The Works of V.C. Andrews

[Deleted]

I loved reading this thread at FT and was surprised that no one had created it here yet.

I was obsessed with these books in Jr. High and will still read them every now and then for a good laugh. I've checked out the newer ones but couldn't get past the first couple of chapters. They seemed to have devolved from awesomely bad to just. Bad.

Thoughts?

[rattlerbrat]

I'm ashamed to admit that I read ANY of this...but the Dollanganger and Casteel sagas are still my shit.

Did ANY of the women ever have sex without being raped and without being sluts and with someone who wasn't their blood kin or ASSUMED to be their blood kin?

[monsterzero]

I don't read the books, but enjoy the Jabootu review of Flowers in the Attic, which is most likely to elicit the response 'but I don't listen to Aerosmith!'

[dwanollah]

Because of V.C., there are far too many trailer-park girls named Heaven Leigh runnin' 'round.

[tinyshoes]

There was a girl in my sophomore English class who read VC Andrews for all her book reports, and gave the requisite melodramatic reading in front of class (our teacher was fond of oral reports). Our teacher groaned and banned her from reporting on VC anymore. Good times.

[ladymadonna]

VC has been my dirty little secret for many years now. I think I own every book "she" has written. The plots are inane, mundane, ridiculous and mind-numbing. The characters are over-blown, melodramatic, at times stereotypical caricatures of people, but they are my CRACK, dammit! My favorites are the Dollanganger series, the Cutler series, and the Casteel series. I have no idea why I can't give this shit up. I'm a reasonably intelligent person, I have a family and a career and a life to attend to. But I can't stop reading VC Andrews. I don't even have to read the actual books, because I know how the plot will go, and it will be so very dramatic and ridiculous and I won't have to think at ALL when I read it. Maybe that's the attraction. Mindless fluff, with a dark side.

[carrier76]

Party, bonus! I am glad this thread has reopened.

I gave up after the beginning of Melody. I had sensed a pattern a long time before, but Melody was so dull I couldn't take it anymore.

Heaven was my first, then Flowers in the Attic, then Dawn, then of course Ruby. Heaven was my favorite, and then Ruby...but I hated how, in Ruby, they would say some Cajun/French phrase and then follow it up with the English translation. Who talks like that?

I also hated how they droned on and on about Cajun v. Creole. And in all VC Andrews books, rich people are EVVVVVVVILLLLLLL.

A staple of VC: "She flashed an oily smile." "She looked up with a licentious grin." (sp?) Ugh.

[Deleted]

My grandmother, who is in her eighties, loves VC Andrews. I remember being in my early teens, reading these books late at night at her house. The funny thing is Grandma made little notes on the inside covers like, "this book was very good" or "not my favorite."

So, what was VC's obsession with incest all about?

[Deleted]

I read the Flowers series years ago. I remember being ticked that the movie version didn't follow the book. Then, for old times sake, I picked up Flowers in the Attic on audiobook and I was actually embarrassed when anyone caught me listening to it. Oh, the melodrama! Give me a break, people.

I did like My Sweet Audrina. I think it was the only book "she" wrote that didn't have any sequels. There was rape and female confusion, of course, but I can't recall any incest. Maybe that was why this book isn't as popular? I remember this book was where I learned about the old wives tale that you can tell the sex of an unborn baby by dangling the mother's wedding ring by a tring over her stomach. If the string spins in cicrles, it's a girl. If the string swings back and forth, it's a boy.

See, it's educational!

[zacandmax]

I did like My Sweet Audrina. There was rape and female confusion, of course, but I can't recall any incest.

Ahh...but there was, as Audrina's cousin Vera wasn't her cousin at all but her *gasp* HALF-SISTER! It seems as though Audrina's father was knocking off Audrina's mother and Auntie. Does that count as incest? Screwing your sister-in-law?

Do you remember how nuts Vera was? Loopy.

I loved the Flowers in the Attic series. Then V.C. died and the family decided to cash in on some old half-finished manuscripts lying around by hiring a ghost writer who copycatted the same formula and put it out under the "V.C. Andrews" name. That's why Dawn Cutler, Heaven Leigh Casteel, Ruby Landry and Melody Logan are interchangable, all get raped and all find out some family secret that changes their lives. Why couldn't my Grandma had left some old manuscripts somewhere?