Review by Karl Verhoven

Dan in Green Gables opens in 1995 with the teenage Dan driven to Tennessee by his mother. It’s somewhat the mystery tour, with Dan’s taciturn and alcohol-dependent mother eventually turning up at the rural house of her dead husband’s parents. Used to expressing himself, Dan has difficulty meeting his kindly but religious grandmother and his intolerant bully of a grandfather. Dan knows his mother to be difficult and selfish, and is used to a roaming lifestyle, but hadn’t expected her to dump him on his grandparents.

Although claimed to be a modern re-imagining of Anne of Green Gables, beyond the rural setting there’s only one further obvious connection point in what’s otherwise a very readable clash of opinions and cultures. City kid Dan hasn’t had the broadest of upbringings and is puzzled by country ways, while his grandmother is surprisingly open to new ideas. Rey Terciero emphasises the differences with some fine phrases on both sides of the fence, an apt early metaphor being “as bullheaded as a billy goat trying to eat a can”, while Dan’s comment on new schools is “you learn the pecking order of the chickens and make everyone think you’re a rooster”.

Dan’s seemingly always been comfortable with who he is, and a scene with him deliberately camping things up to create an impression at his new school is an early standout. Artist Claudia Aguirre applies a loose expressive style to best bring out Dan’s personality and she’s good with the emotional subtlety of confidence masking inner turmoil. School scenes form a fair portion of Dan in Green Gables, and Aguirre supplies the chaos among the learning, while her way with bright colour further enlivens the art.

There’s a feeling of Terciero channelling his own experiences via Dan to correct some still remembered injustices, and that’s confirmed by an afterword disclosing a fair amount of personal content is included. Bestowing Dan with a greater facility for finding solutions and snappy responses means he comes across as considerably wiser than his years, but that’s a common aspect of young adult fiction. The intention is to empower by setting an example rather than reinforcing a grim reality. That’s amid some satisfying warmth and a couple of big emotional moments brilliantly dropped at points where you won’t see them coming, along with a good contrast of churchgoing beliefs. Beyond that, the understanding is universal. There isn’t a character here not explained.

More worldweary and cynical readers will perhaps raise eyebrows at how everything works out in the end, but a theme used in Anne of Green Gables is her cheery personality winning everyone over, and that’s transferred to Dan. However, just at the point everything seems to have become comfortable Terciero drops one last bombshell, and creditably doesn’t use it to draw a neat line separating the past. It’s a really elevating scene showing Dan hasn’t just brought his personality to a small town, he’s adjusted to it.

Young, queer and lost? Dan in Green Gables could be the book for you.