Disclaimer: As ever, this is just my personal opinion and the way this book strikes me. I'm reiterating that because I don't want anybody else who loves EoNM to read this mini-review and then get that depressing feeling we're all prone to when someone bashes a story we love. I'm not trying to insinuate that you shouldn't love this book if you do.

But I do just have to say, for myself . . . Fam. Uh-uh.

When I first read EoNM as a tween, I loved it. Couldn't put it down. Felt so much more kinship with Emily than with Anne. But now, several years later, my feelings have definitely changed.

This book is positively dripping with superiority complexes and pride of family (which latter, by the by, is simply asinine and I can't even with how ridiculous it is). It reinforces Montgomery's tendency to assign value to secondary characters based on whether or not her heroines happen to approve of them. And it practically slaps you in the face every other page with the "Starry-Eyed and Elfin Wunderkind the Likes of Whom Nobody Has Ever Before Encountered Because They're So Fantastically Unique™" trope. But, see, the problem with trying to apply that trope to Emily Byrd Starr is that she's kind of a vain, spoiled, prideful, entitled little brat. Like, I hate to side with Aunt Elizabeth and to say bad things about Douglas Starr, but . . . her ego really is petted by him more than it should be.

Anyway. Again, just my personal interpretation, but it's no longer "a yes from me". (I got the other two books in the trilogy from the library and I'm going to try them in the hopes that some of Emily's rather glaring flaws are addressed more satisfactorily than in the first.)

من عاشق کتاب های لوسی مد مونتگمری هستم. با آن شرلی زندگی کردم و امیلی در نیومون هم دوست داشتم. مناسب سن الان من نبود خیلی.

Finally read another of LMM works!

Ahhh reminded me so much of Anne.
Loved Emily and her big words and escapades and imagination.

Maybe a little bit darker than Anne but still delightful.

Anne will always have my heart tho.

Each time I read this book it’s like visiting an old friend. I got given the trilogy when I was seven and they have remained in my top five books ever since. Even reading them as I’ve got older they’ve not lost that certain spark to them which few books have. Growing up I always wanted to be best friends with Anne but felt more akin to Emily, probably as she is more introverted and I connected with her a bit more. While she’s a slightly darker character it makes her more real. I think what makes these books as brilliant as they are is that Emily is a character who is completely comfortable in her own skin and happy in her own thoughts and distant imagined worlds, which is refreshing. As she said herself, ““I wouldn’t want to be anyone but myself even if I am plain”.

Dans ce roman plein de sensibilité et de chaleur, on fait la connaissance d'Émilie Starr, jeune fille de douze ans, qui vit avec la famille de sa mère à la ferme de la Nouvelle Lune.
Après la mort de son père, elle se retrouve seule au coeur d'une famille rurale très attachée à ses traditions.  Parents et amis stimulent et découragent tour à tour sa jeune et dynamique vivacité et son talent littéraire naissant.
Émilie, petite fille courageuse, qui n'hésite pas à s'affirmer pour défendre ce en quoi elle croit au plus profond d'elle-même.  Cela me fait pensé à moi quand j'étais adolescente quand elle voulait écrire et être poète. J'ai pleuré dans plusieurs chapitres, j'ai ris, j'ai souris de nostalgie pour cette petite fille en moi et que j'avais un jour.
Je compte lire toute la série (tous tomes) pour mon projet d'été de cette année insha'Allah afin d'améliorer mon anglais.

I wanted to read something light and decided on the Emily series by L.M. Montgomery. I had recently read her Anne of Green Gables series for the first time ever and enjoyed it (at least the first few books). I had hoped this would be in the same vein. On the surface, both Anne and Emily seem to have similar lives. They are orphans, living with strict guardians who eventually develop a soft spot for them. But as heroines, they are so different!

Emily's father dies and she is then taken by the proud Murrays who see it as a duty to care for their estranged sister's child. They don't really want to take her in but draw lots to see who is to take up the dirty work. The burden falls to Aunt Elizabeth, who lives with her sister, Laura, and brother, Jimmy, at New Moon. So off to New Moon goes Emily. The story develops gradually as Emily develops a relationship with her guardians and neighbours and makes friends.

Emily is a writer and it is through this lens only that we see her. Her letters to her father take up quite a large portion of the book. This, while interesting and presenting more detail to the story, gives a rather unidimensional aspect to the narrative. The one angle I really enjoyed is the relationship between Emily and Aunt Elizabeth. Both being of different temperaments, they often don't get along but they learn to be fond of each other despite their own best efforts. I wish more time had been devoted to their relationship development.

There were aspects to this book I did not enjoy. Emily may be a more complex character than Anne, but she is less likeable. Anne is a happy child who is adjustable and can be rather stubborn at times. But Emily is too adult even when she is a child. There is some pretentiousness to her which I found unattractive. I didn't really warm to the main character as much as I expected. I also found most of her relationships uninteresting. The book lacks the subtle humour I have come to expect from Montgomery.

The one big let-down was Dean Priest. He was a friend of Emily's father and the two had been at school together. Emily meets him on a visit to a great-aunt and he rescues her from death. But he is an extremely creepy man who keeps throwing sexual innuendos at a 12-year old continuously. Emily, despite her precociousness, is too innocent to actually understand his nefarious intentions and makes firm friends with him. What shocks me is that her two aunts, apparently such sticklers for form and bent on protecting Emily from being spoilt, so much so that they deny her further education, do not see it fit to keep this Priest guy at arm's length. His conversations with Emily clearly show that he is grooming her! Hope he disappears in the future books.

Overall, Emily of New Moon is a mediocre read and not a great start to the series. I do hope it gets better.

Miła i przyjemna historia, choć nadal wolę Anne

Emily of New Moon is right up there with Anne of Green Gables. Emily Byrd Starr is another timeless and unforgettable character from the mind of L.M. Montgomery.
She's more serious and complex than Anne but just as stubborn and just as lovable. Written for teens and young adults, but anyone can enjoy this wonderful classic.

Got a lot better as it went along, but the beginning was pretty brutal. The pacing is slow and the beginning of Emily's development as a writer is very, very detailed, with Emily's letters to her father written exactly as a tween would write - that is, with spelling mistakes and repetition galore. It's realistic, but it's also a real slog. As someone who really likes to see change and self-discovery in characters, there are a lot of growing pains in this novel.

At my book club, we chatted about how Emily is sort of the "dark" Anne, a lot more like L.M. Montgomery as a person, and she's got a lot more Gothic/Romantic influence in her story. She's also a lot more ambitious, making EoNM a 'portrait of the artist as a young woman'. I still like Anne a lot better, but this is worth reading for the contrast.

امیلی در نیومون اولین کتاب از سه گانه ی امیلیه
اگه طرفدار آنی شرلی هستین
حتما عاشق این سه گانه از ال ام مونتگمری میشید
رمان امیلی سرشار از ماجراهای جذاب و دلپذیره ، متن فوق العاده ادبی و دلنشینی داره، توصیفات بی نظیری داره به طوری که شما خودتون رو کاملا میتونید داخل داستان حتی به عنوان شخصیت اصلی تصور کنید
روند داستان به شدت جذابه ، به هیچ وجه کسل کننده نیست ، امیلی شمارو به دوران کودکی و نوجوونیتون برمیگردونه ، شخصا عاشق قلم مونتگمری شدم
چون که خیلی خیال انگیز و رویاییه ، فضا داستان بسیاار آرامش بخشه ، شما انواع احساساتو با خوندنش تجربه میکنید از نا امیدی و خشم گرفته تا اوج دوستی و عشق و موفقیت .
شرط میبندم عاشقش میشد ❤

Sweet and delightful, although a little less fun and maybe a little darker in theme than Anne, who has my heart.

Don't know why I never read these in my childhood, growing up within spitting distance of PEI and loved Anne of Green Gables. Newly orphaned Emily is sent to live with her relatives at New Moon Farm, particularly her stodgy Aunt Elizabeth. As she settles into her new life (and not without some friction), she makes friends with Ilse and Teddy and curates her nascent talent as a writer.

I think people identify with Emily and Anne because--well, spirited, bookish girls live on in all of us, and I'm no different. Girls who defy social conventions and expectations, girls who WANT to do things--like go to college and be educate and write poetry. Girls who are principled and stubborn and DO NOT GIVE IN, even when they're expected to, and especially when they're right. I'll never forget the blow-up Emily had after Aunt Elizabeth read her diary. And sigh, that diary--the way Emily still writes to her deceased father about how lonely she gets--makes me so sad and yet sympathetic. This book would have been pretty formative on me if I had read it when I was younger.