I admit it. I've never really been all that inspired to read the L.M. Montgomery's classic Anne of Green Gables series (although I did enjoy her much lesser-known stand alone novel, The Blue Castle). As a child I watched the PBS adaption of Anne, though. I remember being entertained by it, but don't recall much more than the scene where Anne falls off the roof. I kind of forgot the series existed except in the periphery of my bookish awareness. There are just too many other books out there for me to pick up on a chick-lit series that's almost 100 years old. Then Netflix rebooted the series and, with it, came a renewed interest in the story.
Author/illustrator team of Mariah Marsden and Brenna Thummler even created a graphic novel adaption of the first Green Gables book. Curious and in need of something to read, I picked it up. It was a quick read. A fun read. Like any good graphic novel, there was very little dialogue and the illustrations picked up most of the slack of telling the story. And seemed to do an excellent job of doing so. And it was a cute story. Very quaint. And I remembered more from the PBS series than I thought.
Except...
I may catch some flack for saying so, but I really didn't like Anne's character. She was rude, pushy, annoying, and would do anything to get her way/get out of trouble. She often lied. She was overly dramatic, beyond typical teenage hormones. She's basically the quintessential Manic Pixie Dream Girl, a particularly irritating (to me) trope that was popular a few years ago thanks to authors like John Green. True, Anne did begin to redeem herself, but not until the last few pages. Perhaps I would feel differently had I read the book rather than base my impression on the graphic... Or perhaps if I had encountered the story as a tween rather than as an adult... Maybe I would have liked Anne better. Maybe not. I couldn't tell you.
Overall, though, the graphic adaption of Anne of Green Gables was a worthy one. I think fans of the series will be pleased. --AJB
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