Anne of Ingleside - L.M. Montgomery

⭐7/10

This is number 6 in the Anneverse and while I've delightedly flipped through these for 2 years now, this is certainly the first where I was losing steam. I've heard Montgomery was kinda sick of Anne at this point but contractually obligated to keep the train rolling. I think it started to show...

Anne is now middle-aged and the mother of SIX children. Middle-aged women are not typically the subject of children's novels, and that is certainly true here. Anne is hardly in this book, and it is rather a book about her kids, each one having a mini arc. So this is actually 6 short stories, I would say. The kids are fine, and there are some funny stories, but they are certainly less interesting than Anne ever was and can't carry a book on their own. They are younger, so that checks out, but they are also perfect and moral and have the perfect mother to help them sort out their issues. 

Anne is also unfortunately not very interesting. I think it kinda follows her natural development into this wonderful, nurturing mother, but those are just not as fun to read about. But also, she just doesn't do anything. She doesn't have a job, and she has a live in maid so she just attends dinners and occasionally counsels her children. I get why she's not some bombastic feminist hero, but for the sake of story, it's just kinda hard to cheer for a society woman. 

I was pretty firm on giving this book a 6 and moving on, but I think this novel is bookended with some absolute bangers. To start we get this grumpy old aunt, which is Montgomery's forte, which is all good and fun, and oddly doesn't ever resolve? Was very surprised to find that the conflict just kinda... Disappears. That's not the Anne way! And then in the end, we get the first real, engrossing conflict in a few books, and I was totally hooked. Montgomery can sure paint some great conflict, though at this point I knew exactly how it would all play out. I even went to Jess and described the problem, and predicted the resolution, and it was so hilariously accurate that I had to roll my eyes a little. I know, Montgomery will never make her characters make difficult choices in these books, but the tidy resolutions are still pretty silly. 

So anyways, this book is what I expected by now, but still a tad disappointing. The writing is equal parts beautiful and witty, though maybe less so here than in previous entries. The final book in the series is said to be among the best, so obviously I'll finish it out, though not immediately. 

Long live Maud.