"Emily's Quest" by L.M. Montgomery

My L.M. Montgomery Readathon group on Facebook recently announced our next read, starting in early/mid-January:  "The Story Girl," which was first published in 1911, and was (along with the sequel, "The Golden Road," as well as some short stories) the basis for the highly successful "Road to Avonlea" TV series from back in the 1990s. 

This came as a surprise to many group members, who assumed we'd be reading "Emily's Quest" next, since our last two reads were the first two volumes in the "Emily" trilogy:  "Emily of New Moon" (reviewed here and here) and "Emily Climbs" (reviewed here and here). I'd actually already started reading "Emily's Quest" myself -- I figured we'd probably read it as a group, sooner or later, and whatever our next book was going to be, I wanted to complete Emily's story first. (I first read Emily when I was growing up, and have re-read the books since then, but not in many years.)  I started reading before we left for our Christmas holiday, covered the bulk of the book on the plane, and finished it at my parents' house. 

"Emily's Quest" picks up where "Emily Climbs" left off. Emily is now 17, a high school graduate, and back at New Moon, pursuing her ambitions as a writer -- "climbing the Alpine Path," as she (and Montgomery) would describe it. The path is long, lonely and difficult, with some unexpected twists and turns. Her friends Ilse & Teddy have gone to pursue further studies in Montreal, and Perry is now working in a law office in Charlottetown. In their absence, Emily takes comfort in the company of her old friend, Dean Priest...

Montgomery's writing is, as always, wonderful. Like the previous "Emily" books, this is a great portrait of a developing writer, and the ups and downs of the writing life, as well as a coming-of-age story, which followed Emily into her 20s. (Montgomery said that Emily was the character that was most like herself.) Although (and this is probably not a spoiler) there is (eventually) a happy ending, Emily suffers a great deal and in many ways in this book. The overall tone & feel is dark and bleak.  

Part of the darkness has to do with the character of Dean, and his evolving relationship with Emily. (We've had some vigorous discussions within the group on this subject while going through the first two books together...!) He is considerably older than Emily -- a friend of her late father, in fact -- and from a modern perspective, many group members have described his interest in Emily as "creepy." I don't remember feeling this way when I first read the book as a pre-teen/young teenager in the 1970s -- we weren't as aware then about "inappropriate" relationships, generally -- but nevertheless, Dean does something in this book that has stuck in my memory all these years -- something I've found pretty hard to forgive.  

I love Montgomery, love Emily. This book completes the Emily trilogy and wraps up a number of plot lines to the reader's satisfaction, and I loved it overall -- but I have to admit, it's probably my least favourite of the three. I can't rate it quite as highly as I rated the previous two volumes. I'm giving this one 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 on Goodreads. 

This was Book #58 read to date in 2021 (and Book #4 finished in December), bringing me to 161% (!) of my 2021 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 36 books. (I've exceeded my best-ever showing in the Goodreads Challenge since I joined in 2016 -- which was 50 books read in all of 2019.)  I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 24 (!) books ahead of schedule. :)  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2021 tagged as "2021 books."