Jezebel has a fun weekly column where they review a book from our youth that was beloved by girls, from wholesome Laura Ingalls Wilder to slutty V.C. Andrews.
This week the book is Andrews' "My Sweet Audrina," which I definitely read, along with most of the early Andrews oeuvre. Good thing the review offers spoilers though, because I completely forgot the BIG TWIST ENDING.
Man, if our parents knew what we were reading, all hell would have broken loose, but blessedly, they had no idea. V.C. Andrews, and the syndicate that has written them for her since she died, had some really creepadelic ideas. I wonder if she set out to be known as "the incest can be romantic" author, or if that was just a side benefit.
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6 comments:
I always suspected that it just sort of bubbled out of her subconscious. Like, she didn't even get that that was what she was doing, she was just pouring weird, disturbing, bad stuff from her childhood into her books, obliviously.
Thanks so very much for that link. I had a feast on those, and I particularly loved Skurnik's take on "The Cat Ate My Gymsuit".
We read My Sweet Audrina years ago over at the theusuals.net, and your post (and Jezebel's review) have just inspired us to start a V.C. Andrews book club and read one of the other series. We're voting on our choices now. I'm hoping we pick something with incest, dark family secrets, and a plucky young heroine who rises above some secret shame to find love and wealth and, uh, get the hell out of the trailer park.
No kidding! I can't believe my Mom let me buy/check out those books. I think I read them between the ages of 13-16?
I always wondered what the heck happened to V.C. Andrews in her childhood that led to her continued reliance on incest as a plot point. On second thought, maybe I don't want to know.
Thanks for the link to Jezebel -- those book reviews were awesome, and were totally my book shelf circa 1983-1993!
On third thought, I think we can GUESS what happened to ol' V.C...
Do the newer books supposedly written by her have that much incest any more? I suspect not and I never bothered to pick one up.
A V.C. Andrews book club sounds like a hoot. Is there a virtual one anywhere?
The newer V C Andrews books aren't near as controversial as the original ones. Her ghost writer definitely isn't "going there".
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