Anne of Green Gables

Somehow I never got around to reading this series as a child, and only picked it up after watching Anne With An E on Netflix. I have to say, while I enjoyed the series immensely, I found the book to be much more heartwarming, pleasant, and less anxiety-inducing. Since I watched the show first, my thoughts are mainly a comparison between the two.

To begin with, there's much less cruelty in the book. The townspeople judge Anne initially but it doesn't take long for her to prove herself, and the other children at school love her almost immediately.

She makes mistakes, but she's kind and well-meaning. She rights her wrongs without needing much encouragement, and she's never mean-spirited. The show seems to revel in portraying Anne as a meddlesome, nosy, often self-centered and spoiled girl who is quick to anger and rarely thinks of others. Match that with the sometimes cringey delivery of Anne's monologues and the show definitely comes out second to the book - at least in my opinion.

All in all, I found myself liking book Anne much more.

I'll be starting the second in the series soon, and I'm looking forward to continuing the story without the parallels of the show in my mind, since it ended around the same plot point as the first book.