The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery

[sholio]

I had never heard of this book, but it was being discussed on Discord recently and I downloaded and read and loved it. It's utterly delightful, at least as much fun as her much better-known Anne of Green Gables books. It is in the public domain in some countries (not the US, unfortunately) so you should be able to find a free copy with a google search; I didn't hang onto the link.

Shy, mousy, downtrodden Valancy has lived her entire life under the domination of her abusive mother and a large extended family of staid, puritanical, absolutely awful relatives. At the age of 29, she has resigned herself to being an old maid and living a long miserable life with her horrid family, until she receives a diagnosis of a terminal heart condition.

Suddenly Valancy has nothing to lose, and now she's telling all her relatives exactly what she thinks of them, making friends with the town's ne'er-do-wells, and proposing a marriage of convenience to a scruffy mechanic who lives in a cabin in the middle of nowhere.

(The "Blue Castle" of the title is Valancy's imaginary escape world that she has used for her entire life to get away from her abusive and horrible family. Suddenly she finds herself in the position of figuring out how to make a Blue Castle out of the real-life world she'd given up on.)

I don't think I was expecting this book to be as funny as it is. The start is pretty dark (Valancy's bleak and miserable life is brought to life with depressing clarity) but then it kicks into high gear after Valancy loses her last fuck to give; the comic timing and her relatives' deepening despair as Valancy realizes and then begins to capitalize on the fact that they literally can't make her do anything or stop her from saying anything is cathartic, hilarious, and very inspiring. The setting is also rich and wonderful; it's set in small-town Ontario in the first decade (or thereabouts) of the 1900s, with beautifully described scenery and a warm but unsentimental take on small-town/rural people, who are as likely to be violent rednecks or religious fanatics as salt-of-the-earth types. And I really liked her love interest, who is sweet and charming.

Some of the twists near the end are A Bit Much (though you can see them coming from a mile away), but on the whole this is really engrossing and sweet, and it's also got me rereading Anne of Green Gables now. (I kinda had to anyway, because one of the original novels I'm currently working on references it heavily, but I'm enjoying it a lot.)

Comments

[violsva]

Ooh, thank you!

[sholio]

Sure! :D

[skieswideopen]

The Blue Castle is my favourite L.M. Montgomery book. It's so very amusing once Valancy finds her voice and starts saying exactly what she thinks, even if the ending is awfully fairytale-esque.

I believe it has a decent Yuletide following as well. In fact, I think the first Yuletide story I received was about Olive.

[sholio]

Yeah, the ending was just about the only thing I didn't like about it - it's very wish-fulfilly in a way that was a bit too much for the rest of the book and also, imho, undermined Valancy's entire arc about sticking it to her relatives. As we got closer to the end, I was hoping that it would end up subverting the obvious twist on Barney, and instead it doubled down. Oh well.

I believe it has a decent Yuletide following as well. In fact, I think the first Yuletide story I received was about Olive.

Oooh, that sounds lovely! Actually, one thing I loved about this book was how clearly the supporting characters have their own lives going on, and Olive is a character I would like to read more about. I'll go see what the AO3 pickings are like.

[sheron]

Oh yes, I didn't understand why in the world she'd gone back to her relatives then! The only way I can get around it in my head is that she was in shock and reverted to her child-self for a short time. She would have woken up again and gone looking for her castle eventually.

I didn't mind the tropey ending at all, but that bit did stick in my craw.

[rose_griffes]

I read it a few years ago for the first time as well. Thoroughly charming.

[sholio]

It was so much fun!

[lunabee34]

*adds to list*

Also, unrelatedly, we finished season one of Iron Fist and OMG it was so good and I have many things to say!!!!! I love this show.

[sholio]

Ahhhh, I'm so glad you're liking it!! You see now why it's one of my favorites - I love all the Defenders shows, and they're all different and all really enjoyable in their own ways, but that one is so upbeat and hopeful and fun. I look forward to hearing your thoughts!

[lunabee34]

I hope I get the chance to type it up today!

I do see why you love it. Danny and Colleen are just so damn sweet OMG!

[sheron]

Oh yay! Another IF fan. Isn't it so fun :D

[lunabee34]

It really, really is.

I hope we'll start season two in a couple of days!

[nocowardsoul]

I love that book! The dinner scene with Valancy's relatives is so funny.

[sholio]

The dinner scene was GREAT! The narration is really a factor too; I don't think I realized Montgomery could have such a deadpan hilarious style.

[sartorias]

That same sense of humor comes out in many of her funeral scenes, where the family gathers around the grave, and the Gioves Come Off.

[umadoshi]

Oh, I love that book. *^^* It's probably my favorite LMM novel. (When I was a kid Jane of Lantern Hill was my favorite, but I don't think I've reread that one as an adult, so The Blue Castle is what stands out most now.)

[sholio]

It's so much fun! I'm so glad I discovered it. :D

[ceitie]

I love The Blue Castle! People's mileage may vary obviously, but for me the twists at the end are the exact level of melodrama that I want from a romance novel, but I can see that they seem a little over-the-top when so much of the book is not really about that kind of romance? But man, I love that shit, what I think helenish once called the 'onyx panther statue moment', when all the misunderstandings are resolved in the most dramatic way possible.

(Do you watch Brooklyn 99? The scene where Jake, the protagonist, is about to run over to his love interest's apartment to confess his feelings, and his friend's like, "No, wait til it's raining!" and then two seconds later, "No, no, that's crazy actually, just go.")

[sholio]

Oh yes, I can totally see that! I think probably my reaction to the ending is very idiosyncratic - sometimes I totally go for that kind of thing and sometimes I'm less in the mood, but I am the last person to be complaining about OTT melodrama given some of the things I have absolutely eaten up with a spoon. XD

I haven't seen Brooklyn 99, but I am now thinking of a scene in Community when Jeff gets his own localized little rain shower just for the moodiness of the scene (something to do with an overwrought apology; I don't remember the rest of the context).

[ceitie]

Haha, yes, sometimes you just want to wallow in the drama of it all!

[snickfic]

I looooooove The Blue Castle. It's my favorite Montgomery book by a mile (sorry Anne) and easily the one I've read the most times. I definitely agree it's got about one twist too many at the end, but Valancy finding freedom is so wonderful, and she makes lovely friends and has a lovely romance (with pining! inside a marriage of convenience!!) and just. ;______;

The copy I own is of this reprint from the 90s and uhhh. Who is that extremely conventionally attractive dude with the sweater supposed to be??? Why is Valancy wearing a white dress? Who in their right minds would say this woman was anything but gorgeous? EXTREMELY DUBIOUS.

I know Thor/Loki is not generally your thing, but if you now would like to read a Revengers fusion of The Blue Castle where Loki is a Jotun prince (and not Thor's brother), I can hook you up. Yes, a Revengers fusion of the Blue Castle, that is what I said. It's silly but also utterly delightful.

[sovay]

The copy I own is of this reprint from the 90s and uhhh.

That is also the copy I own. I am incapable of taking that sweater seriously.

[sholio]

I don't think Barney would be caught dead doing that with a sweater.

Like I was just saying in an adjacent comment, I went looking for other covers and ended up stumbling across this much nicer fanart which you might also enjoy!

[sovay]

Like I was just saying in an adjacent comment, I went looking for other covers and ended up stumbling across this much nicer fanart which you might also enjoy!

That is a significant improvement. (Good eyebrows.)

[sholio]

HAHAHAHA that cover!! Also, seeing it, it looks vaguely familiar, though maybe it's just because it looks so much like a standard romance cover.

HAHAHAHA

WOW

At least they kinda got Barney's hair color right?

Oh hey, check it out - I went looking to see what other covers for the book look like, and stumbled across this very pretty fanart on Tumblr.

And thank you for the link! You're right that it's not something I read often, but I do occasionally read it, so I'll check it out. It does sound amazingly cracktastic and yet somehow weirdly appropriate, with all the Gothic OTT-ness of Thor's family life.

[snickfic]

It works remarkably well! I was really impressed with the various ways the author integrated and re-interpreted elements of the book.

[sovay]

The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery

My copy is tragically in a box in storage, but I love this book and remain weirdly puzzled there haven't been like three film versions already.

(I do not ever seem to have written about it except to comment comparatively on the romantic hero, but there is neat stuff in the comments about Montgomery's biography, if that's the sort of thing you care about.)

[sholio]

It's such a lovely book! I agree that it seems marvelously suited to film. And thank you for the link - I'll check it out! I know nothing about her, as an author; I don't think I've thought about her since reading her books as a child.

[st_aurafina]

It is so good - even with all the tropey bones showing, it's very satisfying.

[sholio]

Yeah, I was really engrossed throughout. It's so sweet and funny.

[sophia_sol]

ahhhh I love this book so much! It's one of my serious comfort reads and I've reread it a lot. I'm so glad you liked it too. I'm with you on not loving everything about the ending though, but what bugs me the most isn't the Twists so much as how it pulls away from its theme of "a cabin in the woods is Valancy's real blue castle" to have her go live in town for half the year. Like, come on!

[sholio]

how it pulls away from its theme of "a cabin in the woods is Valancy's real blue castle" to have her go live in town for half the year

Oh, that's right! You know, actually I think this is the crux of what didn't work about the ending for me - it's not specifically the twists, it's that the twists change things, and suddenly because they have money they're going to be living partly in town and traveling the world, where they were perfectly happy in the woods before. It feels like it really upends things.

[sophia_sol]

Exactly! It changes the ending from being specifically Valancy's perfect happy ending to being the genericised happy ending that women are supposed to want. TBH mostly I tend to pretend that doesn't happen, or that Valancy and Barney try out the travelling-and-multiple-homes thing for a year or two and decide WELP THAT'S ENOUGH OF THAT and go back to the woods full time. Probably first Doc Redfern has to die though so that Barney doesn't feel guilty abandoning his old dad again by disappearing to a place that's so hard for him to visit, but I'm okay with that.

[sheron]

Oh I should read this! I've wanted to read some books set in Ontario that aren't depressing. Thank you!

[sholio]

It's really fun! Let me know if you do. :)

[rachelmanija]

I love this book.

[sholio]

I kept thinking as I was reading it that either you had probably already read this book and loved it, or if not, you needed to read it because you would love it. It's very you.

[brightknightie]

Thank you for the rec! I downloaded this novel from an at-the-time-totally-legit Australian source years and years ago, but somehow forgot to actually read it.

I read up all the Montgomery books the Loussac library owned in my adolescence, and found more -- especially her short stories -- at the college library in undergrad, but somehow never read The Blue Castle in all this time.

I was about to start The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey (gift from my sister), but may switch over to The Blue Castle first! I've been having a hard time starting new books, lately (re-read Bujold's Memory for the forty-millionth time, sure; start a new book by a new author? um...).

[secretsolitaire]

I love L.M. Montgomery but haven't read this one -- will have to check it out!

[lokifan]

This sounds great! *adds to list*