Emily Climbs by L. M. Montgomery
Genre: YA Realistic Fiction (Classic)
Blurb (on back of book):
Emily Starr was born with the desire to write. As an orphan living on New Moon Farm, writing helped her face the difficult, lonely times. But now all her friends are going away to high school in nearby Shrewsbury, and her old-fashioned, tyrannical aunt Elizabeth will only let her go if she promises to stop writing! All the same, this is the first step in Emily's climb to success. Once in town, Emily's activities set the Shrewsbury gossips buzzing. But Emily and her friends are confident -- Ilse's a born actress, Teddy's set to be a great artist, and roguish Perry has the makings of a brilliant lawyer. When Emily has her poems published and writes for the town newspaper, success seems to be on its way -- and with it the first whispers of romance. Then Emily is offered a fabulous opportunity, and she must decide if she wants to change her life forever.
MY OPINION: ******
I love this book. I don't quite know how many times I've read it (definitely eight or more times). This has always been a childhood favorite of mine and continues to be one of my favorite books of all time.
I just finished reading the third book and have yet to review this one so bear with me if I accidentally mix up some of it.
Emily Starr is a proud girl. I don't think there is any other way to describe her. She has more pride in her body than any other person I've met or read about in my life. She comes from the Chosen People (aka the Murrays) and comes off as aloof and almost arrogant. However, she has her own quirks and idiosyncrasies that make her seem different and unique compared to every other person. I loved her passion and determination throughout the entire series. It's one of her best qualities.
Emily is a writer. She always has been and always will be despite rejection letters, discouragements, and disapproval by her own family and nearly everybody around her. However, in her desperation for an education at Shrewsbury High, she agrees to a compromise with her Aunt Elizabeth to not write anything untrue for the next three years. Now, me personally, being a strictly fictional writer (save essays for school), I don't know how she did it. I would have gone mad not being able to write stories and novels. However, she learns in the end that this was good for her character and helped her grow as a writer overall.
She attends Shrewsbury High with her friends and soon learns of the hardships of society. The older students, particularly Evelyn Blake, are snooty and formidable and quite honestly cruel. She speaks to Emily sweetly and kindly but she's really being condescending and rude. I applaud Emily for her forgiveness and ultimate kindness towards Evelyn because I don't know if I would have reacted the same.
Emily is forced to live with her draconian, strict, almost cruel Aunt Ruth. Aunt Ruth is downright despicable at times. She's one of those people who always has to ask "why" to every single thing you do, even if you have no legitimate reason. She's suspicious and accusing and often calls Emily 'sly', and is known to sniff at every sentence.
Throughout this book, we start to see Emily move from childhood to girlhood to womanhood. In the beginning, she is still a child. However, from beautiful words from her childhood friend, Teddy Kent, and different encounters and maturation, she starts to change from a child to a woman, despite it being against her family's will. Nobody wants to see their child grow up, but grow up they will, and Emily does it subtly but wonderfully.
She starts to realize that something has shifted in many of her relationships, most particularly with Teddy Kent. He started off as a childhood buddy, a playmate, someone she was only friends with, but soon longing glances and quite heart-wrenching words are exchanged and we start to see how they're moving from friendship into something more, despite Emily's attempts to push her feelings down. In this book, she doesn't quite realize what is happening between her and Teddy.
If you don't know, Teddy Kent was my childhood love. He was the first fictional character I ever adored (and still do) and I love this boy with a passion.
Emily soon starts to gain recognition (and money) for her writing and this allows for her family to realize that her "scribbling" isn't for nothing. I really loved that for her. Towards the end, Emily is faced with a decision that could change her life, and we see where her heart and loyalty lies in.
Ilse Burnley is a friend that we can only dream of. I wish I had such a close, unbreakable, life-lasting friendship like Ilse and Emily had. I love Ilse. She is a madcap, rogue, hilarious being and everything she does is for a reason.
Perry Miller is making his own way in life and I was quite proud of him. I speak of these characters like they're my own and at this point, I've read it too many times to not have some attachment to them.
Many will try to compare Emily with Montgomery's famous Anne of Green Gables. However, they are two very different characters. I personally love Emily more (sorry, Anne) and am more attached to this series in particular. However, I think of them as two separate entities, not as the same character from the same mold with the same personality. Both are imaginative but they have their dreams, hopes, wishes, and losses.
Dean Priest was an interesting character. To be completely honest, I found Dean creepy. I used to like him when I was younger, but now as I'm older, I see the strange possessive qualities that he had over Emily, who was 13-15 in this book, mind you, while Dean is 38 or something, old enough to be her father. I found it almost revolting when he spoke of her like he wanted to marry her. It was disgusting to be completely honest. However, his overall character is unique. He is smart and cynical, hardened to the world due to his bullying and constant put-downs about his one shoulder being higher than the other. (I would like to note that Dean Priest is not a pedophile or anything like that as some other reviews have mentioned. I simply think that his obsession with Emily was just slightly creepy. However, these were different times and I'm guessing age gaps weren't AS big of a deal as they are now).
Montgomery also adds a slight hint of a supernatural element in there that carried through from the first book that I found quite interesting.
All in all, I love this book. It is fairly lengthy and descriptive at times, going into long, blocky paragraphs about the trees and the sunsets and the mountains or whatnot. However, I love this book with all my heart. I would recommend it to readers looking for a innocent, beautiful, classical young adult read.
Main Character: Emily
Sidekick(s): Teddy, Ilse, Perry, Dean, Aunt Elizabeth, Aunt Laura, Cousin Jimmy, etc
Villain(s): Maturation, Evelyn, Aunt Ruth (at times), rejection, etc
Realistic Fiction Elements: The majority of this book was all very real to life.
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