Aah, St. Patrick's Day. Remembering my childhood friend Gretchen O'Neal. Remembering how she got me addicted to these:
Yes, the infamous Flowers In The Attic... and subsequent books by V.C. Andrews... Petals on the Wind, If There Be Thorns, My Sweet Audrina.
More on the entire V.C. Andrews series of books here.
Almost seems like a right of passage... that in 7th grade, many of us starting reading the steamy, soap opera-ish sagas of family secrets, lust, incest, and some mean, mean grandmothers. lol. These books didn't have a lot of sex in them, but it was implied. But oh, were there secrets and scandal. Better than most of the soaps we watched when we rushed home on a half-day of school.
I remember hearing a while back that the author, V.C. Andrews, had died... but the books kept coming. It's a mystery to me. Were the books already written or outlined? Were they continued by family members? Ghost writers who knew her original vision?
I have no clue... but all I know is that these books were childhood guilty pleasures that my friend Gretchen O'Neal turned me on to. Did you read them? Sneak read them? Sneak read other books while a kid?
Enjoy the day!
fs
4 comments:
I put up one of those V.C. Andrews books today. (I work at a library.) I saw there were over thirty authored by this woman. It sparked my interest. But the covers looked crazy. (I judged them wrong I guess. Now I wish I checked them out.LOL)
I've snuck sooooo many books into my house. I will not even try to begin to name them all. (LOL) But they are basically gay fiction, and other titles I have been specifically banned from. (Harry Potter, etc.)
-Marz
I read a lot of V.C Andrews growing up (including "Flowers in The Attic"). My neighbour's mum had gone vacationing in the UK and for some reason, she thought those books would make good reading for little African kids. The books got passed around the neighbourhood "nerd" circles. I liked it but the darkness in some of those novels, especially "Flowers" still haunts me - I don't think I can read another one.
One of my favorite experiences though is learning more about books I have read in the past without a lot of cultural context. It's like a rediscovery of hidden treasure.
omg -- flowers in the attic was the first novel i ever read and i was completely obessessed w/ every VC Andrews book - you took me back!
V.C. Andrews did die ages ago, but the publishing company kept her books coming through a ghostwriter, who really had nothing to do with V.C. at all.
Flowers in the Attic was one of the first novels I read at like 8, lol. I didn't understand all what was going on, but I know I wanted to read more.
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