Emily of New Moon is one of L. M. Montgomery's many novels, and the first in a trilogy. It was published in 1923. It's been adapted into a TV series and an anime.
The story has many similarities to Anne of Green Gables. An orphan girl goes to live in a farm on Prince Edward Island, befriends a boy and a girl there, and dreams of becoming a writer. But at the same time it's thematically quite different. Emily has a more eerie, less idealistic atmosphere. At times when I was reading I wondered if L. M. Montgomery looked at Anne, thought "How can I use this plot without telling the same story?", and invented Emily.
Unlike Anne, Emily occasionally includes the supernatural. Anne's encounters with the supernatural, in the form of ghosts and fairies, were always imagined (even if they didn't always seem that way to her!). Emily, on the other hand, experiences something she calls "the flash", which is clearly described as a glimpse into another world, and in the rather spine-chilling conclusion to a subplot she actually witnesses events she never saw or heard about.
Some of the characters are very likeable; Emily herself, Cousin Jimmy, and Aunt Laura stand out. Then there are some who are sometimes likeable and sometimes not; Ilse, Teddy, and Aunt Elizabeth fall into this category. And then there are the utterly unlikeable ones, of whom the deranged and terrifying Mrs. Kent reigns supreme. This woman is supposed to be pitiable, but I found her utterly repulsive. She's so possessive and controlling of her son that she kills his pets when she thinks he loves them more than her!
Nor is the offscreen pet-killing the only dark moment in this book. There's also a woman who's believed to have abandoned her husband and child to run away with her cousin. (She didn't, as Emily learns in her measles-induced "dream" or whatever that thing was.) And then there's Dean Priest. He isn't the evil creep some modern readers think, but he's certainly unsettling.
There are occasional moments of humour in the book, though not as many as in Anne. There's the incident of Emily's visit to Father Cassidy, and Emily's comments about certain things and people in her diary. But overall the book is much more depressing than I expected an L. M. Montgomery novel to be. I still enjoyed reading it, though, and -- wonder of wonders! -- in some ways I like it better than Anne.
Is it available online?: Yes, on Gutenberg.
Rating: 9/10.
Some of the characters are very likeable; Emily herself, Cousin Jimmy, and Aunt Laura stand out. Then there are some who are sometimes likeable and sometimes not; Ilse, Teddy, and Aunt Elizabeth fall into this category. And then there are the utterly unlikeable ones, of whom the deranged and terrifying Mrs. Kent reigns supreme. This woman is supposed to be pitiable, but I found her utterly repulsive. She's so possessive and controlling of her son that she kills his pets when she thinks he loves them more than her!
Nor is the offscreen pet-killing the only dark moment in this book. There's also a woman who's believed to have abandoned her husband and child to run away with her cousin. (She didn't, as Emily learns in her measles-induced "dream" or whatever that thing was.) And then there's Dean Priest. He isn't the evil creep some modern readers think, but he's certainly unsettling.
There are occasional moments of humour in the book, though not as many as in Anne. There's the incident of Emily's visit to Father Cassidy, and Emily's comments about certain things and people in her diary. But overall the book is much more depressing than I expected an L. M. Montgomery novel to be. I still enjoyed reading it, though, and -- wonder of wonders! -- in some ways I like it better than Anne.
Is it available online?: Yes, on Gutenberg.
Rating: 9/10.
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