(Full review here: http://wp.me/p1Zgyz-7D )Wow. Almost done with the Dollangangers, thank goodness. Only two books left to cover in this series, and this one is probably going to be the most difficult to write about. Why difficult? Because it sucked. Seriously. This book was terrible. Combine all of the horribly tragic events of the first two books into one, add Chris and Cathy as an old married couple and you have this dreck.(view spoiler)[Seeds of Yesterday starts up 15 years after If There Be Thorns, when Corrine died in the after the fire, we find out that she left the entire Foxworth fortune to Jory and Bart. Heh, good thing John Amos actually did die in that fire, or he'd have been pissed! The manor that was burnt down at the end of Petals on the Wind has been rebuilt in its entirety and some old guy who was previously thought to be dead (one of Corrine's brothers) has returned from some monastery in the Alps to be the creepy guy that's always whispering in Bart's ear.Jory gets paralyzed while dancing at Bart's birthday party. Someone set him up to have a horrible accident, thinking he'd likely die. Oh noes! He was dancing with his "sister" (remember Cindy, the adopted one?) because his wife (Melodie, another prima ballerina) is pregnant and didn't want to jeopardize her pregnancy.Pretend this is Jory and those pillars are crushing his legs.Sooooo...she doesn't want to jeopardize her pregnancy by dancing with her husband at her brother-in-law's birthday party, but guess what she will do? Sleep with said brother-in-law while her husband is in critical condition in the hospital! Yeah, right? Cathy catches Bart and Melodie drinking and whooping it up while her oldest son is trying not to kill himself like his daddy did. Jeeeez.Cindy is super slutty. Really, she is. She invites some guy home for Christmas, promising her parents they'll be good, but they get caught in bed together. Too enraptured to even notice or slow their stride, Cindy gets pulled off the guy and screams about how unfair her family is and how they shouldn't treat her like a baby because she's SIXTEEN NOW, DAMNIT! She gets caught with another guy later in the story, but I will probably forget about it by the time I get there, so I'm telling you now.Melodie starts showing, so Bart discards her like milk that's a week past its expiration date. She goes into labour at home, but decides not to tell anyone for some stupid reason, and by the time everyone finds out, it's too late to get her to a hospital. She has twins. Had no idea there was more than one fetus, because even though this is supposed to take place sometime in the 90s, her doctor couldn't tell.She takes off, abandoning her children and her paraplegic husband because she just can't handle it anymore, and she wants to go back to dancing. We find out later that she married another dancer right after her divorce papers are signed. Fuuuuuuuu, all women in this series are just unbelievable strumpets. It kind of blows my mind.So, Cathy is pretty much a mommy to the twins, Cory and Carrie Darren and Diedre after they're abandoned by their real mommy (sound familiar?). Bart starts sleeping with the nanny/nurse that was hired to help take care of Jory and his kids...but Cathy still wipes his tush because he's too embarrassed to have the pretty nurse help him out with that. O.oBart and the creepy old guy, Malcolm John Amos Joel, are taking the twins off into the chapel located at the manor and teaching them all of the horrible things that Chris and Cathy heard from the grandmother while they were locked up upstairs. They are of the Devil's Seed and were from a garden that should never have been planted, blahblahblah. Cathy freaks out and tells the nurse (that is now interested in JORY) to never let the twins out of her sight anymore because they're being corrupted by her son that's gone over the edge.(Oh, I think I forgot to mention that if Bart is ever institutionalized for anything, he loses his entire inheritance, so he's gotta try to keep it together in order to keep his money.)Creepy old Joel dies of cancer at some point, Chris and Cathy are going to move out of the mansion - taking Jory, the twins and the nurse with them - but before they can...Chris is killed in an accident on a snowy road. No, I don't think he got pushed off a cliff by a unicorn-riding dodo bird, but I'm pretty sure there was a shark attack in there somewhere.Cathy is found up in the attic by one of the servants with a note in her hand, saying that she didn't want to live any longer without her beloved brother/husband beside her anymore.You know, every time I would start to empathize with Cathy, or feel bad for her...I'd remember that she spent the majority of her adult life married to her brother and that her parents were also related. That ruined it. Too much ick factor. (hide spoiler)]
Seeds of yesterday is the final book of the dollanganger series, and easily the best. I would even want to read the book again, if I had the time. The book starts off 10-15 years after the previous book. Both brothers Bart and Jory have turned into successful and handsome men. Cindy also has turned out to be extremely beautiful, even more then Cathy.After their Grandmother dies, she leaves the Foxworth mansion under Barts name and the entire family starts living there. Bart, after many years of psychological treatment, has become legally sane again. The only thing between him acquiring all the Foxworth wealth is his sanity. He becomes a lawyer, top of his class, whereas Bart, is at the peak of his professional ballet carreer.This novel too has its fair share of tragedies. Jory breaks his spine, losing the ability to use his legs. I loved the way his family takes care of him and gives him a reason to live. All of Jorys' life was the ballet, so without it he goes into depression. To add salt to his wounds, his wife and ballet partner Melodie, refuses to accept him as a husband again and divorces him leaving him with a twins. A gorgeous baby girl and an equally handsome baby boy.Bart tackles his inner demons, the voices in his head which warp his perception of good and evil, leading him to chastise his parents, Cindy for her vulgar dressing sense , and Jory too for dancing. He is a very difficult person, and not everyone will warm up to his character. There are many shocks and surprises which will leave readers in trauma, especially the climax. I feel, very few people have read the complete series, as it is the most underrated book yet. There is such depth to the characters, which can only be understood by further insight. I love the way VC Andrews writes, her words have a mellow quality, and can even make the most ugly things seem beautiful.Looking forward to read the prequel and her other works.5 stars
What do You think about Seeds Of Yesterday (1990)?
Again, I say my copies are worn and dog eared from the multiple readings. These books fully engrossed my imagination - twice. I may have to read them agian now that I am reviewing them for this site.This book is picks up with the third generation of dysfunction. Cathy's two sons and their rivalry. They return to Foxworth Hall (or at least the rebuilt version)which has been left to Bart (Cathy's son by her mother's second husband - gotta love it). However, it seems that Bart's desire to have what belongs to Jory rules the story. As well as Bart again spiraling out of control under the influence of a crazy Uncle (the brother of his grandmother who was thought to be dead). And accidents that change the course of all of their lives... The ending is rather "happily ever after" but with the VC Andrews twist.
—Trudy
Obviously none of this is realistic, so I absolutely love when things start getting scandalous and exciting. If There Be Thorns was hopelessly disappointing and I'm glad that Seeds of Yesterday seems a bit more like V.C. Andrews. it's not like there are any new sorts of characters, really. Most of them are blonde--no, freaking ALL of the females are blonde, and there's always the obsessively romantic, naiive girl, later called a slut for finding some romance (Cathy, and later Cindy), and the helpless, sobbing woman who always needs a man to take care of her (Corinne, Alicia, Melanie). There was also sibling rivalry added to the mix. Of course things couldn't just stay calm with that family. For reasons defying explanation, they move into the reconstructed Foxworth mansion, and so the whole lot of them living there. There are sex scenes, thankfully. I was really wondering where those went in If There Be Thorns. These sex scenes are interestingly graphic and vulgar--it's not like Virginia Andrews could ever write a hot sex scene. I think she's trying to tell us that sex is evil.
—Mayra
.__________________________________________________________________.¿Por dónde empiezo, a ver?Este libro me hizo sacar muchas canas que no sabía que existían hasta hoy. De verdad. Es un libro sencillamente contradictorio y aunque resulta refrescante que retorne al punto de vista de Catherine (cuánto bien le hizo creer y madurar, en serio, al menos no quise matarla tanto como me sucedió en Pétalos al Viento), es tan... agh. La historia es prácticamente un reciclaje de cuanto ocurrió en el segundo libro, ya que toma muchos elementos, desarrollo de personajes o eventos y los pasa a este libro. Sólo en vez de pasarle a los padres, les pasa a los hijos. (view spoiler)[ Para la muestra un botón: el accidente de Jory, el nacimiento de los gemelos, John Amos Jackson 2, la muerte de Chris tal como murió su padre, etc, etc. (hide spoiler)]
—Paulina
