Green Gables growing up, and I still do. But for some reason, I was never introduced to Emily of New Moon, and when I was later in life, I never was interested enough in starting a new Anne series to pick it up. I finally was convinced to do it, and I really can't believe I never have read them before. The story is so similar to Anne, at least in how it starts out--Emily is orphaned and taken in by conservative, older relatives--but she seems deeper and darker than the light-hearted Anne, in some ways. The little stories that happen are very similar--Emily cuts her own hair and regrets it, like Anne when she dyes it; schoolyard teasing and problems with the teacher, etc.--but Emily seems to have a sadder soul, possibly because her father died when she was eleven and she has the ache of missing him instead of never knowing her parents, like Anne. Like Anne, Emily is able to win people over with her winsome and outspoken ways, and she makes some "bosom friends" (without using that term) who are adorable and fun. I feel like we get more of Emily's internal commentary, and she is much more insolent in her thoughts than I remember Anne being, and it's very fun to get to know her, and I can't wait to read the other two books (hopefully starting tomorrow!).

I loved this book from the second chapter, when Emily meets all of her mother's older relatives, who are coming to pick her up after her father's funeral to take her home with them. The way that Emily looks at all of them, and the picture of this gathering of eight old/older people sitting around staring at her, and how each of them are described, and how Emily thinks about each of them in turn--it was exactly the sort of character-based story-beginner that sucks me in. But throughout the book, I loved Emily's development and growth from a queer, quiet child to a more confident tween. I thought the ending seemed rather contrived (and reminded me of something from on of the Anne books, as well, although I can't think of what)--when Emily solved a decades-long mystery by "second sight" while she's deliriously ill one night and changes her unhappy neighbors' lives. Come on.