I love Anne of Green Gables, and funnily enough, it was the first book I read in English! This, however, is a completely different matter, as it’s an Audiobook Immersive Experience on the Audrey App. So although this review is about the book, it’s mostly about the app.
Anne of Green Gables is such a lovely story, about Anne, a young orphan girl who is adopted by Marilla and her brother Matthew Cuthbert. Anne of Green Gables follows Anne through her teenage years and as she starts college. I loved Anne’s funny way of talking, her dreaminess and the way it gets her into trouble. Marilla I struggled with, as she seems so pragmatic and a little dour, and you wonder why she struggled to be kind to Anne. Marilla has a great sense of duty, so I suppose that’s why… The actor doing Marilla’s voice has captured her so well, I did actually warm up a little towards Marilla!
The Immersive experience was on the Audrey App, which was new to me. It’s a wonderful opportunity to listen to Anne of Green Gables, as it’s narrated by several different actors as well as illustrated by Weronika Marianna. The illustrations are bright and colourful, although it would have been nice to have a greater variety, as I loved the beginning few chapters, wondering what the next picture would be like! When they started repeating, I was disappointed, as Weronika is a fantastic artist!
Not only is the story well-read and dramatically done, but there is also music at the start of each chapter, as well as other noises and music throughout the chapters. I loved it, but I know some of my children would struggle to hear the story through the music, but for me, the music lifted the story even more, making it a lovely experience.
Each chapter of Anne Of Green Gables also comes with extra questions and notes, done by L.M. Montgomery scholar May Toudic. She has collected quotes, clips, interviews and background information for each chapter. I enjoyed this a lot, as it shows photographs of the island, as well as more scholarly information that I found interesting. It was interesting to see how much of herself L.M. Montgomery had put into Anne of Green Gables. I must admit, I know hardly anything about L.M. Montgomery, so this was a definite bonus!
The Audrey App is easy to navigate and has information on the characters as well as the reading part. This was quite a few hours long. My one quibble would be that it doesn’t move from one chapter into the next as Audible does for example. I understand that this gives you time to look at the notes etc, but it’s tricky having to click on Next Chapter and Play every fifteen or so minutes, as often I’m doing something whilst listening to a book. Apart from that, the app is amazing and interesting. Not just the well-read book, really brought to life with engaging voices, but the whole design of it, with birds singing and wagon wheels for example.
Knowing Anne of Green Gables already, I found the app and the way it was done, made the book come alive again. It’s always worrying when you know a book whether someone reading it would spoil it, but that was most definitely not the case here. Anne of Green Gables will definitely be loved more because of the app, I feel, as it’s done in such an engaging way. Such a wonderful thing to have done, and I look forward to listening to more books on Audrey.
I was given access to the Audrey App and Anne of Green Gables through Love Books Tours but was under no pressure or obligation to write a favourable review.