Rating: 4 Stars
Description: Over the years 60 Darks have married 60 Penhallows leaving a confusing web of Penhallow and Dark families. The family matriarch, Aunt Becky calls the mass of Penhallows and Darks together for one last gathering before her death to hand out her worldly possessions including the famous family heirloom the Dark jug. During the party she announces embarrassing past incidents that most of the family would rather be forgotten and has her usual too truthful sharp observations but the biggest bombshell of all is that ownership of the Dark jug won't be revealed until a year after her death. This book is the story of that year. Relationships are altered irrevocably either for better or worse and the whole family waits for the year to be up.
Genre: Children's Classic
My Impression: This book has a massive character list and it could have easily gotten extremely confusing. Luckily, Montgomery draws each of the characters strongly enough that they are memorable and also sticks to a main core group. This is one of the few books that doesn't center around a child. In fact, with the exception of Brian Dark I can't think of any child that is an actual character. Some children are mentioned but are never seen. This is a fun book and a quick read. The ending was handled very entertainingly. It is really a collection of woven together short stories but never feels disconnected or disjointed.
Would I Read More of this Series/Author?: Obviously
Would I Recommend this Book?: Yes. This would be a good Montgomery book for those that like children's lit but aren't Montgomery fans. There aren't the speeches that some people find tedious and there's a lot more doing than talking/thinking.
No comments:
Post a Comment