Anne is a really unique character here, from her love for disco and roller skating to being the new person in a very small town. Her authenticity and willingness to be herself, against everything else, was a joy. Her voice comes through instantly, pulling you in to the story quickly. However, I think the story would have actually shone a lot more as its own tale, rather than as a retelling. Some of the retelling parts felt quite forced - and it just didn't need it. It would have been an excellent story without the connections.

I'm a huge Anne of Green Gables fan so I was really happy to grab this! Unfortunately, it fell flat for me.

This book is a modern reimagining of Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery. Anne is a modern girl in modern-day with a strange love for disco and rollerblading. Her adopted parents have moved once again and now they're stuck in hicktown Greenville full of small-minded townsfolk that doesn't understand Anne and her family. Oh yeah, Anne's parents are both women and unfortunately, Greenville doesn't take too kindly to LGBTQ+ elements. How will Anne and her family deal with the constant hatred directed toward them?

I think my main issue with the book is it feels like...there's a lot of original ideas, which is fine, but it feels like it detracts from the Anne books so much that it doesn't really feel like Anne anymore. There's no Marilla & Matthew, Rachel Lynde is extremely hostile toward Anne, not to mention half the characters in the book were not in the original book. Which is really weird because Tamaki nails Anne's chaotic thought process and energy--so where are the other characters that help Anne flourish?

At least she has Diana Barry--who is named "Berry" in this, weirdly enough. Berry feels more like an emo angsty teen rather than the naive yet optimistic and loving Diana from the books. Gilly (Gilbert) is a really shy person who just hangs out with a really homophobic crowd. Gilbert Blythe, SHY? Sounds fake, but okay. I do love that Gilbert became Gilly--the problem was just felt like Gilly wasn't Gilbert at all but a completely different character, much like Anne's parents and Rachel Lynde, etc.

Just to be clear, I am NOT being homophobic/sexist/etc by rating this book low, it's not because Anne has two moms or dates Gilly then Berry, it's because the author is doing *so* much and changing a lot that it's so unrecognizable. What's the point of changing everything about the original series and only keeping the names? May as well write your own book at that point!

If I wasn't a fan of the Anne books I probably thought this would've been fine. Maybe. The moms were really flat and oddly absent despite them being the reason Anne was stuck in the homophobic town in the first place. They'd react to the homophobia yes, but not do anything else except get takeout. Like damn y'all, sit with your daughter and talk about this? Oh right, they did briefly talk with her in the last chapter of the book. Y'all, you had all month to say something to her about it....

Anne was the only one who felt alive--everyone else felt like they were going through the motions of a generic background character. I found the appeal of the books to be mainly the whole town rather than just Anne herself, but that's just me.

Again, not hating the LGBTQ+ elements, I applaud more representation, but god DAMN the homophobia was INTENSE in this book it's not even funny. Literally, multiple slurs each chapter, I have no idea how Anne and her family still stayed in town despite the constant insults and vandalism of their house. It felt almost comical how everyone in town except for 5 people was homophobic. I'd just get out of that mess after a month, honestly. I know homophobia is alive and well today, but I feel like it was excessive here and detracted from the Anne message of being who you are, it also just feels like it was a way to make Greenville look like a complete shithole as often as possible. How am I supposed to forgive any of these people? I couldn't even forgive Gilly for being an accessory to multiple crimes.

(Also, sorry if I assumed wrong in stating that Gilly was Gilbert, there is a character named Ruby Gillis that could be Gilly? Maybe? Not sure. No one is who they are from the OG books so it's hard to tell)

Very disappointing book despite the colorful and accurate Anne Shirley.

Thank you, Disney Publishing Worldwide, for allowing me to read Anne of Greenville early!

I'm not particularly fond of Anne of Green Gables, but I sure love retellings and especially when they are queer. In this novel, Mariko Tamaki shows us a modern version of Anne as a young Japanese-diaspora artist who finds herself mixed up in high-school drama and torn between two people. The book was both fun and emotional. Simply put, a really nice reading experience.