Anne of Greenville by Mariko Tamaki is modern-day reimagining of the classic tale of Anne of Green Gables. In this story, Anne is new to small town USA in Greenville. She has two moms and is half-Japanese American, so she stand out even without her over-the-top personality. After a failed disco performance Anne meets her best friend, Berry and soon comes into contact with her possibly one true love - Gilly. Or wait- is she caught in a love triangle? Oh no!

Starting off strong, I think the author really did capture the essence of Anne Shirley - and that may be the one thing I enjoyed about this novel. After a few chapters it was easy to believe that Anne was a real modern-day version of the Anne we all love from Green Gables. The excessive personality was nailed and the tangents that Anne went off on were believable to the character.

Now let's talk about the other characters from Anne of Green Gables in this, Diana Barry as Berry and Gilly as Gilbert...maybe? I mean...that's what you would think, right? Spoilers aside, I don't think either of these characters fit into the characters they were supposed to resemble or at least the characters the readers were lead to believe they were based off of.

The townsfolk in Greenville...were MEAN. Like, cruel really. In any other place these children would get expelled and maybe even prosecuted for some of the things that they said and did. I understand the author wanting to convey that Anne was not welcome in Greenville...but this was almost unnecessary.

While I felt the beginning of the novel was a bit of a rocky start, it picked up towards the middle to the end and I was thinking "okay I might really enjoy this book." So rarely has a novel disappointed my in the last fifteen or so pages. The novel was cruising along at a good pace and then came to a screeching halt that left me completely and utterly confused. And disappointed. I felt almost cheated? Besides the BIG thing I feel like Anne's treatment by the townsfolk also ends at a screeching halt and is not resolved well at all.

While I was originally excited for this retelling of Anne of Green Gables I ended up being disappointed. I'm not sure I would recommend this to fans of the classic tale. I actually think people who know nothing about the original Anne Shirley will enjoy it more...

This adaptation of Anne of Green Gables was...interesting. I think that Tamaki smartly picked up on the latent bisexuality of Anne in the original text, but this book didn't quite retain the charm of the original.
Anne here is spunky and smart like her counterpart, but the relationships with adults in this novel don't match the types that she forms and relies upon in the source text. This reads more as a middle grade book than YA, though it is rated for 14 and up (because of the LGBTQ+ content?). I understand that Tamaki wanted to give a true sense of homophobia in a small town, but there are too many slurs and too much backlash to feel pleasant or realistic.

I enjoyed this book. The plot was paced appropriately and the characters were well developed. I would recommend this book to others.

Thank you to Netgalley and Disney Publishing Worldwide, for an eArc copy of this book.

I'm not ever read the original work, Anne of Green Gables in order to compare it to the classic that so many love. However I'm always into a modern retelling of a classic story for a fresh perspective.

This novel takes on a lot of topics like homophobia, racism, bullying, and tried to resolve them all by the end which didn't particularly sit well with me for this one. Nothing in life when it comes to those systemic issues resolve themselves so quickly.

This also felt more like a middle grade read instead of young adult.

I really wanted to like this modern retelling of Anne of Green Gables. It's got elements I really like including a small town setting and roller skating. Unfortunately, this just didn't turn out to be the retelling for me.

I think Anne's plucky spirit and eclectic stream-of-consciousness vibes work well in the original Anne of Green Gables because it's told in third person, so you're not bombarded with all of Anne's thoughts all the time. While I think Tamaki did an excellent job of brining Anne's spirit to this book, being in the head of Tamaki's Anne is just overwhelming and the way the first few chapters bounced around in a way that doesn't occur later in the novel was really disorienting. While I ultimately got used to the point of view by the end of the book, It almost caused me to just put the book down after a few chapters because the writing, as a whole, just felt like it was overdone.

As someone who cares a lot about representations of small towns and rural areas in children's and young adult literature, I was also frustrated by Greenville. This book felt like just 75% homophobia, and while there can be a lot of homophobia in small towns, it just felt like it dominated the book in a way that made the ending not entirely believable. Sure, I believe that Anne's mindset changed but with the way that Tamaki characterized 98% of Greenville I just couldn't buy it. I would have liked more nuance of the town right off the bat rather than waiting until the end.

I'm not a purist in terms of retellings, so I didn't mind the way that Tamaki played with the Anne storyline and the nice little reveal at the end was fun.

Overall, the combo of dissonance between Greenville in most of the book and Greenville at the end of the book plus the chaotic point of view prevented this book from standing out.

CW homophobia, racism, slurs throughout this novel. I loved that Anne of Greenville adapted the story with a queer Anne character. Anne loves disco and rollerskating and performing, with a rich inner dialogue we see Anne face non-stop bullying and harassment throughout the book. Unlike Anne of Green Gables the characters who are mean or less than accepting of Anne never learn a lesson or apologize or make amends for their outright hateful behavior. They just stop being mean for no clear reason at the end of this book. It didn't make sense for Anne to face that bigotry and get blamed constantly for reacting to it and then just have it not matter because the story was over. Anne's adopted mothers never defend Anne in this book also unlike the story it was based on where the adopted family stands up to their fellow adults and work to maintain Anne's safety. This book literally had people trying to hit Anne with a moving car and then they just got over it because they spent a week rehearsing a play together. This story had potential but it could have helped to have more focus on keeping Anne safe while navigating these very hateful situations to lead to a more believable reconciliation of these opposing characters.

This was a fun, modern reimagining of Anne of Green Gables, set in a very white small town. Anne (who has one Japanese biological parent) moves with her two adopted mothers and faces a mix of prejudice based on her heritage, her and her mothers' sexual orientation, her quirky style, and just the fact that she is new in a town run by people who have been there forever. Anne's love of life shines through from the original. Diana (now Berry) and Gilbert (now Gilly) are very different than in the original Anne of Green Gables. I found the end very satisfying. You don't have to be familiar with the original to appreciate this. Anyone who has ever been the new outsider will be able to relate. It also should come with a Spotify playlist. Recommended for grades 7 & up.

Anne is quirky and fun and a bit oblivious as she navigates moving to Greenville. As someone who grew up loving Anne of Green Gables, this re-imagining is delightful! I love the nods to the original story with the modern flair.

Anne of Greenville is your typical high school story. A new girl shows up in a conservative town and turns it on its head by being herself. The relationship between Anne and Berry was sweet and grew over time, but the Gilly story line felt more forced and rushed.

Anne's two moms felt more like roommates that gave her a hard time. They were quick to accuse her of being in the wrong and more wrapped up in their own lives than taking care of their daughter.

A decent story but parts could have been flushed out more.

I love Anne of Green Gables so I was excited to read this arc from NetGalley. It was a nice contemporary high school book with LGBT characters. Lots of lessons in bullying and being yourself. However, I don't think it was a very good adaption of Anne of Green Gables. I don't think it had the same flair as the originals. I felt the ending was rushed and that the characters could have been more developed.

I posted my review for this on TikTok at the following link: https://www.tiktok.com/@literallytara/video/7108835384997563691?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7112133290064299563

Basically I gave it 4/5 stars and highly recommended that my fellow TikTok friends check this one out for early review!

Anne of Greenville is a very cute retelling of the original Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery. This spin takes the bright, shining, unique attitude of Anne and gives it to our modern-day Anne, an Asian American queer teen with queer moms dropped in a small town of "Forevers", the school society snobs that come from families that founded the town and have been there ever since. Anne finds a bosom friend in Berry and a nemesis turned love-interest in Gilly. Anne must find a way to fight through the oppression of homophobic slurs, graffiti, and general hatefulness without getting herself, or her moms, in too much trouble.
Anne of Green Gables was one of my favorite book series growing up, so finding a queer WLW retelling of this story is honestly a balm to my soul. It's the story I'd have loved as a kid.

I loved this Anne of Green Gables. I've come to the conclusion that I prefer the retellings of Anne to the original and I think it's do in part because I've never forgave Gilbert for calling her carrots. Nor can I seem to forgive Anne for losing a part of herself her writing when she marries Gilbert. That doesn't seem to be a problem in retellings. I think that's mainly because retellings seem to stop after the first one.

Although I wasn’t a diehard fan of the spunky red-haired orphan like my younger sister, Anne Shirley was a frequent visitor during bedtime stories and movie nights.

So I had heightened expectations for Mariko Tamaki’s radical retelling, “Anne of Greenville.” And to be quite honest, this middle-grade muddle didn’t quite meet them.

I mean, I’m all for the plethora of positive LGBT representation, and the constant disco trivia was a bizarre but entirely entertaining addition.

But I actually feel like I would have enjoyed the story more if it were entirely original, rather than cringing my way through the mess of vague references to the source material.

And while all of the melodrama was in typical Anne fashion, it didn’t quite fit with the contemporary school setting, regardless of how small a smalltown Greenville may be.

This one was a bit of a miss for me.

This is a modern Anne of a green Gables retelling. In many ways, this is still in the spirit of the book. That being said, it just missed the mark for me. Anne is likable and I loved the idea of this book but I’m not sure it worked out in practice. Anne didn’t have the same zest for life in this and I missed that. I, a huge Anne of Green Gables fan so I think it was a bit of a letdown.

I was hoping that this was going to be a queer Anne/Gilbert retelling when Gilly was introduced as the Gilbert character, but this one is for the Anne/Diana shippers, which I am not one of! In general though, I just through that the characters were kind of exhausting and the relationships weren't very well developed.

I've always thought three things were true about Anne Shirley-Cuthbert. One, that she was autistic. Two, that she was a feminist. And three, that she was undeniably bisexual. This book just confirms all of those things.

This book is a decent modern retailing a of the classic Anne Green Gables story. I believe this will reach a wider audience with its modern adaptation.

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.