My Sweet Audrina

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Summary: I MISS THE QUALITY OF V.C.ANDREWS
Review: I COULDN'T PUT A V.C.ANDREWS BOOK DOWN. I FELT THE LOSS AS IF SHE WHERE OF MY OWN FAMILY WHEN I HEARD OF HER DEATH. MY SWEET AUDRINA HAS TO BE THE BEST OFALL HER NOVELS, ALTHOUGH THE FLOWERS IN THE ATTIC SERIES WAS JUST AS ATTENTIVE. I HAVE BEEN SEARCHING FOR A HARD COPY OF MY SWEET AUDRINA FOR SEVERAL YEARS WITH NO LUCK. I COLLECT V.C. ANDREWS BOOKS.

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Summary: Suspence- - -Great book- - -11yrs. old- - -Female
Review: My Sweet Audrina was a great book.I am so mad, all the secrets came out at the end because you can't understand why she never knows her birthday. I haaaaaate Vera!!! She was such a mess. Poor Audrina had to be better than her first sister, "the angel." Audrina was the only one out of the family who wasn't selfish or jealous. She couldn't leave, they had her trapped. She couln't leave Sylvia her aunt would make her more damaged. There was so many untrue things told to Audrina. So many deaths. I am so mad at her dad for making her go to the rocking chair inside the room that should be her room.---I have read My Sweet Audrina--- All my friends who would make excuses for reading, I hooked them on V.C. andrews and they read them. I am almost done with all the books that my mom hooked me on.

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Summary: ~A true page turner~
Review: I thought this book was one of V.C. Andrews's best books. The way the story ended was a total surprise. I couldn't stop reading until I found out what happened. I took me two days to read the book. Andrews is the only one who could write a book like this. I think she did a beautiful job and I am hoping for a sequal. Everyone should go out and read this book. It is extremly good and has not problem keeping your attention.

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Summary: V.C. Andrews' most interesting novel
Review: Most of Ms. Andrews' other novels eventually deteriorated into the same thing, but this book is thoroughly brilliant. It mixes horror, romance, suspense in mystery as it tells the tale of a young girl's pain and how it grew into a fire that consumed her family. OK, I'm getting metaphorical here, but you'll just have to read the book to find out!

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Summary: My Sweet Audrina Is Toe Tingling
Review: My Sweet Audrina makes the readers tingle from their head to the tips of their toes. It is a story of passion, fury, innocence lost, true love, hatred, and a secret that could destroy one very special little girl, all wrapped up in one

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Summary: Only V. C. Andrews could do this!
Review: Where do you put this book? It's horror, psychological suspense and romance. It's a story of family secrets, innocence, betrayal and revenge. Like Flowers in the Attic, except you've got a protagonist who doesn't even have brothers or sisters she can depend on. What will destroy her first - her family's armor of secrecy or the truth that lies under it? V. C. Andrews at her best

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Summary: A wonderfull, mind catching, creative creation!
Review: V.C. Andrews was an extraordinary author. Although many of her writings are slightly alike in subject, this novel was truly fantastic. It captures the mind and the heart as you become Audrina and are dying to find out what your twisted, terrible memories are. Throughout this book, I cried, rejoiced, felt fear and shock. V.C. Andrews is not just an author but a superb artist. It takes great imagination and creativity to come up with such wonderful stories. By far, My Sweet Audrina has got to be one of the best books I have ever read! Aliza Luf

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Summary: V. C. Andrews' best work, too often overlooked.
Review: It's unfortunate that Andrews chose to work on various interchangeable and insipid series of attractive young women discovering the "shocking truths" of their ancestry, instead of crafting more novels like this one. It's a very engaging drama of the human mind, as the younger Audrina endeavors to replace her dead sister's memory in her parent's eyes. Thoroughly creepy, and a sign of how great a storyteller Andrews could have been if she hadn't chosen to follow the money train of the Dollanganger/Foxworths, Casteel/Tattertons, etc. I really wish she had completed more novels like this before her death

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Summary: A young girl who claws her way back from the pit of insanity
Review: In this exceptional novel by V.C. Andrews, a young girl named Audrina is stricken with attempting to live up to a much older, more perfect, and very dead sister's accomplishments. As she slowly discovers the truth about herself and her family, she must hold quickly to her bearings so as not to fall deeper into the bottomless chasm of insanity which always seems to be perilously close by. Emerald Greene ([e-mail]

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Summary: Her sister's shadow
Review: This book and "Petals on the Wind" are V. C. Andrews' absolute best, and as far as I'm concerned, the only ones worth purchasing. Some of her series books, such as "Garden of Shadows" are worth checking out of the library, while some ("Flowers in the Attic") are mediocre at best, with few redeeming qualities other than a couple of interesting characters. Everything after the Dollanganger series ("Heaven" and so forth) are simply unreadable, they are so badly written. (Note to ghost-writer: quit while you're miles behind; V. C. Andrews' fans are not fooled.)

After all of the insipid plots of sweet young maidens who are so breathtakingly beautiful that they get sexually attacked by their brothers and fathers, "My Sweet Audrina" is a breath of fresh air. True, our heroine Audrina is another beautiful girl with "glorious" hair that changes colors, and yes, she is going to discover a well-guarded family secret, but her character is much more developed than, say, Heaven Casteel's. As the story begins, Audrina is a young innocent seven-year-old with the inability to recall past events. She is kept insulated in her family's secluded mansion and rarely ventures outdoors. Her lack of contact with the outside world makes her feel desperate and lonely. Even such routine activities as going to school are denied her for mysterious reasons. At night, Audrina is haunted by nightmares, in which she replays visions of her dead older sister in the woods. Her sister was left for dead after being sexually attacked by several young boys. Her father compounds the situation by demanding that Audrina be just like the older sister (also named Audrina), who was perfect in his eyes.

For all of Audrina's frustrations about having to live up to the memory of her sister, she is still given a lot of love and attention from her parents. Her cousin Vera (who will later become another V. C. Andrews "Street Tart") is envious and spiteful toward Audrina, and often lashes out at her, calling her "spoiled" and a "baby". Vera and her mother, Aunt Ellsbeth, live with Audrina and her parents, and Aunt Ellsbeth is one of the most fascinating characters. Her personality is a great deal like the young Olivia Foxworth in "Garden of Shadows": someone who was idealistic about love at first, and then became disillusioned and bitter. Because of this, she does not allow herself to love anyone, even her own daughter. Audrina is often the target of Aunt Ellsbeth's disdain, but Vera incites her rage. Vera has learned very well how to get attention in the Adare household: she is the "problem" child, the tarty "bad" girl who is the very opposite of Audrina's innocent, child-like "good" girl.

In this story, the first-person narrative by Audrina works very well, because the reader is able to become Audrina, and get inside her thoughts. As Audrina gradually unravels the deep, dark secrets of her memory loss, so does the reader. She is also capable of being strong-willed and fighting back when her father attempts to repress her, even when it is obvious that "pleasing Papa" is very important to her.

The drawbacks: Vera is too one-dimensional. Only rarely are we given a glimpse of her vulnerability, and she seems too calculating and clever to inspire much pity, even as badly as Aunt Ellsbeth and Papa treat her. Arden Lowe, as the Perfect Handsome Boyfriend, is a cardboard cut-out; bland and boring, he is more or less interchangeable with Logan, the boyfriend in the "Casteel" series. We never learn exactly what is wrong with Sylvia; at times, she seems like Chief Bromden in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" since she is obviously capable of retaining SOME knowledge. Nevertheless, V. C. Andrews has never been more effective at storytelling than she is here; she is careful not to reveal too much about the protagonists at once and leaves the reader guessing until the very end. Overall, I recommend it.