"I am Emily of New Moon, and I will be famous one day."
Sophie was actually napping. Actually napping. And instead of doing laundry or meal prepping or any of the seventeen things on my list, I curled up on the couch and let a twelve-year-old orphan from Prince Edward Island remind me what it feels like to have big dreams and zero cynicism.
I needed that more than I realized.
The Other Anne (But Maybe Better?)
Okay, L.M. Montgomery fans, don't come for me. But here's the thing - I've always loved Anne Shirley, but Emily Starr? She's got this edge to her. This quiet stubbornness that feels less performative than Anne's dramatics. Emily doesn't need to announce she's imaginative. She just IS. She writes letters to her dead father. She sees "the flash" - these moments of transcendent beauty that she can't explain to anyone. She's weird in a way that felt painfully familiar to seven-year-old me and still hits at thirty-four. That same ache of recognition hit me reading Paris Apartment: A Novel—different setting, same feeling of characters who don't quite fit the mold.
The setup is classic Montgomery: orphaned girl, stern relatives, beautiful island, found family of misfits. But Emily's world at New Moon Farm has this gothic undertone Anne's Avonlea never quite achieved. Aunt Elizabeth is genuinely intimidating. Cousin Jimmy has this tragic backstory that's only hinted at. And Ilse's mother? When that mystery unravels, I actually gasped. In my car. At 2pm. Like a weirdo.
LibriVox Roulette: The Experience
Let's talk about the elephant in the room. This is a LibriVox production, which means volunteer narrators, which means - look, it's free. It's FREE. But free comes with trade-offs.
You've got multiple readers rotating through chapters, and the quality varies. Some chapters feel like a cozy blanket - warm, measured, exactly the pace you want for a children's classic. Others sound like they were recorded in someone's bathroom. The transitions between narrators can be jarring. You're settling into one voice for Emily, and suddenly she sounds completely different.
But here's what I'll say: the variety actually worked for me in weird ways. Different narrators brought out different aspects of the characters. One reader gave Aunt Elizabeth this cold precision that made my skin crawl. Another made Ilse's wild energy feel genuinely chaotic. It's not polished. It's not professional. But there's something charming about knowing these are just book lovers who wanted to share Montgomery's words with the world.
I listened at 1.25x (my survival speed) and it smoothed out some of the pacing inconsistencies. Highly recommend.
Car Time Approved (With Caveats)
This is almost twelve hours of audiobook, which sounds like a lot. But Montgomery writes in these episodic chunks - Emily's first day at school, Emily's fight with Aunt Elizabeth, Emily's adventures with her friends - that make it perfect for interrupted listening. I paused approximately one million times (Sophie's nap was a lie, as usual) and never felt lost when I came back.
The story moves at that gentle pace older children's books have. Nothing is rushed. You spend time in Emily's head, in her imagination, in her fierce little battles for independence. It's not a page-turner. It's a slow simmer. And honestly? After a day of breaking up fights between Emma and Lucas and cleaning applesauce off the ceiling (don't ask), a slow simmer is exactly what I want.
Fair warning: the production quality means this isn't great for background listening. You need to pay attention through the audio variations. But for dedicated car time or nap time sessions? Perfect.
Who Should Listen (And Who Should Skip)
If you loved Anne of Green Gables and want more Montgomery magic, this is your jam. If you're introducing your kids to classics and want something you can listen to together, this works beautifully - Emma and Lucas have been asking about "the girl on the island" since they overheard a chapter.
Skip this version if you need professional-grade narration or can't handle audio inconsistency. There are paid productions out there. This one is free and flawed and somehow still wonderful.
If you need action-packed plots, look elsewhere. This is a quiet book about a quiet girl with a loud imagination.
Worth the Twelve Hours in the Garage
I finished this book sitting in my car in the garage, engine off, just... sitting there. Not because the ending made me ugly-cry (it didn't, though I got misty). But because I didn't want to leave Emily's world yet. Didn't want to go inside and be Mom again.
Sometimes you need a book that reminds you what it felt like to be young and certain you were destined for something extraordinary. Even when - especially when - you're thirty-four and covered in yogurt and your biggest achievement today was getting everyone to school on time.
Not groundbreaking. But sometimes you don't need groundbreaking. Sometimes you need New Moon Farm and a stubborn girl who writes letters to her dead father and believes in the flash.
Sophie's awake. Back to reality.
