I was looking so forward to learning more about the family history, and while there is a fantastic secret revealed, a good portion of the book didn't ring true somehow. I know this was the last the original author started writing, and then was picked up by someone else. I wish I knew how much was written by the original V.C. Andrews. ( )

3 1/2 stars...The prequel to the series written by V.C. Andrews successor. ( )

This book is the last in the Dollanganger series, but is the prequel to Flowers In The Attic. In it, we meet the young, handsome Malcolm Foxworth, who started it all. After taking Olivia for his wife, they retire to Foxworth Hall to raise a family, but darkness soon descends. Malcolm's father, Garland, returns with his new bride, Alicia, who is—of course—young, beautiful, and pregnant. Olivia has two sons, Malcolm and Joel, and Alicia soon produces a son named Christopher. Now the shenanigans begin. Lust and incest prevail—as it must with this bunch—and Alicia soon has a daughter in secret, fathered by her step-son, Malcolm. Alicia and her son, Christopher, move on, leaving her daughter, Corinne, behind. But is that the end of it? Oh, no. Now grown, Christopher—Alicia and Garland's son—returns and sweeps Malcolm's cherished daughter, Corinne, off her feet, starting the whole cycle over again (since they are half-siblings). But you really can't blame Corinne for falling in love with her half-brother since she only thinks Christopher is her uncle. (Are you keeping up?) What is it with these rich, coddled people? Oh, that's right...they're inbred. After these two young lovers are disinherited and banned from Foxworth Hall, they marry and raise four children—Christopher, Cathy, Cory, and Carrie. At the same time, Malcolm and Olivia grow old and bitter. Years later, after Malcolm suffers a stroke, Corinne, now a widow, returns to Foxworth Hall with her four children conceived with her half-brother, and the legacy of Flowers In The Attic is born. Gothic horror doesn't get much creepier than this. ( )

Prequel to Flowers in the Attic

My foray into Dollanganger hell continues.
Thanks, Alligator.

We're slowly reading this series out of order, since the question of the grandmother haunted us quite deeply after the ending of [book: Flowers in the Attic]. Why was the grandmother so crazy? Was she the true villain, or was it more Corrine? Is anyone in this family not entirely messed up? Well, the answer to the last one became blindingly clear by the end of this book. Everyone is terrible.

Olivia, the grandmother in [book: Flowers in the Attic], is the main character of this prequel. Here we learn how she became part of the Foxworth family, and just how things transpired between the children's parents. It's an... increasingly disturbing Southern Gothic Horror that lives up to all of the tropes of the genre. It's also deeply engaging even while making you continuously wonder why you're enjoying this trainwreck so thoroughly.

It's worth noting that while reading this I had the pleasure of seeing the Grey Gardens documentary and musical, and it was difficult not to see the disturbing similarities between the two and this book. Perhaps Olivia would have felt better with 52 cats, some raccoons, and opossums. Perhaps They would have been a bit better for her than John Amos's presence? Then again, maybe that just would have worsened things, and at least Garland was far more bearable than Big Edie when push came to shove. ( )