My history with V.C. Andrews

I had been hearing about a remake of the movie Flowers in the Attic long before it came into fruition. At first, I didn't know if I'd want this to happen. Not that the original movie version was all that good, but why bother trying again to bring such a fantastic and intriguing book to life? Then I heard that it would stay true to the book and my curiosity was piqued. Of course, having been a V.C. Andrews fan from junior high through college (and a bit beyond), I know I'll have to check this movie out sometime soon.

Going along with the upcoming movie was an article that was recently published about women from my generation who grew up as V.C. Andrews fans. It seemed like psychoanalysis more than a fun, nostalgic article looking back on her books. I decided that I should write my own post about how I became a fan and why I kept reading her books for so long, even knowing they weren't written by her.

When I was in seventh grade, I saw that all the popular kids were reading V.C. Andrews' books. I didn't have even the slightest chance of becoming popular, but I thought I'd give them a whirl to at least try to fit in. The next time I went to the library, I looked for her books and all I could find was a copy of Heaven, the first book of her second series. It looked interesting, so I decided to check it out. My mom thought it was going to be a horror novel and warned me to put it down if I got scared. Thing was, I couldn't put it down. At all! It was so incredibly good from start to finish. Then I started checking out the other books from that series (Casteel), as well as the books from the Dollanganger series, where Flowers in the Attic is from. There was also My Sweet Audrina, which stood on its own and was such an interesting and haunting story.

During the summer between seventh and eighth grade, when I wasn't practicing for my Bat Mitzvah, I was devouring V.C. Andrews' books. I had a friend who also was interested in them. Instead of talking or doing activities when we got together, we'd lay on one of our beds and read. She'd whisper the words as she was reading, which drove me crazy until I was able to tune her out because I was so absorbed in the story. I also got my maternal grandmother to read them. And later, my sister caught the V.C. Andrews fever, as well. Toward the end of my high school years, my friends and I would mark the pages that had "steamy" scenes on them, even though they seemed pretty tame compared to the stuff I've read as an adult. Still, we thought we were being so daring...

Anytime I saw a new book of hers at the store, it would feel like Hanukkah and my birthday all rolled into one. I'd practically run through the bookstore to purchase it! When I started high school, the Cutler series (starting with Dawn) had just come out. I knew that a ghostwriter was writing these books, but they were still so good that I didn't care. The Landry series (starting with Ruby) came out a little before I started college. I also read the Logan series (starting with Melody) and the first set of mini books (The Orphans: Butterfly, Crystal, Brooke, and Raven) during that time. Two other mini-series came out, as well as a full series (Hudson, starting with Rain), after I graduated college and I read those, as well. Then I stopped at Willow. I don't know if I had outgrown V.C. Andrews or that the story lines had just gotten stale, but I could only get through a few chapters and that was it. I completely lost interest in her books, but I'm glad because it seems like her ghostwriter didn't stick with her formula after that time. I don't even know why her name is attached to these books anymore. Around the time I lost interest was also when I started getting into chick lit. Coincidence?

During my sophomore year of college, I learned HTML from my first boyfriend and he helped me put together a V.C. Andrews website. I then started a fan club through it. It was a lot of fun and I met so many interesting people. We'd discuss V.C. Andrews novels, as well as general things in life. One girl I met through the club told me about Katherine Stone, who became another favorite author of mine. There were some people I met whom I had a great friendship with at the time and then it either fizzled out or went completely downhill. There's one friend I'd still love to find, but she doesn't have an online presence yet. (If anyone knows Shannon Sawicki from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, please put us in touch! She's probably in her early to mid-30s now.) I'm still friends with a few women from the club, as either we've stayed in touch throughout the years or we've reconnected through Facebook. So you can see that before I started a chick lit blog and group, I was connecting people through their love of V.C. Andrews' books!

As I said earlier, there's no scientific explanation for why I loved reading V.C. Andrews' books. They were a saving grace during junior high and then just too good to stop reading. Almost like a guilty pleasure, in some ways! I don't know if my daughter will ever take interest in these books when she's older, but I guess time will tell....