I have been reading V.C Andrews for over 20 years. In fact, my first "adult" book I picked out when I was 11 years old was V.C Andrews' book Heaven, the first in the Casteel series. So, needless to say, my expectations were high, and my hopes were even higher. Jordan March is your typical 6 year old girl, except she lives in a very large and beautiful mansion that is lorded over by her grandmother. Her mother, father, and brother, Ian, also live there along with her. Suddenly, Jordan's life turns upside down when at that young age she gets her first menstrual cycle. Her mother, in fear that her grandmother will think she is a freak, hides it from her while her father buries his head in a hole pretending it didn't happen. Her grandmother, however, soon finds out and takes over her medical treatment to help stunt the hormonal imbalance. Shortly into the book, Jordan's mother finds out that her father has been having an affair with a woman and she calls for a divorce. Her grandmother, not having that in the slightest, goes to talk with her mother and she agrees after several veiled threats to end the divorce proceedings. During that time where her parents were supposedly patching things up, they are in a terrible car accident on their way home, finding out Jordan's brother, Ian, was molesting her. No it doesn't get any happier. After her parents are both taken to the hospital, her father paralyzed, her mother in a coma brain damaged, Jordan and Ian are sent back to the mansion with a nanny, who is a terrible and nasty woman further damaging poor Jordan in nightmarish ways that are reminiscent to old nun horror stories. It still doesn't get any happier.Ian, who I figured out to be a total sociopath, throws a hissy fit and poisons the nanny with strychnine while she sleeps therefore getting sent away to a home for the juvenile criminally insane. That's about all I can say story wise without giving away where this book in the series ends. However, I'd like to add a few things before you think about reading this book; this book deals with child sexuality both with Jordan going through puberty and being molested by two different people, like with all of the V.C Andrews books there is no happy ending and probably never will be, and it's written by a ghost writer since the woman died, well, years ago.I have read some critics getting in a tizzy over the child sexuality thing but a point to make here again is that all of her books have dealt with this before in some way or another. Maybe not so blatantly or so young, but it's been there. So, if you are a little faint of heart about this subject matter I don't recommend this author at all. Flowers in the Attic was a good example of this. Heads up, in the end of that particular series, Cathy marries her brother Chris and has children with him so I don't exactly see what the fuss is about here. If you can stomach that, you can stomach this.
I realise that when one purchases a VC Andrews, particularly one written after VC Andrews herself died, that one is opening themselves up to a certain type of work. Odds are, at some point during the book, there will be an incestuous relationship. There will be a smattering of ineffectual parents, and a domineering male. These are staples of the commercial institution that has become the Andrews estate. In the most recent books, homosexuality has also been introduced. This book, however, adds the new character with precocious puberty, a medical condition which may or may not be linked to exposure to BGH in children. However, instead of properly handling the early sexual onset of the character, "Andrews" makes her an object of ridicule, of precocious sexuality, and makes the adults unaware of the issue. The LAST THING any girl with this condition needs is to read this book, with all the emotions and psychological trauma that are inherent in coming of age so young. I thought this was handled recklessly and poorly, and would like to register my displeasure, even within the inherently more sexual frame of "VC Andrews."
What do You think about Broken Flower (2006)?
This has to stop, seriously. When Neiderman first ghostwrote for VCA, he did a decent job. I liked the Cutler series, and he did a good job of finishing up the books that VCA had started but didn't finish for the Dollanganger and Casteel series. The Landry and Logan series, while not the best, were still very decent, and I enjoyed them. However, it all started to go downhill with Orphans. That was not what VCA would have written.My problem is not the precocious puberty or what her brother is doing - this kind of stuff happens in real life, and worse happens in Flowers in the Attic, but the ghostwriter has handled this matter in a very sloppy and poorly-written and thought-out manner. Mr. Neriderman, please stop writing for VCA and go back to your own work. You're a old man, stop writing as if you were a young girl, at this point it has gotten past the point of creepy.
—Delicious Strawberry
I admit that Virginia Andrews books are one of my guilty pleasures. Ever since I read Flowers in the Attic when I was in my late teens I have loved them, and read every one since. Yes, there was a change after she died and the ghost writer took over but somehow I just felt I had to keep going.This one seems in some ways to go back to the old stuff and I felt was less 'young adult' targeted than some of the others (particularly the Orphans series). It had some dodgy moments. I didn't feel that the central character of Jordan was written as the 7 year old she was supposed to be and I don't feel that the issue of precocious puberty was dealt with as well as it could have been.Still, a quick summer read with all the usual stock characters you would expect from 'her' books.
—Helen Maltby
VC Andrews is my guilty pleasure reading...and I generally go back to her when I can't get into anything else for some reason. Most of the time, I love her books! This book made me come to a conclusion that I like her old stuff...she lost her story telling ability somewhere along the line I think...who knows, maybe this was just a bad book. I am going to read the second one in the series anyway, despite how much I disliked this one...hopefully that one is better.This is her most recent series (I think actually written in 06 or something fairly recent) and I must say, she really needs to change with the times herself if she's going to write a story set in modern day...if she can't, than stick to settings back in older eras. For example, she made it seem like the family would be outlawed for the parents choosing to get a divorce. In these times?? Come'on now! Divorce is not looked at like a plague anymore. This book mostly annoyed me, the main character (who was a 6 year old girl) was impossible to relate to, and seemed like a complete moron of a child most of the time. This book also seemed to drag and lacked the usual edge of your seat excitement that VC Andrews usually provides.
—Elizabeth
