It’s taken me a while to put together this review despite reading the entire book in four hours. Whilst I’d been hoping for a biography for years on Virginia, this actually made me feel very conflicted upon having read it.
Whilst I’d like to present a balanced and fair review, as there are some good parts, I felt that as a long term fan dissapointed.
In regards to the actual biography, I feel your reaction to this book very dependent on how much you already know about Virginia from the fandoms and the now sadly gone complete vca website. I’ve personally spent many years on researching Virginia so there were no huge surprises for me and I feel that may be the case for a lot of the members in the group AtticSecrets who have contributed to keeping her legacy alive.
Personally I did love the family annecdotes and memories and the love that was so apparent that her niece Suzanne and her cousin Pat held for her. These anecdotes are fascinating to read and you honestly truly admire Virginia even more having read how much she overcame despite her disabilities.
The production of flowers in the attic is also fascinating to read but unfortunately short, I would have loved to have heard more from those involved in the process but unfortunately many of those are no longer with us who could provide that information. I know, myself included, we all wish to know who exactly were the models used for the iconic stepbacks or even what modelling agency was used?
I personally felt that there is much more research to be done and some was underused particularly the Boston archives material which was donated by Virginia s mother herself, however there may be a copyright issue to why only certain parts were used?
Again, this is why, though understandable that Neiderman was chosen to write this in a way, I feel it would have been better if an actual biographer had taken on this task. I feel more would have been uncovered and resources used for research. It would have also read less like an attempt at a novel and more like an actual biography. Again, it’s a fine line from making the subject s story compelling and being completely dry and boring. But his lack of experience in the biography field made for a sometimes confusing, clunky and repetitive read and to get some information such as the true story of Fita and Virginia s accident, the reader was taken down a meandering path of prose.
Reading it, I felt like it was almost a movie pitch, Virginia being cast as Cathy trapped in the attic of her body, watched over and controlled by her domineering mother who fills the role of the grandmother, who s only escape is her imagination and her talent which finally sets her free.
Yes, this is a great analogy and very much true but having it repeated again and again with example s from Flowers in the Attic to show how this is the case felt like it was being spoon fed to the reader.
Sticking with this theme throughout, there is no other possible narrative or point of view to make it seem more balanced – I personally related to Virginia due to her difficulties but could also relate to her mother, who had a child with disabilities and I think that point of view could have been explored slightly more – even a sentence or two to acknowledge the fact that even though she loved her daughter, it could be at times frustrating.
As I’ve said a biographer or even a dedicated fan or few would have been able to bring so much more to this biography. I totally believe this would have been a lot better and concise had they harnessed Jennifer Completevca skills, research and expertise in all things vca. There’s a reason it was for decades the vca Bible.. And her site is where most of the info “revealed” in this biography was initially found for decades.
I can understand fans frustration as we ve longed for this biography for many many years but unless you aren’t aware of Virginia s personal life or the amount of material the fans had found out themselves and shared online, it doesn’t give us much more info or actually provide the answers to questions we have. To those who don’t know however, this book does contain a wealth of information that is good to have all in one concise place.
I feel that for the fandom however we were promised more than we actually got : For example, V C A s pseudonym
This was supposed to be a big reveal and apart from saying actually V C Andrews was her pseudonym which granted it was , again we all knew that , we also knew Adrienne Vale was another one thanks to complete vca but this isn’t mentioned but I was under the impression from all the promotion we were finally going to be told of the one she used for the apparent many article she wrote for pulp fiction magazines etc ? Did I miss it somehow ? I did find it difficult to follow the narrative of the biography coherently as I ve said before
For me, it felt like it had been written for the nostalgia crowd rather than the actual fandom , if I had read this not having been in the fandom so long, used the complete vca website as my Bible for years, done my own research, been there when Jessica Zinder went to the Boston archives and bought back all the info to us fans and the excitement that bought with this brand new info, if I had just picked up the book having read fita and maybe a few of the others way back in the day and seen this and thought ” wow, I remember when, wonder what her life was like” I’d have been satisfied because despite only being eight chapters long there is a wealth of information. Sadly 99% of it , I’d seen before due to being in the fandom so long and knowing where this info originally came from. With the complete vca gone from the internet, there’s nothing to confirm it was already online for years. So yes , a casual reader would have been intrigued and thrilled with this biography I’m sure. Even the brand new photos and letters, the majority had been seen before I think of the new photos there was possibly five I hadn’t ( some wonderful, some mhm), the same with the letters.
As for the previously unreleased manuscript “The Obsessed” – I know this is apparently a rough draft , unfinished etc, so would not necessarily be like her published works and even Ann Patty did say some of Virginia s earlier stuff was different . However, to me reading it I couldn’t shake the feeling and I could be completely wrong that this was more AN s style of writing VCA then Virginia herself. There’s a certain tone and style that’s different. Plus there’s things I’ve noticed apparent in Virginia s work that she uses that are completely different in the GW ones . I know a lot of people were wondering if before publication that maybe this “new book” would be them trying to pass off AN work and of course I can’t say for sure – I don’t know, I’d like to think not but there’s too much that’s off. Not to mention , I don’t know if you remember back in the day the short stories that came out regarding her artwork s apparently written by her – that’s how it was spun back in the day , however it was totally obvious it wasn’t her writing , anyway as time passed and I think it’s really difficult to get these now (of course we have them in our files) it changed to “inspired by”
In regards to Ann Patty, it’s interesting to see she wrote a particularly scathing review on this biography on good reads. To be honest after reading her memoirs I don’t think she was very respectful to Virginia herself in that personally… But yes I would love to know Patty’s full opinion – I was trying to recall the other night if she’s even mentioned in this new biography and her input into being Virginia’s editor would have been interesting, however due to the court case between her and the estate/GW, sadly we fans do not get this.
So, whilst I was personally dissapointed and hoping for more, I do feel there were some gems of info there and that as I’ve said before to have it all together in a book is great for my personal collection.
I do think a more thorough biography of Virginia is possible, her life story is after all incredible and I feel she was sold short a bit here with just eight chapters and repeated information.
AtticSecrets1979 