VC Andrews is a piece of work

[breakinglight11]

Fell down a little bit of a VC Andrews rabbit hole the other day. Marybeth LaRivee posted a link to an episode of a podcast about My Sweet Audrina, which is the only of her books I’ve actually read, and I enjoyed listening to the podcasters lose their shit over how INSANE that book is. And it truly is, probably even more so than her more famous Flowers in the Attic series— quite a feat, given I think Audrina’s her only book without explicit incest in it.

I’ve always been shocked by how popular Flowers in the Attic actually is, given the subject matter of what I’d refer to as “genteel sibling-fucking.” But I knew tons of people who read it as a lurid diversion when they were teens or preteens, and while it was always transgressive, I never recalled anyone who found it particularly disturbing. And, though I’ve never actually read that one or any in its series myself, I checked out the recaps of it on a Tumblr the podcast referenced, and it’s actually even more explicitly sexual in deeply strange ways than I’d been led to believe. I guess I’d always assumed it was more… vague. But it seems to be REAL SPECIFIC about stuff, sounding like an odd mix of horniness, prudery, romance, and assault, as well as a truly bizarre normalization of sexualized family relationships even beyond the famous sibling hookups.

I checked out Audrina in high school after a friend told me how batshit it was, and it did not disappoint in that respect— a gothic romance with the plot points of a supercharged soap opera, and very fucked perspectives on romance and relationships, but also a fierce, unashamed sexuality and a lot of rage at the lot of women in the world. Elements I would not have necessarily expected together in such a book. It’s also kind of juvenile, as if frozen in a child’s perspective of what romance and sexuality would be like in adulthood— which likely explains why young people have traditionally responded to it. Really makes me wonder about what VC Andrews was like as a person, to have such a surprisingly contradictory outlook.

I wonder if there’s a good biography of her out there. I’d be very interested to know what kind of person is driven to write this kind of story so… straight. It really doesn’t seem like she came from any place of irony or cynicism, seeming to believe she’s just telling a straight-up, compelling gothic romance. I wonder if anyone ever looked into her enough to have a view on her psychology. I read a biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder, “Prairie Fires” by Caroline Fraser, a few years back that approached her from a psychological standpoint, and I wonder if anyone ever looked enough into VC Andrews to write something on her from that perspective. I’ve got no desire to read any more of her writing (or of the ghostwriter who’s been cranking out clones for decades to massive financial success) but I’d read the hell out of a biography like that.

Comments

Wow, discarded memories

[desireearmfeldt]

I read Flowers in the Attic at that preteenish age, and now that you mention the title I'm sure I also read My Sweet Audrina and maybe lined it better, but I can't bring to mind any memories of it. (As opposed to FitA, of which I remember a couple of key scenes and the general plot.)

I also read a lot of Lois Duncan, probably before the VC Andrews, which come to think of it is...less transgressive (and actually aimed at preteens or teens, which I don't think VC Andrews was meant to be) but kind of in the same lineage?

Re: Wow, discarded memories

[breakinglight11]

There’s something about it that really speaks to preteen girls— at least of a particular slice of preteen girl experience.