Admittedly, any V.C. Andrews novel is a WTF moment in Jordan's bookscapades. But, after reading a biography of V.C. Andrews on Buzzfeed, of all places, I decided to give her seedy upper-crust underworlds a spin. Seriously, she wrote standing up until her feet bled; that's just cray-cray enough to catch my interest. I chose this book over her more canonical works (Flowers in the Attic et al.) simply out of convenience: there was a free copy available to me via the creepy clown shrine at work (long story) and now here I am, feeling angry, dirty, entertained, and angry that I am entertained by My Sweet Audrina. Why angry? Well, Andrews' sexual dichotomy is frustratingly simple. Children are innocent until maturity: then, all hell breaks loose. Men's sexual needs are compulsory, uncontrollable, and animalistic. In a book about rape, it's an understandable portrayal, but Andrews makes it across the board: villains and heroes of the male variety simply cannot keep it in their pants, causing a series of semi-rapey love stories and infidelities justified in the most moronic of ways. "Oh, you were in a COMA for thirty days, dear wife? Well, sorry, but you didn't tell me you were about to wake up so I slept with your sister-cousin like twenty times." (This is not an exaggeration, this is an actual plot point.)Furthermore, women really get the shaft (pun intended). They are demonized unreasonably for sexual pleasure. No joke, every sexually-active female in this book is portrayed as a lustful, wicked harlot, before dying some horrible death. Well, except Audrina, but her fate may be worse than death. (Is this paragraph just one giant spoiler? Um, sorry to those of you who actually intend to read this.)The sexually-induced wrath of My Sweet Audrina leaves one with the impression that V.C. Andrews just hated everyone. Which I admire wholeheartedly, so let's turn to what's right about this book. First, the gothic melodrama. It's worth it. This book is like one giant hug from an episode of Dark Shadows, with Season One of American Horror Story breathing over your shoulder. The web of Whitefern-Adare family secrets is entirely fucked-up and ridiculous, but it pulls you along and keeps you dying for the next death, broken bone, or discovery in the attic. Building upon this theme, V.C. Andrews knows confinement. If Buzzfeed is to be my guide, then Andrews spent a large portion of her life in wheelchairs, and almost entirely dependent on her family. Between Audrina, Vera, Billie, and Sylvia, readers get a sense of all of the aspects of Andrews' physical and emotional confinement, to be further highlighted by the semi-incestuous rivalry of Lucietta and Ellsbeth. Every one of these women has ample reason to leave Whitefern House, but also ample reason to stay and continue to suffer. Their stories are suffocating and riveting. So, in conclusion, if you don't mind preposterous occurrences, distorted timelines, didactic portrayals of human sexuality, and questionable renderings of people with physical or cognitive disabilities*, then My Sweet Audrina is well worth your time. Andrews' frenetic prose is pulsing with gothic horror and misery, enough to make you smile and then wonder why you're smiling. Buy this title from Powell's Books.*I am ambivalent on V.C. Andrews' portrayals of Billie and Sylvia, because they are offensive in that they are outdated and dehumanizing, but not completely so. Billie, the double amputee, is self-loathing, but not across the board; indeed, she exhibits tremendous strength in her parenting and her commitment to leading a "normal" life, but she's also a blubbering pile of weakness yearning for a man, any man, to love her despite her condition. My greater concern is with Sylvia, Audrina's younger sister with a developmental disability, who is treated as the ultimate of familial burdens. Institutionalized for two years, Sylvia is brought to Whitefern as a punishment of sorts, a way for Damian to keep his beloved Audrina shackled to Whitefern indefinitely. "Retard" permeates conversations about Sylvia, enough to make your eyes turn blood-red in the fight for equality. But at the same time, I try to remember that this book is a relic from a less-informed and less-supportive time, and putting forth a stereotype that still resonates today. Furthermore, Sylvia's abilities grow far beyond all predictions. While she is still the strongest of Andrews' gothic punishments here, she also subverts the assumption that people with disabilities are powerless and condemned to an unfulfilling life. Yes, she does chain Audrina to Whitefern at the end, but there's a glimmer of hope that she will grow in power, that she will find a voice, and set her sister free.
*4.5 star rating* Wow. Just wow. This was the most psychologically messed up, mind-fucking book that I've ever read. We all know that V.C. Andrews has quite a habit of messing with our minds, but this book has taken her "talent" to a whole other level. My brain: When finishing this 400+ paged book, I just couldn't believe my eyes on how the heck did Andrews do this. Her mysteries are always so out of the blue and we never end up expecting the plot twists (especially in the end). It's so fascinating and wonderful to read such an unpredictable book that just left your feared out of your mind after completing it. Yes, I got very anxious and tense by the end of this book. When V.C. Andrews creates something scary, it's scary. But not a horror made-up kind of scary, a reality kind of fear because things like this do happen to many people around the world. Andrews caused us to think about real life mysteries that are totally unexplainable. No one, not even the MC knew what was going on for 20 years of her life, and that's because everyone and everything were lies, and everyone was lying to her and you can either think one way or the other. Andrews gets us to create predictions about what's going to happen because we begin to have no clue on what was going on, but in the end, I was completely wrong. Audrina has lived her life hearing about The First and Sweet and Best Audrina, her dead sister who died 9 years before she was born. (Yes, I did capitalize those words.) Her sister was so special and so perfect and she never did anything wrong. But Audrina's life is a mystery as well. Why can't she remember anything from her early childhood and memories of just years ago? Why can't she remember what day it is or how old she and her family are? It all comes down to one mystery, one secret that has been hidden, and everyone except Audrina knows. This whole book was amazingly written, like I said before. Andrews just creates an atmosphere that is so real, and fearful at the same time. The reader even begins to go through some mentality and some craziness that the characters in the book are going through because we are so confused as well. (But in a suspenseful sort of way.) It was very fast-paced, moving, and so real. Nothing ever bored me and I wish that I could've had more. But, what an amazing standalone. I don't know... That song just came into mind. :) The characters were amazing, but I didn't say all of them. Vera... That girl... She's the worst (as in evil) character that I have ever read about. I could deal with her, probably because she created a lot of action and it was hilarious to see Audrina's dad whip her and hit her so many times, but she was SO bitchy. Like think of your worst enemy, and add in JAWS. I don't have any words for Vera's behaviour because it's just so exotic and disturbing. I just hate people like her. (YOU WEREN'T LOVED BECAUSE YOU WERE AN EVIL BEAST.) She was my problem with the book because she was just too horrible. DON'T CLICK ON THAT BUTTON AS LONG AS YOU READ THE BOOK OR DON'T CARE (view spoiler)[ How can you want your cute little sister to get raped? Why would you organize it? Just because she got a lot of attention? She never did anything wrong to you! Thankfully Vera died, though. (I sound so cruel.) She was just another of the women who fell down the stairs. *tisk tisk* (hide spoiler)]
What do You think about My Sweet Audrina (1990)?
yup this was one of her last books! it was going to be a series. I gave it five stars o love this boon. I also read it in Highschool. lol or it might have been junior school not sure why my mother let me read this stuff lol.
—Luthien
This is one crazy, screwed up, twisted, and just insane family. I think right now, they take the cake for crazy literary families I've read about. I finished My Sweet Audrina while I was in bed last night, and after I finished, I couldn't think of how I should rate this story. And now, as I write this review, I still have no idea how I should rate it. Maybe as I write I'll come to a conclusion. As I said in the beginning, the Adare family is just, all kinds of screwed up. Between the lies, deception, half-truths, and the webs they weaved between all of that, and the purpose behind that web of lies, was just DISGUSTING. This is one of those stories where, as you read, you keep saying to yourself, "What the hell is going on??!!" V.C. Andrews had me guessing the entire time, and made me feel one way, then another, and then another, and back to one feeling, and then a new feeling. I like it when an author can do that. One thing I really love about V.C. Andrews is her writing. From the very first page, we are flooded with her talent, and it sucked me right in to just read more of what she had to say. I've only read her original novels (if you don't know, she passed away several years ago, and a man has been writing under her name), and I wish she could have written more just so I could read her writing. Here is an example: "There was something strange about the house where I grew up. There were shadows in the corners and whispers on the stairs and time was as irrelevant as honesty. Though how I knew I couldn't say. There was a war going on in our house, a silent war that sounded no guns, and the bodies that fell were only wishes that died and the bullets were only words and the blood that spilled was always called pride." For me, Andrews' writing is captivating, mysterious, and she had me from the first page. I think every family has their secrets, but how deep do they go, and to what extent? In the Adare family, there are two main secrets, but one of those has consequences far worse than the other. We're talking about basically changing a child's life because of that secret and twisting it to fit some twisted fantasy to pretend their lives are almost perfect, and because their name has already been part of enough scorn from the town. So much happens in just four hundred pages, it is almost mind-boggling. I instantly loved Audrina. The more I learned about her circumstances, and the more lies were revealed (whether outright or hinted), I felt for her. Towards the end, I just wanted her to get away and start a new life without this sick, twisted family. In the beginning, I thought it was her mother who was the problem, and it turns out, I was quite wrong. Her entire family made me so angry at times for creating this life of lies around Audrina, and truly making her believe this life. (And this is not a spoiler in any way.) Throughout the entire book, I wish I could have thrown Vera down the stairs because she was PURE EVIL. I loved Arden and how sweet he was to Audrina, and how much he loved her. It's amazing how people or families can corrupt others, though...I couldn't believe he would do some of the things he did when he said he loved Audrina so much. I don't think they were entirely his fault, but there came a point for me, where they were his fault or at least partially. I think he really, truly loved Audrina, but corruption can do the worst things to the best people. And don't get me started on Damian Adare, Audrina's father....There were times I was pissed off at him for things, then I found myself liking him, and then I found myself hating him, back to compassion for him, etc...He was just a roller-coaster ride of feelings for me. It's one of those situations where you feel like you understand what he did and why he did it, but to the extent he went to, my goodness...It made me so angry. He is one character who does NOT deserve what he has. In fact, none of Audrina's family does. If I am being evasive on the happenings in this story, it's for a reason. There is so much which goes on in these pages, it's worse than a soap opera or a drama movie. What I still don't understand is, "Why?" at the ending. I do NOT understand Audrina's choice. I mean....I know what she says, but, if that was me, I would hope and pray, I would be doing what she had planned to do. Let's just say, I didn't expect the ending. I think this is one of those stories you just have to read it, to believe it. I think it deserves four stars.
—Kathryn
Oh my god. Have you ever read anything by VC Andrews? If you haven't you need to start. These books are like romance novels for teenagers, but filthier. I mean, having never read a real romance novel, I guess I wouldn't know, but do they have a lot of incest and puberty talk? I am pretty sure they don't. I read this forever ago, after reading the Flowers In the Attic series and I just remember thinking like, "This is the most intense book I have ever read. Or probably will ever read." And I think that may hold true.THIS is a review of it that I just saw last week on Jezebel and I like, started to blush I think when it recounted some of the sex scenes. I did not remember even half of that stuff! Oh my god! I was such a perv. The review has some spoilers (meaning: all of the spoilers), but I don't think that would stop you from reading this masterpiece.
—Amber
