The Works of V.C. Andrews

[Deleted]

Does anyone know if Cathy was inspired by Scarlett O'Hara? I felt that Petals on the Wind was trying for a Gone with the Wind feel - and not just the title, either. The revenge plot, that the story spanned several decades and Cathy as a temptress who had multiple marriages and babies. Foxworth Hall could equal Tara. I also thought the way Bart was described he probably looked like Clark Gable. It just felt that Andrews was trying to create another fiery Southern belle in an epic romantic drama.

[dwanollah]

ronette, I never thought about that, but I wouldn't be surprised. Plus she wrote the whole thing about how they'd play-act with the Civil War costumes in the attic and even put on a play of GWTW.

Jun 5, 2011 15:47:42 GMT -4 satellite said:

Jun 2, 2011 23:37:03 GMT -4 @dwanollah said:

No, you stopped in the right place with the Landry stuff, sugarhigh! I tried a few later, full-on Neidermanwhoever ones, and they were so un-campy and just plain boring. Even the Landry ones were hilarious and awesome by comparison, and, really, those sucked donkey, too.

Just out of curiosity- at what age/ book series did you guys stop reading V.C. Andrews? Well...unironically, I mean.

I stopped with the Cutler series, so I would have been close to 16. I guess the homoerotic gothness of Anne Rice captured my imagination, plus I was reading more Stephen King. I think I tried reading The Wildflowers when it came out.

Although I read through the Ruby series, I was pretty much out by the middle of the Casteel one, once it became abundantly clear that Ghostwriter was full-time, and had no sense of continuity. I also got sick of the whole "Twu Wuv" bait-and-switch. We're supposed to 'ship Heaven and Logan- no, Troy- no, Logan- no, wait.... And then the books turned hardcore into the "kill everyone off" plot non-twists. As a one-off in My Sweet Audrina, it was over the top but it worked there since it was all Vera. But suddenly EVERYONE has gotta die a (usually) firey death because Neiderman doesn't seem to know what to do with them? Pa and Stacey, Heaven and Logan, Dawn and Jimmy, Clara Sue, Giselle, Paul-

I remember picking up another, much later book for an airplane trip (something about an adopted girl who was supposed to be a ballerina) but it was mind-numbingly dull.

[Queena]

Jun 6, 2011 7:45:03 GMT -4 kathy1977 said:

Speaking of whiny, Troy was a bit melodramatic, with a touch of emo.

People always find Troy hot.

I thought that although he sounded cute, he came off as a bit of a loser. Like a character you would see in one of these over the top Lifetime movies or something. Uggghhh. Logan had his faults but at least he was human. And from the descriptions, I always thought Logan was probably hotter.

And the funny thing is, I never bought that Heaven truly loved Troy. She saw him as some tragic, romantic figure who needed somebody to save him and she fell for that. Fanny would have seen right through all that shit.

Heaven was kind of a bore too though. At least Cathy from the FITA series had a bit of fire to her. At least until the last book.

You're correct, Troy was a rich loser. He annoyed me. I think Heaven felt more sorry for him than in love. Fanny would've had poor Troy committing suicide. Logan was OK, maybe a bit too friendly with Fanny, right before they died.

Cathy was a stone cold bitch. She slept and had a baby by her mother's husband. She killed her grandma....she was crazy. She had a personality, unlike Heaven.

I'm on the book about Annie right now. She's c-r-e-e-p-y! She's in love with her half brother! She still plays make believe at 18.....oh did I mention she's in love with her half brother! Only they're not half siblings.....Logan's not Annie's daddy. Her dad is her father/great-uncle/step-great-uncle....aka Troy! Annie takes the cake at being creepy. I think Fanny is one of the only V.C. Andrew characters to grow-up!

[koshergrit]

Jun 6, 2011 20:13:10 GMT -4 Queena said:

Jun 6, 2011 7:45:03 GMT -4 kathy1977 said:

People always find Troy hot.

I thought that although he sounded cute, he came off as a bit of a loser. Like a character you would see in one of these over the top Lifetime movies or something. Uggghhh. Logan had his faults but at least he was human. And from the descriptions, I always thought Logan was probably hotter.

And the funny thing is, I never bought that Heaven truly loved Troy. She saw him as some tragic, romantic figure who needed somebody to save him and she fell for that. Fanny would have seen right through all that shit.

Heaven was kind of a bore too though. At least Cathy from the FITA series had a bit of fire to her. At least until the last book.

You're correct, Troy was a rich loser. He annoyed me. I think Heaven felt more sorry for him than in love. Fanny would've had poor Troy committing suicide. Logan was OK, maybe a bit too friendly with Fanny, right before they died.

Cathy was a stone cold bitch. She slept and had a baby by her mother's husband. She killed her grandma....she was crazy. She had a personality, unlike Heaven.

I'm on the book about Annie right now. She's c-r-e-e-p-y! She's in love with her half brother! She still plays make believe at 18.....oh did I mention she's in love with her half brother! Only they're not half siblings.....Logan's not Annie's daddy. Her dad is her father/great-uncle/step-great-uncle....aka Troy! Annie takes the cake at being creepy. I think Fanny is one of the only V.C. Andrew characters to grow-up!

I have to admit I hated Fanny at first, but over the years (and especially after reading Fallen Hearts and Gates of Paradise), I've come to really like her. She was strong enough to take on Rev Wise and accuse him of molestation and rape, and go through possible public humiliation. Yes, she's a little trashy and a bit slutty, but who else would fight like hell for her little half-brother and come to a niece's rescue and forgive her for her feelings towards her half-brother/cousin?

Fanny is the best--and strongest--character out of the Casteel series. Troy is the Last Exit to Wussyville and Heaven is an enabler.

Edited for the love of a parenthesis!

[satellite]

I'm on the book about Annie right now. She's c-r-e-e-p-y! She's in love with her half brother! She still plays make believe at 18.....oh did I mention she's in love with her half brother! Only they're not half siblings.....Logan's not Annie's daddy. Her dad is her father/great-uncle/step-great-uncle....aka Troy!

Phillip from the Cutler series was awful in that respect. IIRC, he raped Dawn thinking she was his full sister. Granted, he dated and fell "in love" with her before knowing they were related, but he just would not let. it. go.

[carrier76]

I read the Ruby series when I was 18/19. And that was it for me. I got started late; I made short work of the FITA/Casteel/Cutler series starting from when I was like, 15 or 16. I went back and read Ruby recently and laughed and laughed...

I hated how, in the told-from-the-main-character's-daughter's-point-of-view book, the original main character would always be wistful and thinking, and quiet, and looking off in the distance, and other assorted bullshit.

[kathy1977]

I'm on the book about Annie right now. She's c-r-e-e-p-y! She's in love with her half brother! She still plays make believe at 18.....oh did I mention she's in love with her half brother! Only they're not half siblings.....Logan's not Annie's daddy. Her dad is her father/great-uncle/step-great-uncle....aka Troy! Annie takes the cake at being creepy. I think Fanny is one of the only V.C. Andrew characters to grow-up!

I hated Annie. What the hell? Ok, she is 18 but still talks and acts like she's about 12. I got the feeling Heaven and Logan spoiled her rotten.

Just like Cathy and Chris did with Cindy.

[kali]

Jun 6, 2011 7:45:03 GMT -4 kathy1977 said:

Speaking of whiny, Troy was a bit melodramatic, with a touch of emo.

People always find Troy hot.

I thought that although he sounded cute, he came off as a bit of a loser. Like a character you would see in one of these over the top Lifetime movies or something. Uggghhh. Logan had his faults but at least he was human. And from the descriptions, I always thought Logan was probably hotter.

And the funny thing is, I never bought that Heaven truly loved Troy. She saw him as some tragic, romantic figure who needed somebody to save him and she fell for that. Fanny would have seen right through all that shit.

Heaven was kind of a bore too though. At least Cathy from the FITA series had a bit of fire to her. At least until the last book.

Ugh. I hated Logan. HATE. I actually think he's the one who was never really in love but just liked feeling like Heaven's savior. He was such a self-righteous jackass. As soon as she wasn't the pathetic, little poor girl, he ditched her and openly tried to humiliate her when she came to see him.

I loved Troy. His whole tragic demeanor played into every single one of my 13-year old girl fantasies. I was so pissed when he actually tried to do the right thing by leaving Heaven when he found out they were related. But of course, in doing so, he showed why he wasn't the total creepster that characters like Chris and Jimmy were.

[Deleted]

Wasn't Logan also mad about Heaven "having sex with"/being sexually abused by her adoptive father? Ugh. (Cal Dennison, and one of those awful V.C. Andrews turns of phrase that has never left me is "my breasts jiggled with the force of his lovemaking." Possibly because my twelve-year-old self had never considered the fact that sex could be so bumpy. It was all static, caressy torsos on the WB at that time. I was also pretty appalled by the purported warm juices spurting up to warm Cathy's insides in FiTA.)

I felt like the ghostwriter felt that they were ameliorating the creepiness by making Jimmy and Dawn not REALLY related, unlike Cathy and Chris (I think a later series, Melody, does something similar with the main character crushing on her cousin who turns out to not really be her biological cousin, but my memory is hazy - in addition to being not nearly as trashy-gothic incestastic, that series was boring as all hell), but I actually thought it was just as gross, if not more so. They were raised their entire lives as brother and sister. Now I don't know about you, but "we have the same DNA" is by no means the only thing keeping me from thinking sexy thoughts about my sibling.

I also remember the Dawn series being where I started getting sick of the girls in these books getting pregnant and being locked up and browbeaten, and just crying and taking it and waiting for someone to come save them. (My tween self was all "What are you doing? She can't make you do anything! She's an old lady, you can TAKE HER!") Funnily, I'm pretty sure the portrayal of "pregnancy=TOTAL LOSS OF AGENCY" is what planted the seeds of pro-choicedom in my little Bible-Belt-indoctrinated brain.

[dwanollah]

Yeah, it's sad when, looking back, psycho Cathy was the strongest and most autonomous VC Andrews heroine, huh?

I hated how stupid the heroines got. I mean, Cathy wasn't a brain like Chris, and Heaven was okay, but Dawn and Ruby and their daughters were complete dingbats. I remember Dawn in NYC was just about Anna Nicole levels of stupid.

I was also pretty appalled by the purported warm juices spurting up to warm Cathy's insides in FiTA.)

The myriad of ways we learned Horrific Biological Inaccuracies, courtesy of VC Andrews, take one. *shudder* I remember another line about "searing pain that came and went" or something, and... no. Of course, rumor has it that ol' Ginny was a virgin herself, so didn't really get how sex worked.

I felt like the ghostwriter felt that they were ameliorating the creepiness by making Jimmy and Dawn not REALLY related, unlike Cathy and Chris (I think a later series, Melody, does something similar with the main character crushing on her cousin who turns out to not really be her biological cousin, but my memory is hazy - in addition to being not nearly as trashy-gothic incestastic, that series was boring as all hell), but I actually thought it was just as gross, if not more so. They were raised their entire lives as brother and sister. Now I don't know about you, but "we have the same DNA" is by no means the only thing keeping me from thinking sexy thoughts about my sibling.

I KNOW!! And that was sort of the whole point with the FITA books... that the reader ended up sort of understanding how, under those circumstances, an incestuous relationship between Cathy and Chris happened, not that it wasn't high up on the "eyeeeeew!" scale. But Dawn and Jimmy? Ridiculous, gross, completely unbelievable. A love triangle between her non-brother brother and her brother non-brother? Plus she supposedly was the biological offspring of a wealthy old money family, and she has an illegitimate baby at 17 by her music teacher, then a year later marries the boy she was raised with when she was kidnapped and... the family throws a big ol' wedding and no one makes any judgmental comments and they're all accepted as community leaders? Even with all that money...bitch, please. I HATED that series.