I listened to "Eight Cousins" by Lousia May Alcott as an audiobook performed by Barbara Caruso, who is one of my favorite audiobook narrators. I have enjoyed her readings of several of my most cherished childhood books - the Anne of Green Gables series and Homecoming/Dicey's Song by Cynthia Voigt.

In "Eight Cousins," Rose Campbell is recently orphaned through the death of her beloved father and comes to live with her large extended family on the "aunt hill," surrounded by aunts and 7 boy cousins. I thought the first chapters were very good, and they had a strong flavor of LM Montgomery to me, both in plot and style. There was a touch of Anne (orphan, talk of "bosom friends"...which literally was something I thought Anne/Mongtomery invented), a smidge of Emily (dead father, cluster of busybody aunts arguing about how to raise her), and even a sprinkling of Storygirl (cousin escapades). But that impression of similarity might have been mainly founded on Caruso's voice and my memories of her renderings of Anne.

As the book progressed, it seemed to lose steam...and to become less and less comparable to Montgomery. "Eight Cousins" is highly episodic (even more so than AofGG), and some of the chapters were more engaging than others. It was a bit preachy and moralistic. And Rose just never really becomes a fully-fleshed character with depth like an Anne or an Emily. She seems more like a prop for Alcott to promote some of her pet theories about education and childraising. I was personally hoping for more of a storyline about Phebe, the maid, and Rose becoming friends (or "sisters" as Rose promises at one point). But that was not an arc that Alcott pursued.

Overall, this is a cozy and clean book that I could play even with my kids listening, and Barbara Caruso's beautiful voice carries it along well. But it was just lacking a spark that I was hoping for. It is not surprising that this book is not as well-known as "Little Women." And Rose is just not...Anne.