50 of 51 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
so good you'll wear it out!, December 19, 1999
This review is from: The Blue Castle (Mass Market Paperback)
Anyone who thinks L.M. Montgomery is just a children's author should read this book. Although it's appropriate for younger ages and its reading level may not be very demanding, I think adults would appreciate the wit and insights in this novel more than younger readers might. I discovered The Blue Castle at 25, at a time when I wasn't all that interested in adolescent literature. Reading it felt like discovering a long-lost friend. Montgomery's keen sense of human nature shapes characters so real that I'd swear I've met them. I've read this book so many times that I've worn out two copies of it. This is my favorite book by this author and one of my all-time favorites, period. As much as I like Anne of Green Gables, it pales in comparison to The Blue Castle. The story is so much better than the synopsis sounds, but it's hard to say much about the plot without giving away the best of it. This is also the only book Montgomery wrote which is *not* set in Prince Edward Island.
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56 of 58 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This should be rated higher than 5 stars!!!, July 18, 2003
This review is from: The Blue Castle (Mass Market Paperback)
L.M. Montgomery's works interested me at an early age. I first saw the Anne of Green Gables movies and years later read "Anne of Avonlea". I loved the atmosphere and the characters and wanted to know more of Anne. After reading the series, I knew I had to read more by this author. "The Blue Castle" caught my eye one day just because of the name. I read it right away and as soon as I was done I HAD to read it over again! I was completely enchanted, as I am DELIGHTED to see that others are too.
Valancy's mother and aunt really got on my nerves and the entrance of Barney Snaith just driving by intrigued me to no end. Valancy in one of those enlighted spirits who is weighted down by her stodgy, judgemental relatives. She feels she is just doomed to waste away into old-maidenhood or maybe fall over dead. She has no hope of being married and considers herself plain with a "too-small nose". She dares not dress or do her hair as she wishes and can't even speak out of turn when twitted even though she is 29 years old! She hates the house, she hates her room, she hates her life, she hates the strict schedule she forced into as if she is still a child. She even is still called "Doss", her hated childhood nickname. A trip to an "unapproved" doctor turns all this around and she rebels against her family's oppression. After finding that a childhood schoolmate is dying, Valancy goes to nurse her where she becomes friends with the aforementioned Barney. Barney drives a beat-up rattle trap car "Lady Jane Grey" and mostly keeps to himself on his own little island, leading Valancy's nasty family to refer to him as "jailbird", criminal, drunk, etcetera. Valancy feels just the opposite. She buys a bright, stylish dress, takes trips "about the town" with Barney and is rescued by him from the rowdy Chidley Corners dance. Not wanting to go home after her friend dies and not wanting herself to die as an old maid, Valancy makes another wild decision. This decision will lead to a life better than her imaginings and the ending will surprise you completely! You don't see it coming so DO NOT spoil the surprise by reading ahead!!! It is delightful, heartwarming and creates a splitting smile across your face when the entire plot is revealed. I CANNOT reccommend this highly enough!!! It is TOPS on my list of single books.
This is a book that teaches you to live for yourself and to try whatever you feel you are called to do. Be yourself, live your life to the fullest and don't let anyone tell you who to be or how to act! It is for a bit older audience though, late teens and up. It's a book you will read over and over again and NEVER be tired of! The Blue Castle is just proof of why L.M. Montgomery's books have been popular and celebrated for so long. They never go out of date or style, the stories are a timeless kind! You'll find, to use an "Anne" term, that you are "kindred spirits" with Montgomery and all her characters!
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27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Love is for any age, May 17, 2002
This review is from: The Blue Castle (Mass Market Paperback)
I have read this book many, many times. In fact, I have three paperback copies as well as a hard cover that my beloved husband searched and searched for. This book spoke to both myself and my husband. I read it for the first time when I was just a homely kid. I 'made' my husband read it and he fell for the poetry and beauty of the novel just as I had. We called each other Barney and Valancy after the characters and we called our home 'Our Blue Castle' because of how the novel affected us. My beloved husband died on April 28, 2002 of cancer. In his hands, in his casket, he carries a copy of The Blue Castle in honour of our love for each other and the love that L.M. Montgomery expresses without becoming 'harlequinesque' or vulgar. I am 38 and I plan to read it many, many more times before I give a copy to my 11 year old daughter! Love, true love, is not common but can happen at any age.
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