VC ANDREWS - Classic, Dud, Or Criminally Insane?

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Discuss.

― scott seward (scott seward), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 12:28 (twenty-one years ago)

And how many of these have you read:

Dollanganger
Flowers in the Attic (Also a movie, starring Kristy Swanson.)
Petals on the Wind
If There be Thorns
Seeds of Yesterday
Garden of Shadows

Casteel
Heaven
Dark Angel
Fallen Hearts
Gates of Paradise
Web of Dreams

Cutler
Dawn
Secrets of the Morning
Twilight's Child
Midnight Whispers
The Darkest Hour

Landry
Ruby
Pearl in the Mist
All That Glitters
Hidden Jewel
Tarnished Gold
New Orleans: Where the Landry series generally takes place.

The Logan Series
Melody
Heart Song
Unfinished Symphony
Music in the Night
Olivia

The Orphan Series
Butterfly
Crystal
Brooke
Raven
The Runaways

The Wild Flowers...coming this summer
Misty
Cat
Jade
Star
Into the Garden

― scott seward (scott seward), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 12:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Not to mention, My Sweet Audrina.

― scott seward (scott seward), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 12:30 (twenty-one years ago)

3 new answers by tomorrow

― scott seward (scott seward), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 12:30 (twenty-one years ago)

I would love to read them all, but then they would have to lock me up and throw away the key.

― scott seward (scott seward), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 12:31 (twenty-one years ago)

And why did I remember the first series being 3 books. I only read the first 3 i think. Best covers in the history of publishing?

― scott seward (scott seward), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 12:32 (twenty-one years ago)

The Japanese covers go for a different, um, approach:

http://plaza8.mbn.or.jp/~ssato/bookgallery1.htm

― scott seward (scott seward), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 12:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Some pictures of the covers would not go amiss here.

After she died, the books were written by a bloke 'in the manner of Virgina Andrews' from 'her original scripts and diaries'. Later this was amended to 'based on her original outlines' then any pretence of authenticity disappears.

It's not exactly a secret that she died so why carry on this charade that the later books are written by her? Anyway, loved the first four (Attic, Flowers, Petals and Thorns). In addition I read My Sweet Audrina and Heaven and then my interest paled.

These books show that us guys have our sweeter sides too. I know chicks dig that.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 12:47 (twenty-one years ago)

I dunno, me enjoying those books so much as a kid kinda shows my creepy side, i think.

― scott seward (scott seward), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 12:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Naw, we just dig you Mikey...

I read Attic, Petals, and Thorns... I managed to read them prior to anyone else reading them in my middle school, so I was considered "dangerously cool." Of course, I didn't know this until I ran into one of my schoolmates 15 years later and she told me...

― yesabibliophile (yesabibliophile), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 12:57 (twenty-one years ago)

It first awakened my interest in incest.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 12:58 (twenty-one years ago)

That's a joke by the way. Albeit a poor one.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 12:59 (twenty-one years ago)

who do you think was creepier when it came to creepy kidz stuff: VC, Mary Higgins Clark or John Saul? Those John Saul covers used to freak me out as a kid. SUFFER THE CHILDREN! Whereas as Mary Higgins had a way with missing schoolbuses filled with tots.

― scott seward (scott seward), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 13:10 (twenty-one years ago)

This is going by memory, since I haven't read them since I was 13ish. But I do remember them being quite good in their own way, and certainly V.C. Andrews developed the whole genre of these "horrible skeletons in the closet written by a seemingly normal person" books, and did it best. Much scarier than Mary Higgins Clark (which I also read at 13 because all of the popular kids were), closer to Gothic horror. I think I liked them because in a way they reminded me of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, which were my fav. books at that age. Probably why I laughed at loud at "Northanger Abbey" too, when I read it a few years later. Catherine Morland would have loved these books.

― Jocelyn (Jocelyn), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 14:19 (twenty-one years ago)

I agree with Jocelyn. But wasn't Austen satirising the style of the gothic novel in Northanger Abbey?

Were any of the others filmed? (aside from Flowers in the Attic, natch)

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 14:31 (twenty-one years ago)

I suppose I was trying to say that it was the plot devices used in "Flowers in the Attic," that reminded me of the same sorts of gothic ones satirised in "Northanger Abbey." I also think I just like the whole "mad people locked away in attic" story, for inexplicable reasons.

― Jocelyn (Jocelyn), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 14:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Flowers in the Attic is also one of those 'what would you do?' stories. She also writes really well when telling the story of the kids watching the dinner party downstairs. Brilliant suspense.

I've got a bookclub meeting tonight. I think a combination of wine and no food will lead to a drunken suggestion of the late Virginia.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 14:59 (twenty-one years ago)

I am able to trace the decline of western civilization to VC Andrews. No, really. When I was 12 or 13, everyone (well, me and a couple of the people who deigned to speak to me) was reading VC Andrews, but it was this scandalous secret. These were BOOKS YOU SHOULDN'T BE READING, and we knew that if our consumption of them wasn't well hidden from the elders, the books would be confiscated and either burned or added to the stack of soft core porn in my parents' cupboard.
Flash-forward 20 years to a few months ago - I'm in the bookstore I work at just before Christmas and a mother and her pubescant daughter are in the fiction section, looking for something to read. You can guess...
"Oh, you've got to read these," says Mom, pulling a copy of Petals off the shelf (and why, why do we have all of the VC Andrews titles on hand? No points for guessing this one...). "I loved these when I was your age..."
And off they go, daughter weighed down with the first three Dollanger titles, western civilization crashing down in their wake. From contraband to acceptance in one generation... What the hell are these kids going to be reading for rebellion if VC Andrews (and Stephen King, John Saul, MHClark, Jack Kerouac) are handed to them with the parental seal of approval? VICE magazine?

― Rob in the rain in Juarez, Wednesday, 28 April 2004 15:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Flowers in the Attic is based on a true story. One of those books listed my Scott upthread is a prequel to Flowers. I forget which.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 15:22 (twenty-one years ago)

I mean BY Scott not MY Scott. I wish to point out to regular posters that Scott does not belong to me, we simply share a love of modern gothic fiction written by a man posing as a dead woman.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 15:27 (twenty-one years ago)

I see some of the ones from the Orphans series at the thrift store and its all i can do to tear myself away from them and pick up something more educational. I know i really really don't need to be reading them, but those covers...I might have to give in the next time i stop by there. I'm really curious as to what the dead woman's doppelganger is up to.

― scott seward (scott seward), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 15:47 (twenty-one years ago)

'BUST" magazine did an article on VC Andrews and her "ghost" writers. Also, there is a nice piece about Janet Frame in this months "Writers and Poets" magazine.

― aimurchie, Thursday, 29 April 2004 02:04 (twenty-one years ago)

or "Poets and Writers" or whatever.I read it at the library, but waas happy to see a piece about Ms.Frame. I am deeply in love with my brother, who is gay and is studying for the Episcopalian priesthood. And I have often been forced to live in attics. I have yet to be called a flower. Bad typing - brokrn finger.

― aimurchie, Thursday, 29 April 2004 03:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, I did it. A sudden silence fell over the Blackfriar pub in London as my suggestion was pulled from the pint pot. A little giggle, a soft groan, a raised eyebrow.

Flowers in the Attic. Get in.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Thursday, 29 April 2004 07:33 (twenty-one years ago)

VC Andrews was the first author with whom I displayed snobbish book behaviour - for some reason as various friends and acquaintances were sighted with her/his books over a 15 year period (from mid 70s?) I always categorised them as 'books for people who didn't read much' How did I form this opinion? Wot was I missing?

― sandy mc (sandy mc), Thursday, 29 April 2004 08:43 (twenty-one years ago)

sandy mc - you were missing a lot. Did you carry a copy of "Forever" (Judy Blume) around? That was the other illicit high school text. VC Andrews wrote really bizarre books - and she was wheelchair bound, and isolated, and wrote books about children being isolated and victimised. Her IMPRINT - her name - is living on long after her death. It is so CREEPY!

― aimurchie, Thursday, 29 April 2004 13:06 (twenty-one years ago)

CLASSIC!!!!

but also slightly criminally insane

one of my friends came up with this observation: "Flowers in the Attic is Star Wars for girls"

― tokyo rosemary (rosemary), Thursday, 29 April 2004 14:08 (twenty-one years ago)

No no no, Star Wars is Star Wars for girls. Flowers In The Attic is a slightly more risque Forever for everyone.

Oh, and classic, in a kind of grubby way. I think I still have a copy of My Sweet Audrina at my mum's house. Is that the only standalone she did? I get enough vast trilogy joy from all the dodgy fantasty I read as a teenager.

― Liz :x (Liz :x), Thursday, 6 May 2004 10:57 (twenty-one years ago)

As a teenage I read Andrews varaciously, now I find it incredibly dull. I do, however, have to admit that I have read at least the first 12 books on the list and My Sweet Audrina.

― Booklady, Thursday, 6 May 2004 19:27 (twenty-one years ago)

God, no wonder I turned out the way I did, couldn't stop reading those things as a kid -- sort of afraid to read 'em now b/c if they're badly written it would ruin all my images...

― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Thursday, 6 May 2004 21:59 (twenty-one years ago)

I remember reading Flowers and one or two other books by Andrews, some 15 years ago. I know I became engrossed in them. There's no doubt about that. However, it seems that I was traumatized by them. At some point, I started thinking "There is something very wrong with this person." And now, when I see one of the books I actally recoil from it.

I have no idea why that is. Maybe I am the one who is criminally insane.

― Cassandra (Cassandra), Saturday, 8 May 2004 13:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Arrrgggh!

The late Virginia is certainly not one to add to the re-read thread. "Good golly day, Chris, she really is a wicked old lady."

I wish I was an impressionable 16 year old again.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Tuesday, 11 May 2004 14:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Has anybody written a biography of her? I'd love to know what happened to her to cause those books to come out like that.

― midnightgir1, Tuesday, 25 May 2004 08:14 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.completevca.com/bio_bio.htm

This is a decent webbiog. Not sure there is a full one in print.

The one interesting fact from here is her cameo appearance in the film of FITA.

She wrote a story called "I slept with my uncle on my wedding night" Good golly day.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Tuesday, 25 May 2004 10:14 (twenty-one years ago)

I read Flowers in the Attic about 17 years ago...it was a twisted piece of shit and I refused to read any other of Ms. Andrews books. What sickens me most is the publisher of these hideous wastes of trees, being as V.C. Andrew has been dead for some years now, I'm thinking the publishers keep the psuedoname around as a form of punishment for mid-list authors with lackluster sales. "Hey, your book sales sucked much ass, your next assignment is to write a new V.C. Andrew's book, so we can build your sales, mmmkay?" Snarf at the tripe that is V.C. Andrews....the books blow. Thanks and have a super day! :D

― Cupie (Cupie), Tuesday, 25 May 2004 13:55 (twenty-one years ago)

I think to appreciate Virgina Andrews, you need to visualise yourself in the stories. Lock yourself away for a few years and shag a relative. Only then can you appreciate her / him.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Tuesday, 25 May 2004 15:11 (twenty-one years ago)

I didn't think she was worth writing about really...They're crap all around...except

I just read them for the sex.

bye

― PeanutDuck (PeanutDuck), Wednesday, 26 May 2004 00:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Read *past tense*

― PeanutDuck (PeanutDuck), Wednesday, 26 May 2004 00:04 (twenty-one years ago)

wow i remember all of them !!! i was obsessed by those books at that age ( junior high or so ) i read all the series and I agree i think she was crazzzy but as a pre teen I loved it now looking back its sick i guess

― SalH, Wednesday, 26 May 2004 01:51 (twenty-one years ago)

two months pass...

Are you all still posting here? because I have an insight on how Andrews got her ideas....

― Bright_Eyes, Monday, 9 August 2004 18:50 (twenty-one years ago)

one year passes...

I love her books. I read them whenever & they make me see how good I've got it. Or when I have a problem I just get one of her books to see what I should do or not to do. They have kept mre out of so much trouble & theyt even help me get out of dangerous sittuations. I have read about all of them thats out. Let me know when there is another seiries out. Thanks ALOT!!!!

― angela nicole blythe, Monday, 10 April 2006 19:45 (nineteen years ago)

three years pass...

I plowed through most of these when I was a preteen. Pretty sure my mother had absolutely no idea what they were about because of all the sex/incest etc. stuff. I haven't read any of them in years but I was SO into them back then.

― *:--☆--:*:--☆:*:--☆--:*:--☆--: (ENBB), Sunday, 27 September 2009 06:21 (sixteen years ago)

http://madteaparty.dreamhosters.com/vca/dl/dl1/dl1-us-2-b.jpg

― scott seward, Sunday, 27 September 2009 12:40 (sixteen years ago)

http://madteaparty.dreamhosters.com/vca/dl/dl4/dl4-us-1-b.jpg

― scott seward, Sunday, 27 September 2009 12:43 (sixteen years ago)

awesome.

― *:--☆--:*:--☆:*:--☆--:*:--☆--: (ENBB), Sunday, 27 September 2009 15:05 (sixteen years ago)

My Sweet Audrina is my favorite.

― tokyo rosemary, Monday, 28 September 2009 01:27 (sixteen years ago)

I hope that girl from the Hills is named after the book.

― tokyo rosemary, Monday, 28 September 2009 01:28 (sixteen years ago)

four years pass...

This piece is old but it's excellent and I believe it's online in full for the first time: http://www.believermag.com/issues/200909/?read=article_gran_abbott

― Immediate Follower (NA), Monday, 18 November 2013 21:12 (twelve years ago)

I am so excited for the Lifetime movie. God, I hope they make Petals on the Wind.

― tokyo rosemary, Tuesday, 19 November 2013 01:02 (twelve years ago)

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