Book Review: The Blue Castle

The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Blue Castle is about a 29 year old girl, Valancy, who lives at home with her controlling family. She has never so much as had a boyfriend and is teased about being an old maid. After finding out that she's going to die from a heart defect within a year, Valancy decides to live for herself instead of trying to make everyone happy.

So I had mixed feelings about this book. It really took quite a while for me to get into it. The first half of the book seemed like it was just Valancy complaining and whining about how horrible her life was. I know that there needed to be some background about her and the character needed to be developed, I just thought it dragged on for too long. I found myself starting to get annoyed by her, especially because it seemed as if the only way she would be happy is if she got married.

About mid-way through the book after she gets her diagnosis is where I started to get into it. It really picked up steam after that and I found it to be quite enjoyable. It did bother me that Valancy never gets over the idea that marriage is the only thing that brings happiness. She's supposed to be this strong female character that's doing whatever she wants but still has this notion that if she can't be married she might as well have a boring, horrible life. But I guess those are the old-fashioned views from back in the day (it was written in 1926).

Overall I thought this was a worthy read and I'm not typically one to read romantic fiction. I'd give the first half of the book 2 stars, and the 2nd half 4 stars... thus the 3 star review.