Kathleen Gros

Part of the appeal for me of Anne of Green Gables is the big, exaggerated personalities of all the characters and their often ridiculous antics. This retelling that moves the people and events of the original novel to the present day, while fairly good, unfortunately chooses to soften everyone and everything just a bit too much.

The orphaned Anne Shirley isn't quite as voluble, choosing to express herself almost as much in a diary/sketchbook. Foster parent Matthew Cuthbert isn't quite as show more introverted, and his sister Marilla Cuthbert isn't nearly so rigid (seeing her with a hip haircut and stylish glasses reminds me of my shock as long-time comic book fan at the casting of Marisa Tomei as Aunt May Parker in the most recent Spider-Man films).

Even the setting is softened. Is it still Prince Edward Island? Or is it even in Canada? Vancouver is mentioned once, but the Avon-Lea apartment building could easily be in any mid-sized city in Canada or the United States.

Some of the modernizing is more successful than other parts. For instance, Anne gets involved in making zines with a school club, and the book maybe goes a little overboard on the actual production of zines. But on the other hand, a favorite fan theory about Anne Shirley is delightfully brought to fruition here.

This is my third graphic novel adaptation of Anne of Green Gables. I'd say this ties with Anne of Green Gables: A Graphic Novel by Mariah Marsden and Brenna Thummler, but my favorite remains the energetic Manga Classics: Anne of Green Gables by Crystal Chan and Kuma Chan. show less

A new take on Little Women that brings the events into the modern day. Jo is a thirteen-year-old girl in middle school who uses her secret blog to work out her feelings about her family and her life. The characters are readily recognizable even as their day-to-day lives diverge widely from the original novel and LGBTQ+ themes are explored.

This is very good, but has the misfortune to follow closely on the heels of the similar but slightly better Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy: A Graphic Novel: A show more Modern Retelling of Little Women. Still, Jo is certainly worth reading, and since it only gets through retelling about a quarter of the original book, I have hopes we'll get a follow-up in the near future.

Two side notes:
All the kids have had or get chicken pox. Are the March and Laurence parents anti-vaxxers?
The kids play cribbage in one scene. Do any children play cribbage nowadays? show less

More like: friends to enemies to lovers, with a bit of second chance trope. Not that it's disappointing, I do prefer friends to lovers anyways.

I only found it resolved a little too fast, given that the whole high school situation did hurt Tessa a lot. We might've only seen Olive's bullying through Tessa's diary, and I know people tend to exaggerate in diaries (as have I), still, diaries are a reflection of how one has felt in that situation, so technically doesn't matter whether it's 100% show more what has happened – the emotions are real. Rose-colored glasses of (rose-)crushes can make us weak, and perhaps that's exactly why Tessa has forgiven Olive so quickly.
I mean, it is realistic, and given the length, the characters were fleshed out really well, so I didn't necessarily expect it to go that deep. Plus, I'm also all for a happy end. Still, if the author knew they were going for a happy end and knew they couldn't slow down their relationship a little, toning down Olive's bullying would've been a good alternative.

(That one scene, “Was everything from the past few months a LIE?” hit home. Had a similar situation as her in middle/high school. Therefore I know more or less how
Tessa feels like – and if I were her, I would have not forgiven Olive. Not so soon, at least. But I’m also aro-ace and am not blinded by sexual desires...)

Haven't expected for the art to be monochromatic green; surely would've preferred the same style, color-wise, as the cover, but it's not too bad. Although the flashbacks and present could've been differentiated a bit more.

What I also didn’t like much how they were treating platonic feelings – completely erasing them and labeling them immediately as “omg that was definitely a romantic crush”. Like, yes, we know Tessa is alloromantic & allosexual, so it works for her. But I, as an aromantic, have often struggled with differentiating between platonic and romantic feelings – while I may have figured it out for myself now, society hasn’t, and immediately jumps to the conclusion that anything overly friendly or emotionally close cannot be platonic when the orientations match (i.e., a panrose man & heterorose woman, or two homorose women, etc). It’s just annoying. Because: newsflash! You can feel both attractions at the same time; being platonically attracted to someone doesn’t exclude romanticism or the other way round, or you can be platonically & sexually attracted. Or it may develop from platonic to romantic – that doesn’t mean that the entire relationship has been romantic from the start.
I’m pretty sure Kathleen meant no harm, it’s just a personal ick from me, especially because I could never be platonic with people cause everyone around me immediately labeled it as romance/sexual. It’s annoying.

Overall the comic/GN is really good though. The art style is cute, with a lot of characters who have fat and meat on their bones. It works well, wonderfully realistic for the stylization.

Lesbian, gay, bi, questioning and trans/enby rep. Frankie's pronouns (they/them) being used by everyone flawlessly without any drama was very heart-warming. No phobic behavior from the adults, which is a plus too. Tessa’s relationship with her mom was really sweet, in fact.

I also appreciate the conversation about masculine and feminine gender roles in dating life. Like, what butches and feminine bi-roses are struggling with sometimes.

~

Thank you to Andrews McMeel Publishing for an eARC.

-04.04.25 show less

"I think who we pretend to be says a lot about who we are."

When I first read Little Women (sooooo long ago) I always liked Jo and Laurie together, but this has a queer spin for a new generation. Cute artwork and a simple plot. It’s a loose interpretation, so it doesn’t follow everything closely but manages to keep the same spirit.

Sn: sorry but the name Marmee was dumb. I get maybe one March girl saying it, but no way would the older ones join in.