A Better Read the Second Time Around
Written: Sep 05 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Good story-telling
Cons: A little slow at the beginning
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| hollysbears's Full Review: V. C. Andrews - If There Be Thorns |
The first time I read this book, I had just come from reading Petals on the Wind which was quickly becoming my all-time favorite V.C. Andrews book, and this book didn't quite live up to my expectations.
If There Be Thorns is written by Cathy, but instead of the book being told completely from her point of view as with the other two books in the series, this one is told through the points of view of Jory and Bart, her two sons. I suppose maybe part of the reason I wasn't too impressed with this book on my first reading was because I wanted to hear Cathy speak again and wanted to see her come alive in my mind, but instead I was greeted by her sons and I wasn't all that interested in what they had to say.
Just recently though on my latest V.C. Andrews kick, I decided to check this book out of the library again and now that I was prepared for the different points of view, I loved it.
The story introduces us to Jory and Bart and the new life Cathy and Chris have made for themselves in California, far away from "ole graves and ole grandma's." We know that they go East every summer to visit Jory's Grandmother Madame Marisha and Chris goes to visit his mother in the loony bin. But soon next door to them moves a strange old lady who always dresses in black and her butler. Jory doesn't pay much attention to them, he's too caught up in his dancing and schoolwork to care, but Bart is drawn to the house next door and when he goes over there the woman tells him that she is his real Grandmother.
The story shows us how Bart begins to change as he is under the influence of his Grandmother (who gives him everything he could ever want) and her butler John Amos Jackson, who gives Bart his Great-Grandfather's journal so that Bart can mold himself into the kind of man Malcolm Foxworth was.
In this reading of the book, I was almost grasping the pages in my hands near the end, my eyes welling up with tears with Corrine's death, it's an emotional ride. I still don't think it's as good as Petals on the Wind, but it definitely stacks up with the rest as being yet another great V.C. Andrews book.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
hollysbears
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Location: Virginia
Reviews written: 69
Trusted by: 9 members
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