Rainbow Valley (Anne of Green Gables Series #7) Book

Over ten Mary-Sues in one book? Got to be a record.

I thought Book 6 was rock bottom - turns out I was wrong. To catch you up - book 6 of ANNE of Green Gables demoted Anne to a secondary character and her six precocious (obnoxious) children shared the spotlight. Gag.

Well, if that wasn't bad enough, book 7 has Anne as a tertiary character. L. M. Montgomery doubled the amount of precocious children and shoves Anne's kids off to the side. Are. You. Kidding. Me.

Anne's kids are secondary to the "Mary-Sue" Meredith clan - a wholesome, cherub-faced group of sorely neglected children who adore their minister father and God with all their heart. They are, in a word, loathsome. And I don't say it lightly. Every sin they commit or moment of disobedience can be traced back to an gosh-darn honest mistake - they could do no wrong and I hated them for it.

Their widowed minister father is the worst man I've read about in a long time. He neglects his children, his house and his life in order to be a better minister. None of his children ever had much to eat, they ran around in literal rags and at one point, one child watched as her pet rooster was slaughtered and served for dinner. The children even adopted an orphan girl for two weeks before he noticed. The orphan girl lived under the same roof as the father. TWO. WEEKS.

And what do the children think? That he's the best father in the world. And what does the town think? He's a fine minister, though he could use a wife to manage things. OH HELL NAW. He doesn't need a wife, he need a firm kick to the teeth. He's their father - their only parent alive - and he is supposedly too thick to understand that his children need socks? That they need guidance and affection? And all of that is excused because he is so holy and devoted to God?

I couldn't stomach the lot of them.

At one point, their weak-minded father has to whip one of the boys (for throwing a eel at an old lady) and the father discovers he cannot bring himself to do such a cruel act. The children meet in secret to punish themselves because if their father won't discipline them, then they will have to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and raise themselves.

I honestly don't think L. M. Montgomery actually met any children.

And, then there is the shoe-horned religion at every page. I don't mind reading religious books and quite like how it was handled in the first couple of Anne of Green Gables. But, Book 7 uses a funnel to force it down our throats so often that it actually soured me to this book. Heaven forbid if anyone questions the minutest aspect of God's love or infinite kindness - every single precocious child would discuss the finer points of theology. Preferably in painstaking detail.

At one point, one of the clan marches up to a non-church goer to demand he attend church (so her father's salary could be paid). When he refuses, she feels a fury wash over herself and calls him names (including vampire) and says she doesn't care if he goes to hell. He (of course) finds this sweet and adorable - and immediately swears to start attending.

The best part of this series?

Finding out that I'm not done - there's another one. Whoopee.

Audiobook Comments
Decently read. We have had the same person reading this series and I always enjoy a consistent reader. Her voice for some of the children did grate on my ears, but that could just be because I hated them all so much.

The 2018 ABC title challenge - R

YouTube | Blog | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Snapchat @miranda_reads