Virginia Andrews

[biffnbuster]

Today I got a huge pile (37) of her books from a junk swap. Like a jumble sale but free !! I read her early ones back in the 80's are the newer ones worth reading ? Which ones are good?

Are they actually by her, or 'The New Virginia Andrews'? The ones written by a nameless author after she died are rubbish tbh. They've just taken storylines from her actual books and changed the details a bit. Like fan fiction.

Some of both . I will start with the proper ones then ! Thankyou.

Virginia Andrews must have been my guilty comfort reading pleasure in the early 1990s! My fav saga has to be the Casteel one, not sure who wrote it.

Only bother with the ones that aren't the ghost writer. The ghost writer is male, tries to mimic her writing style and if you read 'Rain,' s shockingly racist. (Rain knows she's different..She's smart and doesn't fit in the ghetto. Turns out it's because she's half white..Uhm..WHAT?! How that even got published )

The Casteel series is my favourite for guilty pleasure reading!

I loved those when I was young.
I thought Ruby and Dawn were OK for the new ones, then they got really shit, though tbf they were all a bit trashy anyway.
My favourites were the Casteel ones too.

I now want to go to my parents and fetch my VA books, how could I be such a snob and leave them behind?

I need to re read them NOW. TROYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!

I only kept the Flowers in the Attic ones, and the Casteel ones when I moved last year, and they're packed away in a box somewhere.
Why was she so obsessed with incest?

Oh yes, when Troy was still alive.
I must have been young as I didn't see that coming at all

Only the first two of the Casteel series were written by VA - the third was started by VA and whatshisface 'finished' it. The last two were 'inspired' by VA and written by him.

I think I have all the Flowers in the Attic series, then the Casteel saga, My Sweet Audrina and the Cutler series....mmmm I need to retrieve them asap.

No idea why she was so obsessed by incest. Let me check her biography.

So, basically she only wrote the Dollaganger (sp?) saga?

She didn't actually write that many then.
Two Casteels, Flowers in the Attics and My Sweet Audrina?

My Sweet Audrina...That was my favourite. As an adult it raised so many political questions for me. I still love flicking through and analysing.

I've heard rumours Flowers in the Attic was based on a true story.

She wrote 5 out of 44! Good article here

Cutlers is Dawn right?
I had those too, and the Ruby ones set in Louisiana, and then one more, something about the sea and a dead sister and the Dad died because of the mines
I gave up after that, they just got too stupid, plus I was getting older.

Complete VA list - she died in 1986.

I make it 7 by my count, contrary to that article.

May I please ask how you make links have words like 'link here?' I only know how to copy and paste links.

It tells you at the bottom of this page, Lurking.

Yes, the Cutler is Dawn. I liked the bit when she lived in NYC. And Jimmy. Oooh Jimmy.

Just C&P the link, leave a space, write here and then ]]

*Feels extra blonde.

Thank you Feenie :)

But Jimmy was more or less her brother. Ewwwwwww.

I had forgotten about VA until I saw this thread. I loved her and spent most of my early 90's reading her books. She really was obsessed with incest.

I read and loved the Dollangangers. Lurking I also thought flowers in the attic was based on a true story but I could be wrong. Wasn't there a film as well?

I also really enjoyed the Casteels and the Cutlers.

Francagoes My mum gave all mine to charity years ago

I agree with everyone else when they say the later books written by a shadow writer are not nearly as good.

I still have the first edition with the double cover and it says its based on a true story, but there is very little information about.

I read online very recently that she was inspired to write flowers in the attic when she was in hospital and her male doctor told her his mother would lock him and his siblings in the attic when they were bad. The rest of the story and all the sequels were made up. I confess I was disappointed because I always had a romantic notion that Virginia Andrews was Cathy.