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emma's Reviews > Anne of Windy Poplars
Anne of Windy Poplars (Anne of Green Gables, #4)
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emma's review
bookshelves: i-love-these-characters, children-s, classics, eh, unpopular-opinion, 2-stars, reviewed
Feb 11, 2020
bookshelves: i-love-these-characters, children-s, classics, eh, unpopular-opinion, 2-stars, reviewed
Not to be dramatic, but me not loving this book is the saddest worst thing that has ever happened to me or anyone, ever, in the history of the world.
Also the most surprising.
Yes, I may have an average rating of 2.95, and yes, I may be well used to being disappointed in life, and yes, maybe this is actually not a very sad or bad thing at all, let alone in the context of the history of human suffering.
But if I admitted that, I’d have to rewrite the opening of this review, and that, my dear, is never going to happen.
This really is a shock, though.
Anne of Windy Poplars is the fourth book in the Anne series, and I five starred the first three. ALL THREE! I have five starred about 25 books out of the hundreds I’ve read in the last three years, and three of them were Anne books.
And yet, I didn’t care for this much at all.
First off, the majority of it was epistolary, and made up of these heinously long boring dry letters that Anne wrote to her fiancé...whose name I am failing to think of. Garrett? Gilbert?
...Oh, no. I thought it couldn’t possibly be Gilbert due to the sheer awfulness of that name (sorry to any Gilberts out there, but the very sound of it is...bulbous), but it is.
Anyway, it’s mostly very boring letters. They don’t fit with Anne’s voice at ALL.
And to add insult to injury, instead of getting off to her usual misadventures and amusements, Anne spends the whole book running around and sticking her nose in people’s business and fixing their lives for them and all around being the kind of preachy unfun nightmare a past Anne would have abhorred and eventually charmed.
Horrible.
Also, I am sick of her meeting people and just bidding them adieu forever without feeling all that sad! She spent her whole childhood being best friends with Diana Barry, and now she hardly even speaks to her. She spends years living at Windy Poplars with the widows, and when she leaves she’s more happy than sad. Her college friends have disappeared. Her adopted younger siblings barely get a mention. I am SICK OF IT!!!
This had none of the whimsy, none of the love, none of the beautiful settings and none of the beautiful writing that I have come to expect.
Bottom line: Everything about this was simply a bummer.
------------
pre-review
life is full of disappointment.
review to come / 2 stars
------------
tbr review
thrilled to be reunited with my best friend (anne)
Also the most surprising.
Yes, I may have an average rating of 2.95, and yes, I may be well used to being disappointed in life, and yes, maybe this is actually not a very sad or bad thing at all, let alone in the context of the history of human suffering.
But if I admitted that, I’d have to rewrite the opening of this review, and that, my dear, is never going to happen.
This really is a shock, though.
Anne of Windy Poplars is the fourth book in the Anne series, and I five starred the first three. ALL THREE! I have five starred about 25 books out of the hundreds I’ve read in the last three years, and three of them were Anne books.
And yet, I didn’t care for this much at all.
First off, the majority of it was epistolary, and made up of these heinously long boring dry letters that Anne wrote to her fiancé...whose name I am failing to think of. Garrett? Gilbert?
...Oh, no. I thought it couldn’t possibly be Gilbert due to the sheer awfulness of that name (sorry to any Gilberts out there, but the very sound of it is...bulbous), but it is.
Anyway, it’s mostly very boring letters. They don’t fit with Anne’s voice at ALL.
And to add insult to injury, instead of getting off to her usual misadventures and amusements, Anne spends the whole book running around and sticking her nose in people’s business and fixing their lives for them and all around being the kind of preachy unfun nightmare a past Anne would have abhorred and eventually charmed.
Horrible.
Also, I am sick of her meeting people and just bidding them adieu forever without feeling all that sad! She spent her whole childhood being best friends with Diana Barry, and now she hardly even speaks to her. She spends years living at Windy Poplars with the widows, and when she leaves she’s more happy than sad. Her college friends have disappeared. Her adopted younger siblings barely get a mention. I am SICK OF IT!!!
This had none of the whimsy, none of the love, none of the beautiful settings and none of the beautiful writing that I have come to expect.
Bottom line: Everything about this was simply a bummer.
------------
pre-review
life is full of disappointment.
review to come / 2 stars
------------
tbr review
thrilled to be reunited with my best friend (anne)
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Reading Progress
November 25, 2019
– Shelved
February 11, 2020
–
Started Reading
February 12, 2020
–
Finished Reading
Comments Showing 1-50 of 116 (116 new)
message 1:
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carol ˚｡⋆
(new)
Feb 11, 2020 09:16AM
Have you seen the netflix series?
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This series is so lovely! But don't watch the Netflix series. It is not in any way one with the book and mix modern-day politics into something placed so long ago. And, notably, book Anne is a better feminist than Netflix Anne.
(Oh, and I forgot to mention, please read LM Montgomery's other novels. They are often just as nice, if not better even than Anne)
Carol wrote: "Have you seen the netflix series?"i haven't!
Ele wrote: "This series is so lovely! But don't watch the Netflix series. It is not in any way one with the book and mix modern-day politics into something placed so long ago. And, notably, book Anne is a bett..."Ele wrote: "(Oh, and I forgot to mention, please read LM Montgomery's other novels. They are often just as nice, if not better even than Anne)"
thank you very much for both of these recommendations!!
emma wrote: "thank you very much for both of these recommendations"You're welcome! 😊
Interesting, I really liked the Netflix series. Sorry you didn't enjoy this book as much!
I agree that this wasn't the greatest in the series. But don't be too disappointed, because the next book is really good (though Anne of Ingleside could easily be avoided).
Is this the one with all the letters? That totally trail off in the middle like.... <---exactly like that, to preserve some kind of privacy? I read these in middle/high school and I remember both my mom and I really disliking the epistolary one in the series.
This was my least favorite Anne book; the long-winded letters really dragged it down. I loved Anne's House of Dreams, and Rilla of Ingleside is my favorite.
I did not know until a few years ago that this was the last book written. I would see bundled ebook versions online and they were always missing this book and it was because it was the only one still under copyright.
I agree, life is full of disappointments. Your reviews however, are quite the contrary. You never fail to make me laugh
annabeth ✰ wrote: "Interesting, I really liked the Netflix series. Sorry you didn't enjoy this book as much!"ty!!! i five starred the first three so this was a shock
Ele wrote: "I agree that this wasn't the greatest in the series. But don't be too disappointed, because the next book is really good (though Anne of Ingleside could easily be avoided)."oh phew i am very glad
Heather-Lin wrote: "Is this the one with all the letters? That totally trail off in the middle like.... <---exactly like that, to preserve some kind of privacy? I read these in middle/high school and I remember both..."
this is the epistolary one with the unending ellipses!!! compared to the first three this is a nightmare
Audrey wrote: "This was my least favorite Anne book; the long-winded letters really dragged it down. I loved Anne's House of Dreams, and Rilla of Ingleside is my favorite."i am so relieved to hear this
Julie wrote: "I did not know until a few years ago that this was the last book written. I would see bundled ebook versions online and they were always missing this book and it was because it was the only one sti..."oh wow that's so interesting!!
Amy wrote: "I agree, life is full of disappointments. Your reviews however, are quite the contrary. You never fail to make me laugh"i am instantly cheered up THANK YOU
I literally bought this last week and now I'm afraid to read it
Kristin wrote: "I literally bought this last week and now I'm afraid to read it"it's not bad, it's just nowhere near the first three
Kristin wrote: "I literally bought this last week and now I'm afraid to read it"Just skip the letters to Gilbert. I found it very slow as a young teen reader but not bad as an adult. It does have some great scenes.
I love Anne series ... I don't know but I really want to live at green gables
And I love the netflix series as much as the books ...
Eowyn wrote: "I love Anne series ... I don't know but I really want to live at green gables"Eowyn wrote: "And I love the netflix series as much as the books ..."
i've been a city fan my whole life but honestly i'd live in green gables too
Yes , me too ... and Avonlea is like heaven ... and I'm so happy that I knew there and I lived there betwen the pages of book
You have an average rating of 2.95 oh my gosh are you okay
Honestly, I never really cared for this one either. I think I've read it twice, and it was better for me when I wasn't like twelve, but I don't know how adult me will like it. From what I recall, it was incredibly dry and unexciting.
My main problem with this book was how it kept pardoning abusive fathers. Ugh. I wanted to scream. I actually liked the writing/setting, but that didn't keep me from being utterly disappointed myself. Anyway, someone on here mentioned it was the last written, but that was actually Anne of Ingleside.
Eowyn wrote: "Yes , me too ... and Avonlea is like heaven ... and I'm so happy that I knew there and I lived there betwen the pages of book"me too :)
Vee_Bookish wrote: "You have an average rating of 2.95 oh my gosh are you okay"not at all
Rea wrote: "Honestly, I never really cared for this one either. I think I've read it twice, and it was better for me when I wasn't like twelve, but I don't know how adult me will like it. From what I recall, i..."from adult me's perspective, it was very dry and unexciting
Ele wrote: "My main problem with this book was how it kept pardoning abusive fathers. Ugh. I wanted to scream. I actually liked the writing/setting, but that didn't keep me from being utterly disappointed myse..."yeah, that's not the best. although if you consider the circumstances of lm montgomery's life at the time it makes more sense
emma wrote: "yeah, that's not the best. although if you consider the circumstances of lm montgomery's life at the time it makes more sense"Actually, stories of how evil abusive fathers are were pretty common at this point - I think it's more a problem with Montgomery's outlook on people than anything.
Anyway, I recommend immediately reading the next in this series because it's really good and will make you feel better after this disaster.
Ele wrote: "emma wrote: "yeah, that's not the best. although if you consider the circumstances of lm montgomery's life at the time it makes more sense"Actually, stories of how evil abusive fathers are were p..."
i meant that lm montgomery was in an abusive marriage at the time and remained in it - she may have felt motivated to write redeemable abusive father characters
yes i intend to continue with the series!!! i'm happy to hear that
emma wrote: "i meant that lm montgomery was in an abusive marriage at the time and remained in it - she may have felt motivated to write redeemable abusive father characters"I didn't know this, that's pretty interesting to learn. I don't know enough about her life (yet), but that explains a lot - she always seemed to be trying to redeem characters and see the best in everyone.
I think her husband was bipolar, and they didn't understand it or treat it back then, and he'd go into these violent rages.
I tried to read this as a kid and just...did not like it. Never got past the beginning. And I was very much less awash in books then than I am now, so that was quite significant.
Audrey wrote: "I think her husband was bipolar, and they didn't understand it or treat it back then, and he'd go into these violent rages."Ele wrote: "emma wrote: "i meant that lm montgomery was in an abusive marriage at the time and remained in it - she may have felt motivated to write redeemable abusive father characters"
I didn't know this, t..."
yeah i'm not an expert but from what i've read things were very not good
Diana wrote: "I tried to read this as a kid and just...did not like it. Never got past the beginning. And I was very much less awash in books then than I am now, so that was quite significant."it took me a few tries to even start this one!!
Ooh girl I’m reading it now and let me tell you just how disappointed I am in it, I’ve found it very boring and slow. I’m missing Anne’s interactions with Diana, and after the last book’s dramatic revelations that Anne and Gilbert do belong together, I feel very victimised by the lack of Anne-ness... I read the 2nd and 3rd books in a week (which I have not done since I was about 14) and now I’m stuck at the beginning of this one just wishing it to be over!
Definitely a slow beginning. It has some gems but has a lot of skimmable parts.
I completely understand the “bidding adieu” part! I was dying to know what she did with Diana Barry and the twins, but nothing of substance! I guess it could be a “we all grow older and drift apart” thing, but I know Anne is different than that! She’d want to keep those kinships, but they are not addressed.
The first time I read it (as a kid), I hated it. But after rereading it many times, I enjoy it. I just have to remind myself it’s nothing like the other “Anne” books.
You are totally right and this book was totally a disappointment. I am so sorry for that and i very pissed right now cause i just finish it and poor me waited until the end of the book for more thing about my folks but it was like trying to eat a food photo..
Quite possibly the best review I’ve ever read!
Caillin wrote: "Ooh girl I’m reading it now and let me tell you just how disappointed I am in it, I’ve found it very boring and slow. I’m missing Anne’s interactions with Diana, and after the last book’s dramatic ..."i miss diana too!!! this one feels like false advertising
Audrey wrote: "Definitely a slow beginning. It has some gems but has a lot of skimmable parts."agree
Dana wrote: "I completely understand the “bidding adieu” part! I was dying to know what she did with Diana Barry and the twins, but nothing of substance! I guess it could be a “we all grow older and drift apart..."exactly!!! i feel that anne would never let that happen, and yet...
Crystal Anne wrote: "The first time I read it (as a kid), I hated it. But after rereading it many times, I enjoy it. I just have to remind myself it’s nothing like the other “Anne” books."maybe i'll get there someday...but i doubt it
Çağla wrote: "You are totally right and this book was totally a disappointment. I am so sorry for that and i very pissed right now cause i just finish it and poor me waited until the end of the book for more thi..."hahahaha
