Happy At Last?
Written: May 28 '01 (Updated Aug 10 '06)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Two viewpoints (well, three); lots of action; excellent summer reading
Cons: Might get too intense for some
The Bottom Line: I think this is the best book in the Dollanganger series--see what you think.
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| majenta's Full Review: V. C. Andrews - If There Be Thorns |
Meet Dr. and Mrs. Christopher Sheffield of Fairfax, California. They are a gorgeous golden-haired couple who look a bit younger than their late-30's/Big-4-0 ages. Dr. Chris is Catherine (aka ballerina Catherine Dahl)'s third husband and an excellent dad figure to her two sons from previous marriages: Jory, the 14th in the extremely-handsome Russian dancer succession; and Bart, good-looking and talented in his own ways, if only someone could be bothered to figure that out about him!
The Sheffields are a private family, complete in themselves. They have very few living relatives on either side; every summer they fly East to visit them and to tend the many graves. Jory looks forward to seeing his grandmother, Madame Marisha, but Bart would rather go to Disneyland. There is always a stop that Dr. Chris makes solo: to see his mentally-ill mother in her private, country-club-looking facility. When he returns to his family and reports that his mother isn't getting any better, Catherine says she isn't surprised and that the woman doesn't deserve to get better. But Dr. Chris shows no sign of giving up on her.
So that's the Sheffield Four in the summer that Bart is going-on-10, although early on they become the Sheffield Five when Catherine seizes the opportunity to adopt an orphan who reminds her so much of her long-dead little sister Carrie that she overrides Dr. Chris' totally-reasonable arguments. And this is before it's made quite clear that the Sheffields' isn't quite the place for an innocent child unrelated-by-blood to any of them. The big old house next door that has stood empty for years is suddenly invaded by workmen who tell Jory and Bart to get the $%#@ off the dividing wall they liked to sit on: a rich old lady with servants is moving in and she won't want to be bothered with miscreant neighbor boys!
Well, guess what: she DOES want Bart to visit frequently...and the frequent visits send Bart down Miscreant Path--to a much more serious and dangerous road-- because he has to get past John Amos, the butler, to get to the lady of the house. And John Amos wants Bart to hang with him for a few minutes and hear "the truth" about his parents and heritage. The lady, who asks Bart to call her "Grandmother," showers Bart with gifts, but John Amos has something for him too: the journal of Malcolm Foxworth and the insistence that "Grandmother" is Malcolm's daughter, who first married her half-uncle and then married a younger man who has a lot more in common with Bart than their first name. This news has an even worse effect on Bart than 3+ years of imprisonment in an attic had on his mother and father-figure--and to top that, Catherine is writing about this imprisonment and Bart and Jory get their hands on it around the time Jory's grandmother, the formidable Madame Marisha, blows into town to turn an already-hot summer into absolute hell!
Not to use the overused "S" word here, but who will...BE LEFT STANDING when it finally ends? (Other than you, of course--you won't be able to turn your eyes or attention away!)
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
majenta
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Location: Erie, Pennsylvania USA
Reviews written: 361
Trusted by: 302 members
About Me:
Your reward for sur-/viving THE 60's: Now you're/In YOUR 60's! (Man.)
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