Trixie Belden #11: The Mystery at Bob-White Cave

I started reading my Trixie Beldens again, right from where I left off at #10 (which despite some people not liking, I quite liked. A lot more than this one). And I must say this one is quite a disappointment. I did some research and this book is supposed to be written by Nicolete Meredith Stack, one of the ghostwriters of Trixie Belden, or an unknown author who also wrote the next book in the series "The Mystery of the Blinking Eye". And I completely disagree because I've started the Blinking Eye and even in chapter 2 it's shaping up to be a great mystery with spot-on characters, whilst this one was a bit hopeless. So the Bob-Whites are at another property of Uncle Andrew (they went to his sheep farm in Iowa in #9) in the Missouris (I think...I never pay much attention to locales which is bad of me >_<) It's raining and Trixie is complaining in a way that is completely new for her. I mean sure, impatience is her middle name, but Trixie has never been bratty before. She flips through a magazine and finds an article about ghost fish, which some scientists are willing to offer $500 for 3 specimens of, all in different stages of change. I would like to point out here that I don't believe in evolution. I know that God created the world, and what people commonly refer to as evidence for evolution is the change in animals behaviour and characteristics, like the ghost fish that spend years underground and their eyes disappear. The Bible never shows that animals do change according to environment - after Noah's ark, God empowered animals to eat meat, whereas before they were all herbivores, which is why Noah was able to bring them on the ark without getting devoured. Anyways, I digress. Trixie has a completely one-track mind about the fish. She keeps harping at everyone to go explore the caves as soon as possible, because she wants the $500 for a vehicle for disabled children. Even while they go fishing and catch a whole lot of fish, she doesn't forget. At one point, she almost gets attacked by a wildcat but an unknown shot kills it. It's the beginning of the mystery. What I hate about this book is how Trixie is like a caricature, the author totally gets her wrong and magnifies her bad points until she becomes some sort of brat that you want to slap. She reduces Honey to her pre-#1 personality where she was afraid of literally everything. Honey has grown so much through the series, it's like the author didn't even read the ones before hand. Her most useful contribution was making curtains in the entire book! The whole out-of-characterisation thing almost killed the book for me. Anyways, eventually Trixie gets her way and they set out to explore a cave on Uncle Andrew's property after he buys a whole lot of expensive equipment and hires a guide for them. Slim is a first-class retard and the Bob-Whites don't get along with him. In the first day, they get one ghostfish, but they still need two more. There's a lot of talk about ghosts in the book, because the people living in the area genuinely believe in them. So when the Bob-Whites rescue a drowning man (before they find the fish) and they discover he's living in the "haunted" cabin, there's a big scare. Uncle Andrew's housekeeper Mrs. Moore's husband died years ago so she na dher daughter have been through some hard times that perhaps compounds their belief. Eventually, the Bob-Whites get rid of Slim because he's really mean. He throws a rock at the bats in the cave and they all fly out and get attacked by eagles, so the Bob-Whites are through with him. So when someone steals the ghost-fish they left in a bucket in the cave, they think it's Slim. Also, after a party Mrs. Moore has for the Bob-Whites, complete with great food and dancing, a deliberate fire is set that almost burns down the property and the surrounding properties. And Trixie thinks it's Slim. But they see a crazy looking stranger around with long white whiskers, and he could be a suspect too. And the man they rescued from drowning (theres gratitude for you) because he has kerosene soaked rags in the cabin. It's a mystery, although it never feels like a mystery, just a few patchy who-dunnits, which is where the failure of the book comes in. Anyways, Trixie has a few near-escapes from death and danger during ghost-fish-hunting so Uncle Andrew makes a hired man, Bill Hawkins, go with them. Except while he's outside keeping the dangerous Slim away (only he doesn't seem dangerous, just a jerk - again, another bad characterisation), Trixie goes down a well-hole in the cave where there's plenty of fish. She hauls some up, but then there's a sudden downpour of rain outside which fills the well-hole and she's in danger of drowning. Saved at the last moment by Jim and his "strong arms", which almost made me retch. I don't like the Trixie-Jim innuendo. She's only 14. It's natural to admire him because he's responsible and a great person, and Brian and Mart are her brothers and Dan is practically non-existent, but no puppy-love please! Bill Hawkins is shocked that Trixie almost drowned under his care, and Uncle Andrew is really upset, but Trixie just blows it all off in a hey-don't-worry-I'm-safe way that is characteristic of her enough, but somehow doesn't quite work here. It turns out they've got another ghost fish they need, but there's still one more. Uncle Andrew accompanies them for the last time. Their visit is being cut short because their mum needs them back home as she's going away to visit a sick relative. This time, they get the fish they need, and they also catch Slim, trying to hurt the crazy guy with the white whiskers. They capture Slim, in this unbelievable scene where Jim is practically boxing him (that doesn't quite work either...as if the rest of them would stand around watching the show =_=) and rescue the man who's been dealt a blow on the head. They take him home to Mrs. Moore to rest him, and it turns out he's her husband, back from the dead. No, kidding, he never died, someone tried to attack him and they both fell down the cliff and the man died. Matthew (the husband) got amnesia (where would we be if amnesia had never been invented?) and the blow on the head has done miracles for his memory. Everyone's reuinited and happily ever after. Except the Bob-Whites, because the fish they've got aren't the real thing. But...wait for it, they've got something even more rare that promises more money. So everyone really is happily ever after. Now, I could never despise or even not enjoy Trixie Beldens, because she's awesome and has a lot of childhood significance for me, but this is probably my least favourite.

Hating Alison Ashley - Robin Klein

I think most people have probably read this classic from Robin Klein. I picked it up recently and rediscovered this - one of my old time favourites. It's told with humor and skill. It focuses on an underprivileged area called Barringa East. Though I can't agree with their lifestyle that involves street gangs and divorces and all sorts of bogan-type occurences, Klein writes it well, establishing that this is a reality, but that she does not necessarily support it either. In the midst of all this low-class existence is Erica Yurken, with one of the most terrible names I have ever heard. She's one of the best characters I have ever come across - precocious, arrogant, yet unbelieveably funny. She feels superior to everything and everyone in her suburb and believes she's destined for great things as a movie star. She's a hypocondriac, belongs to a seriously weird family (her little sister wants to be a horse, dresses like one and acts like one. Unbelievable!). Then Alison Ashley arrives, from a rich nearby area that has suddenly been plonked into the disadvantaged area by a rezoning incident. She's really high class, with the perfect looks, the perfect clothes, the perfect attitude and work. And suddenly, Erica is up against someone who makes her feel incredibly inferior. You can read a lot of psychology into this novel which is one of the great things about it. Erica takes an absolute hatred to her, because she's not used to feeling inferior. Alison Ashley shows her up in every aspect of school life - she knows how to work the photography equipment, she's read all the classic books, she's every teacher's favorite. She's also smooth as butter and Erica can't read her, except she tries and reads everything (wrongly)as some sort of snobbish disdain. Yet for all that, she doesn't seem to make any friends. She and Erica have a few tiffs, and the book is filled with Erica's amusing and jealous commentary. Somewhere along the line, Alison visits Erica's house, where everyone is behaving uncultured as usual, but Alison doesn't bat an eyelid, although Erica's sure she's flinching inside. Erica also visits Alison's house, and it's perfect and spotless, but Alison's mum wakes up from her nap and the visit is cut short as she flames her daughter for being "incredibly selfish" etc. You can tell Alison doesn't get much love on the home front. It all culminates in the school camp, where they are assigned the same room (because they have an instinctive reliance on each other under all that tension and jealousy, and put each other's name on the secret form for roommates). It's Erica's debut as an actress, but she suddenly realises she gets severe stage fright, and tkes up the role of writer and director in the plays they perform for the parents on the final night. Having all her dreams crushed is pretty traumatic, especially as Alison becomes the lead in her place and is pitch perfect and everything. Erica's also homesick and tries to discourage her mum from coming to watch the plays because she thinks she's going to be disappointed that Erica isn't acting a part. At the last minute, everything goes wrong and the props aren't organised and Erica cops it. But she bumps into her mother's boyfriend Lennie (who she's spent the whole book disdaining as a total bogan) and he fixes everything up and the plays go smoothly. Except Erica's too depressed to watch and goes to her camp room where she discovers a book Alison has made for her, out of all the drafts Erica wrote for the play. It is unbelievably touching, and completely restores her sense of self, and she creeps in for the end. And for the last chapter or so, she and Alison become great friends, and you can see warmth blooming. It ends with Erica realising her last name would become Grubb because Lennie and her mother are getting married! Which is a hilarious conclusion. What I love best about the ending is how redeeming it is. Erica's spent the entire time being jealous and condescending and disdainful, but her family really comes through in the end. Her mum is so incredibly supportive of her as the author of the plays, and Lennie is a great help and Erica finally warms to him. She becomes great friends with Alison, who she discovers might have the perfect life in material considerations, but her parents are divorced and her mum hardly cares about her at all. It seems like a new beginning for them both.

The Adventurous Four - Enid Blyton

Not much like Blyton's other series. I get the distinct feeling that this first book was a one-off brought back By popular demand. Apparently the second book wasn't as good as the first, but I don't know, I haven't read it yet. This adventure is good. A family is down at the sea, a mother with her twin daughters Mary and Jill and an older (presumably) son called Tom. They become good friends with Andy, a local and older fisher boy who is obviously their leader, but all this is established in the first chapter. They go off on a trip in Andy's fishing boat very early on, planning to stay 2 days on an island but miss their way in a storm and are shipwrecked on a different small island.

They soon set up a very comfortable 'house' for themselves from the leftover huts of people who used to farm there. One day exploring, they go to the next island in the chain (there are 3) and discover a cave full of food supplies, from which they take a few things. (One of the unbelievable but really fun parts of this book is how despite being shipwrecked on some deserted island Blyton finds all these ways to furnish them with really nice food just like in her other books). But they find a seaplane there from "the Enemy" and quickly realise the second island is being used as a storage point for supplies. Tom has a handy camera in a waterproof case and he snaps a few shots.

On the third island, they find a deep harbour that houses about a dozen enemy submarines! Things have gotten much bigger! They want to set back to inform the authorities, especially as Tom has filled his camera roll with a few more snaps as evidence. So they lug more food from the second island and steal a boat, one of many stored there, and plan to sail away.

Alas, Tom leaves his camera in the cave with food! Feeling like an idiot, he sets off to retrieve it which is even more idiotic, and promptly gets caught. The 'Enemies' question him and search the islands to see if there's anyone else. Andy and the girls have a brainwave and disguise themselves under sand and seaweed as rocks, and are not discovered. This bit was realistic, but something seemed a bit off about it. I don't believe it could be done in real life. But I made special efforts to suspend my disbelief in acknowledgement that this was a kid's book. Andy goes at night to the second island and discovers a hole in the roof of the cave where they're holding Tom. Not as incredible as it sounds, since there must be some way of getting fresh air. They escape later, by enlarging the hole and...wait for it...setting their gramophone into the cave so it sounds like Tom's singing! They rush back, repair their shipwrecked boat (which they've pulled off the rocks and found the damage isn't quite so bad) and are ready to set off ---! when it turns out they've been watched all along. So the boat is confiscated, and they're all stuck on the island, but with a lot of good food.

They're not defeated. Andy thinks up the idea of a raft, built from the hut they're staying in. They make it look like it's collapsed in the storm, get a tent from the enemy, live in that while they stealthily pull the hut apart and make a raft complete with a sail. Tom and Andy get onto that and float away and Jill and Mary stay behind because it's none too big.

Tom and Andy are floating round in the sea, making good way. On the second day, a sea plane comes so they hang in the water from the sides, hoping it doesn't see them. It does, but it turns out to be British! And Tom's dad (pilot in the war) is on it! They tell the big story, the adults are suitably impressed. They go to pick up the girls.

Meanwhile, the 'Enemy' has realised they're gone upon a raft, because only the twins are on the island. They threaten to bring the twins back to their country so they run and hide on the second island in the cave of food in a big box. This is luckily where the rescue plane lands and they're all reunited! They fly away and the islands and submarines are blown up.

All in all, it's quite a thrilling adventure. Blyton carries all the plot twists off well, and the ideas are quite ingenious. I doubt I'd have been able to get off the island at all. The adventure is so good you don't really think about the characters so much, which is best because they're not so distinct, except for Andy who's quite brilliant and skilled with his hands. However, the use of 'the Enemy' did disturb me a bit. I know it wasn't written during war time so it wasn't targeted against any country at all, and Blyton was very careful not to name any whatsoever, but there's a speech at the end:

It's something to cry about, to think that we have to fight so much evil and wickedness. It is right against wrong and we have to be strong and courageous when we fight suhc a powerful and evil enemy as ours. But dry your eyes - you are on the right side and that is something to be proud of!

We know in real life things are never that clear cut. World War II was awful, there were clear victims then, and Hitler was evil but just reading a little bit of All's Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Remarque will show you the tragedy of World War I from Germany's side. Even Hitler's troops, cruel as they were, had been brainwashed. There will never be a war where there are no innocent deaths. It's devastating to think, that as educated as we are now, there will still be a third and final World War where the world comes against Israel that God tells us about in His Word. But I know Blyton didn't mean to say Britain was always right in everything they did, so I'll leave it at that. But another thing is the treatment of children during war. I kept thinking that the 'Enemy' would have just shot them all, it would've been easier. I've heard of Nazis ripping children bodily apart. They would have hardly fed them and given them tents when their soldiers were starving. But surely, if children were to accidently stumble in on something like this, soldiers must remember their own and take pity on them for that? I'd like to think so, but it's something I hope I shall never know.

LITERARY MERIT: ***1/2 ENJOYMENT: ****3/4

#27: The Bobbsey Twins Solve a Mystery - Laura Lee Hope

A sturdy hardcover I picked up at a second hand book store at the end of last year. A librarian I knew had grown up with them, and we share a love for childrens' books, so when I saw it, I bought it though I'd never read any. And I don't regret it. It's a lovely, wholesome series full of good, old-fashioned fun when everything kids did, no matter how mundane, was interesting and vital. Kind of like Trixie Belden - they have lovely family times. Anyways, my book looks just like that, only it's brown (blechh) and has a different picture and no title or author, just a brown dog in the corner. The story had the most coincidences and unbelievable and understated events ever. I havent' been a kid in a long time, so it was difficult suspending my disbelief but younger kids I know have loved it. The story runs along these lines: the Bobbsey twins (Nan and Bert, the older set, and Freddie and Flossie, the younger set. No one thinks about how much pain it must have been to carry these 4 to life.)comes with their family to Storm Haven, a seaside holiday area. Early on, they meet a Captain Van Pelt, who takes a particular liking to fat, fair-headed Flossie. We later find out it is because of his "secret" ie. he's looking for his wife and daughter who moved away whilst he was shipwrecked on an island, thinking he was dead. And he's spent the rest of his life looking for them, particularly in Storm Haven. Well, maybe people didn't move away so far in those days? If you were to lose someone now, they would probably end up from Africa to Russia or something. Anyways, the Bobbsey twins really want to help him find them. They go aboard his ship for a day-voyage and get caught in a storm. There, they meet an accidental stowaway, a school teacher called Miss Perkin who's down for the summer to earn some money, only she can't get employed. In the storm, Miss Perkin falls overboard in about 2 sudden sentences and is fished out just as quickly, safe. (There is a lot of falling into water in this book). They return after the storm has blown over. Later, the Captain decides to show them his treasure box on the beach, but a humungous (coincidental) wave sweeps it away. He is heartbroken, because it was full of treasure he was saving for his family. The Captain sails away for a while, and the kids go picking huckleberries (which I've never had before) in a bog. There, they meet a bear O_O and he's chasing after them until a dog chases him away. Go figure. They don't seem very frightened either. Then they're lost, get rescued by a muskrat hunter who they tell the Captain's story to. He suggests go see the guestbook in the Old Church and takes them there. Voila. The Captain's wife and daughter, Hannah and Debby Van Pelt, have signed it, with their town name. They can't wait to tell the Captain when he comes back.
Meanwhile, Bert sells his huckleberries to buy cushions for his new catboat in which he is learning to sail. I don't know about prices in those times, but that sounds like a mighty expensive holiday present though they're supposed to get it cheap. He's selling them to the hotel, and similtaneously recommends Miss Perkins as a piano entertainer so she gets her chance to earn some money. The family goes fishing, and Freddie, little chap that he is, fishes up this huge fish just about as big as him. I wish I had a superbrother like that. When the cook guts it, she finds a locket inside that (coincidentally) has the Captain's daughter and wife's photo! They can't wait to give that back either. Flossie meets a prize diver around her age called Marion, who has a close shave from hitting a hard raft when diving in the pool. But like everyone else in this book, she is unperturbed by danger. I don't think she even realises she almost split her head open. They become good friends. The family goes fishing again, and (even more coincidentally) this time Bert fishes up the Captain's treasure chest! The Bobbsey twins are handy to have around, aren't they? So now they've got a whole heap of things to return to the Captain.
Sometime before this, the Captain's come back and heard about his Debby and gone off to look for her in New York, and found out she could be the wife of a man working in insurance. Small world, that New York. Now he comes back and gets a lapful of treasure. The rest of the world, meanwhile, is preparing for a masquerade ball at the hotel where the Captain's staying. On the night, Nan goes dressed as Mary Bo Peep, Bert as a pirate, Freddie as a sailor and Flossie as a fat little fairy. There, they see Marion who's in one of her mother's childhood dresses. She's the spitting image of the girl in the locket, and the Bobbsey twins get excited and call the Captain down, who takes one look and gives Marion a great big hug. The mother comes along and is all "What are you doing with my daughter?!" This is the only part of the book where propriety makes an entrance. There's nothing strange about the Captain's First Mate stripping off his shirt to show the kids his tattoos, of course. But voila, it's a family reunion where everyone is very very happy. Marion is Debby's daughter, the Captain's granddaughter, but his wife has since passeed away. The Captain gives Bert sailing tricks for helping him find his family and Bert (coincidentally) wins the boat race at the hotel. And everyone's happily ever after.
I may wax sarcastic, but it's quite a cute little book. Sure, i didn't believe any of it but that didn't stop me enjoying it all, and guessing who the Captain's daughter was because of course, I knew she would be found. Good for kids. LITERARY MERIT: ** ENJOYMENT: ***

The Girl from Purple Mountain - May-Lee Chai and Winberg Chai

I usually comment on books I've just read, but this seems a precarious situation. After all these people have lived, with faults and with virtues, how can I comment on their story? I can't offer judgments because this isn't an imaginative creation but a piece of raw history.

Still, I have my feelings towards this piece of work. It was sparked by Winberg's mother's mysterious burial plans, in a plot completely surrounded by other graves where her husband could not be buried with her. They went through their ancestors' history and focused on the story of Winberg's mum, or May-Lee's grandmother. It's a turbulent story, spanning the most tumultous years of Chinese history. From a cultural point of view, it's fascinating, a little square of China in its warlord, civil war and then communist era, to their immigration to America. My knowledge of Chinese history is hazy at best, but I could tell they had suffered. The grandmother, Ruth, was something of a pioneer in her time. Her mother refused to have bound feet, saved by Christian missionaries. Ruth was one of the first ladies to go to university, one of the eight chinese female prodigies, who memorised the entire Bible. For someone like me, who struggles over single verses, this is nothing short of phenomenal. Ruth is quick-sighted, she has survival instincts. She chooses her own husband because he had "an honest face", in a split second decision that carries her through the rest of her life. So she must be a good judge of character. She escapes with her family to America soon after the Communists came into power, and missed the whole Cultural Revolution. There's foresight for you. She and her husband had studied overseas previously anyways. I stick to bald facts because I cannot hazzard a response to this interwoven web of character.

If Ruth is a strict mother, did she not also save her family? If she has survived whilst others died, was it not for her family? Chinese biographies, memoirs (China is my hobby from an intellectual perspective) show one thing strongly - the Chinese mentality. The rat-pack existence. Because as a Chinese, who make up about a fifth of the worlds population, you are more insignificant than a drop in the bucket. Ruth was extroadinary, and you have to be extroadinary to survive. You cannot care about everyone. These are not God's ways, but even as a Christian, I cannot see any viable alternative.

Ruth was decisive, snappy, sharp, brilliant, intelligent, dominant. She is easily a more powerful person than her husband, Charles, who is less clear-sighted but has a softer heart. He would be welcome in some shelter, early 20th C rural existence, but hopeless in his own. It's all a matter of context. Winberg and May-lee have done well to piece this story together. It is truth, and I can't interfere with that.

In the end, they recognise her surprise burial plans as her way of making sure her story was never forgotten. After all the family had been through, she did not want her sacrifices to be lost. She wanted her descendents to understand, and to do this, she had to shock them into remembering the past. Who can say if this is wise or not? My parents immigrated from China also so we could escape from that oppressive atmosphere. They have suffered as immigrants, not nearly to the extent of this memoir, but more than I will ever know. Do I want to forget this? No, I want to realise and recognise what they experienced. Only recently have I started hearing stories, true stories of our past, and I can hardly recognise that time where everything was so precious. There is something behind the Chinese mindset, shaped by their history. Cheap, even stingy, but for a reason. Success-driven, family-motivated, endurers, workers. I have a root in all this. LITERARY MERIT: **** ENJOYMENT: ****

Mistress Pat - L M. Montgomery

I'm crazy about Montgomery's books, but I've realised lately that it's more than enjoying them. I grew up with Montgomery. As a kid, my best friend and I would meet at the library and devour them and share "chummy" laughs over them, and so now I have this psychological dependence on them because she was my childhood favourite author. That being said, it's kind of disillusioning rereading them and finding all these things to criticise. After Anne and Emily, I'm beginning to see a formula going on. With Anne and Emily, it was successful but after those really vibrant girl characters, Pat is very bland. During the first book (there's only two in this series, Pat of Silver Bush and this one) she was so insipid that when she started having those outrageous boyfriends at the end (which was a really stupid addition to the story) I wondered what they saw in her. She doesn't do anything well except for love things, but Montgomery somehow doesn't make that characteristic work in this book.

Back to the formulas, Pat was a bit of a washed out Emily. Whereas Anne and Emily have almost exactly the same story but are as different as night and day, Pat and Emily have almost nothing in common but somehow Pat contrives to be a foil to Emily. Also, the character of David, the shell-shocked widow, is strongly reminiscent of that creep, Dean Priest in Emily. Someone who's intellectual and stimulating but also cynical and bitter and twisted. Pat's story is very much a home story, which I did enjoy. It's got that wholesome family feel within it, where all the stories centre around the family unit. But unlike Anne and Emily, nothing much seems to happy. It's very insular, and I guess that's in character with Pat who absolutely adores her home, but it doesn't add much for interest. A couple of silly 'love affairs' as Montgomery calls them, within that warm family backdrop, but I really don't like Montgomery's 'love affairs'. They're trashy. She's a great writer and has great pathos with nature and I always think Canada is one of the most beautiful places in the world though I haven't been there, but those silly, shallow little flirtations (which, in Anne, were recognised as flirtations) downgrade her. Sometimes when I'm exasperated, I think she might almost have been a precursor of Mills and Boons. But the story: Pat Gardiner is as much in love with her home as she ever was, so nothing suits her better than staying home and being the homemaker now her mother is an invalid. They get a new hired man (Tillytuck, who's a pretty cool character, bold as brass and quite suits the ambience) her sister "Cuddles" grows up and becomes the beautiful Rae (more on her later) and boys hang around with their tongues out over the Gardiner girls but thankfully, Montgomery squeezes them into small, insignificant paragraphs. Not much happens, just the patterns of town life, except at the end, Pat and David get engaged, break the engagement and the house burns down and she marries another man named Hilary. My nitpicks? Cuddles is a horrible character. I don't know what Montgomery was trying to get with her, but she's shallow and vain and all she thinks about is beaus. Kind of another Ruby Gillis, but Montgomery never tried to pass her off as anything but a social butterfly, unlike Cuddles who's supposed to be quite intelligent but just doesn't pass muster. Cuddles, or Rae, as she grows up to be, only calms down and learns to be sensible after she gets engaged, and after that she becomes a great sister. Secondly, David and Pat? Hello, Dean and Emily much? Only muted down, like everything else. Thankfully we don't see too much of him. But Montgomery is wayy too obvious about Jingle (or Hilary), the one Pat really ends up with in the last chapter or so of the book. Her childhood friend (with the most ridiculous name in history) who's a brilliant architect and has been her rejected suitor for years because of course, she's too clueless to realise she will end up with him even though the readers have known it for years and believe me, you don't hold your breath waiting for it. Her house burns down and everything she loves is gone, and her life is a living hell and Jingle pops up and wants to whisk her away to the house he's built especially for her in goodness knows where, I think it was Vancouver, and everyone's happy ever after. I kind of expected something like a fire to happen because I knew somehow she'd have to stop worshipping it and start worshipping Jingle instead. You may think all this criticism means I don't like it, but I don't despise it. It's okay for a nice, quiet, calm read if you're not looking for literature and can ignore all those 'romantic' contrivances. There were some really effective bits, like Judy's death that touched some chord deep, deep inside you that you doubted this book would reach. Much like Bet's death in the first book, who was Pat's childhood best friend, and that made me cry, but I couldn't cry over Judy, it was different. Also, the deviation from the normal 'happily ever after', because Sid, Pat's favourite brother is entrapped into marrying her worst enemy, snipey May Binnie, who is like Anne's Josie Pye. It's a sobering thought that he'll never get out of it, and to see the family living in one house and all the ruckus because of his petty, selfish wife... It really stood out for me. Apparently Montgomery put more of herself into this book than Anne or Emily (in which case her imagination is better than her life, or she's more boring than her characters, or both) and it makes you wonder... Lastly, I really love Hilary the architect. Ever since I've read all that stuff about the mood of houses, I've had a great appreciation for the way houses are built and how they look, because they really have a personality to them. I live on a really hodge-podge street in terms of architecture, and there's some boring stuff and there's some really beautiful homes that look so at one with their surroundings. But the Lonely House here is just the Disappointed House in Emily recycled and done up less pleasingly. LITERARY MERIT: *** 1/2 ENJOYMENT: ****