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Title: My Sweet Audrina by V. C. Andrews ISBN: 0-671-72946-2 Publisher: Pocket Books Pub. Date: 15 September, 1990 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.54 (80 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Her sister's shadow
Comment: This book and "Petals on the Wind" are V. C. Andrews' absolute best, and as far as I'm concerned, the only ones worth purchasing. Some of her series books, such as "Garden of Shadows" are worth checking out of the library, while some ("Flowers in the Attic") are mediocre at best, with few redeeming qualities other than a couple of interesting characters. Everything after the Dollanganger series ("Heaven" and so forth) are simply unreadable, they are so badly written. (Note to ghost-writer: quit while you're miles behind; V. C. Andrews' fans are not fooled.)
After all of the insipid plots of sweet young maidens who are so breathtakingly beautiful that they get sexually attacked by their brothers and fathers, "My Sweet Audrina" is a breath of fresh air. True, our heroine Audrina is another beautiful girl with "glorious" hair that changes colors, and yes, she is going to discover a well-guarded family secret, but her character is much more developed than, say, Heaven Casteel's. As the story begins, Audrina is a young innocent seven-year-old with the inability to recall past events. She is kept insulated in her family's secluded mansion and rarely ventures outdoors. Her lack of contact with the outside world makes her feel desperate and lonely. Even such routine activities as going to school are denied her for mysterious reasons. At night, Audrina is haunted by nightmares, in which she replays visions of her dead older sister in the woods. Her sister was left for dead after being sexually attacked by several young boys. Her father compounds the situation by demanding that Audrina be just like the older sister (also named Audrina), who was perfect in his eyes.
For all of Audrina's frustrations about having to live up to the memory of her sister, she is still given a lot of love and attention from her parents. Her cousin Vera (who will later become another V. C. Andrews "Street Tart") is envious and spiteful toward Audrina, and often lashes out at her, calling her "spoiled" and a "baby". Vera and her mother, Aunt Ellsbeth, live with Audrina and her parents, and Aunt Ellsbeth is one of the most fascinating characters. Her personality is a great deal like the young Olivia Foxworth in "Garden of Shadows": someone who was idealistic about love at first, and then became disillusioned and bitter. Because of this, she does not allow herself to love anyone, even her own daughter. Audrina is often the target of Aunt Ellsbeth's disdain, but Vera incites her rage. Vera has learned very well how to get attention in the Adare household: she is the "problem" child, the tarty "bad" girl who is the very opposite of Audrina's innocent, child-like "good" girl.
In this story, the first-person narrative by Audrina works very well, because the reader is able to become Audrina, and get inside her thoughts. As Audrina gradually unravels the deep, dark secrets of her memory loss, so does the reader. She is also capable of being strong-willed and fighting back when her father attempts to repress her, even when it is obvious that "pleasing Papa" is very important to her.
The drawbacks: Vera is too one-dimensional. Only rarely are we given a glimpse of her vulnerability, and she seems too calculating and clever to inspire much pity, even as badly as Aunt Ellsbeth and Papa treat her. Arden Lowe, as the Perfect Handsome Boyfriend, is a cardboard cut-out; bland and boring, he is more or less interchangeable with Logan, the boyfriend in the "Casteel" series. We never learn exactly what is wrong with Sylvia; at times, she seems like Chief Bromden in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" since she is obviously capable of retaining SOME knowledge. Nevertheless, V. C. Andrews has never been more effective at storytelling than she is here; she is careful not to reveal too much about the protagonists at once and leaves the reader guessing until the very end. Overall, I recommend it.
Rating: 5
Summary: What was special about VC Andrews books before?
Comment: I happen to love VC Andrews books and think that she was a very special and unique writer that could spin a marvelous tale and keep the reader enthralled like no other.
This story is particularly gothic, dark and satisfying. Even after you have read through it once and understand what is going on it is still exciting to reread it because you are looking at it from a different angle.
So what did VC Andrews have before? She could make modern times into something from a fairy tale until you weren't sure which century the book took place in. A gingerbread victorian house lit only with gaslamps. (Because they were more flattering to Lucietta Adare's complection.) A house surrounded by woods. A strange and intriguing family. A dead older sister, an illegimate half sister, two feuding sisters, a charming and charismatic father, and a young girl that tiptoes through the house avoiding the colors cast on the floor from the stained glass windows, with smeary memories and no sense of time. Oh yeah, and a ghost that came every Tuesday for teatime.
This book is amazing and fascinating. VC Andrews takes people that are unordinary from the beginning, with strange medical disorders and secrets and puts them all together and let's the drama play itself out. It was her way of saying that maybe life itself is seldom ordinary.
No one in that story was normal. I have also noticed that that is a pattern she has. Blue blooded bones, a no legged woman, a weak hearted woman, a child who can't remember, an autistic child. Bart, in the Dollanganger series had a disorder where his nerves did not reach all the way to his skin and he couldn't feel any kind of pain. Physical and physiological disorders. Claustrophobia, insanity. In all the books that she originally wrote, no two characters were the same. They all had their own motivations, even if they turned out to be "bad seeds".
Everything that she wrote showed an incredible amount of imagination. She could look at the ordinary and turn it into something different. I think she was very gifted. I have to say that this book is amazing, and so was Heaven and Flowers.
VC Andrews also has a remarkable knack for portraying abject poverty. Heaven's reactions to movies, MCdonalds, eating out in a restaurant, you could almost understand it completely, and it was as strange to you as it was to her when you were reading it. She was excellent at showing you exactly how little Heaven had, and how close wealth and poverty can exist beside each other, even though they are like two different worlds.
Anyway, this book is amazing, and so was VC Andrews.
Rating: 2
Summary: Stupid
Comment: I read the reviews on this website thinking this book would live up to all the other series that I've loved since a child. But now I see why this book has no companions... because it's by no means in league with the rest. There are only 2 basic plot twists and they're predictable from the very beginning and are hardly as twisted or interesting as most in Andrews' books. It seems like the only reason people on this list are attached to it is because it was the first they read, but it pales in comparison to the Dollanganger or even the Casteel series. So if you don't want to be sitting up all night waiting for something intriguing to happen that never does, buy one of Andrews' others instead.
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Title: Heaven (Casteel Saga (Paperback)) by V. C. Andrews ISBN: 0671729446 Publisher: Pocket Books Pub. Date: 01 November, 1990 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Garden of Shadows (Garden of Shadows) by V. C. Andrews ISBN: 067172942X Publisher: Pocket Books Pub. Date: 15 November, 1990 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Web of Dreams (Casteel Saga (Paperback)) by V. C. Andrews ISBN: 0671729497 Publisher: Pocket Books Pub. Date: 01 November, 1990 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Petals on the Wind (Dollanger Saga (Paperback)) by V. C. Andrews ISBN: 0671729470 Publisher: Pocket Books Pub. Date: 01 November, 1990 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Seeds of Yesterday (Dollanger Saga (Paperback)) by V. C. Andrews ISBN: 0671729489 Publisher: Pocket Books Pub. Date: 15 November, 1990 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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