Garden of Shadows

Rating:
Summary: Ask and you shall receive...
Review: After reading Flowers in the Attic a lot of questions were brought up. How could the grandmother be so vicious? How could someone hate the grandchildren she never met? Well, this wraps all that up. This books answers all the questions you asked yourself and even those you didn't even think to ask. All will be revealed when you finish reading Garden of Shadows.

Rating:
Summary: great
Review: It's just as good as Flowers in the attic.All secrets are discovered.Olivia's marriage and life were terrible.Malcom's temper and his hate made her become who she was.I loved this book and you'll love it to.

Rating:
Summary: Olivia Foxworth Lashes out against the Innocent
Review: Olivia had no right to take out her anger on innocent people. She had no right to be hard on Alicia when she (A) needed compassion. It was by no means Alicia's fault when Malcolm assaulted and impregnated her. Alicia was by no means after Garland's money. Garland was a real man when he didn't let the fact that his first wife Corinne dump him ruin his life. In fact he found the courage to love again when he helped Alicia when her own daddy was in poor health. By the way Malcolm got off too easy when his wife fined him a million dollars each to a trust fund to each of his two sons.

Rating:
Summary: Ill she wanted was Love
Review: Evil Malcome Foxworth couldnt love her ill he wanted was someone to breed She was probably one of best mothers them 2 boys could of had 1 girl daddys girl a girl made out of rape and of wanting what you cant have! Malcome deserved what came to him but the only thing I didnt like about this book was that she wanted to love her grandchildren but just couldnt put it though the basket Good Book

Rating:
Summary: A Time to Plant
Review: Garden of Shadows is the prequel to the Dollanganger saga. Olivia Winfield, afraid that she will become a spinster, falls in love with the first handsome guy who pays her heed, Malcolm Foxworth. Surprise, surprise, he turns out to be the wrong guy. I feel sorry for her in the sense that she is the type of character whom at first arouses pity. She is "handsome", as Cathy puts it in FITA, perhaps mannish in looks, and certainly, later on, in personality, and men seem to prefer, in this story, the dainty type. She gets no love from her husband, and he neglects her sons, whom she loves dearly, for his spoiled daughter, Corinne. But my sympathy doesn't eventually amount to much. She did not become evil because of Malcolm. That's boloney. Olivia was as responsible for the curse of the Foxworths as any. In fact, she was the one who decided to torture her grandchildren; Malcolm most likely didn't have anything to do with that, as far as Olivia says in this book. Just because she's a woman, that doesn't make her the victim and Malcolm the aggressor. Everyone has their own story; Malcolm certainly does. It seems we've gone this route before. In FITA, Corrine and Olivia were the evil ones. Then we understood Corrine a little, and she was no longer as evil as Olivia. Then we hear Olivia's side, and we no longer hate her. This becomes old, very fast. Let me put it simply. In V.C.A.'s books, every character is both victim and oppressor. So yes, Olivia was in some ways a tragic character. But not any more so than others, in fact, less so, I believe. But judge for yourself. I give this three stars because the characters were flat and no where near as interesting as those in the rest of the series. The characters make or break a book for me.

Rating:
Summary: A Very Real Woman
Review: "Garden of Shadows" is my favorite book in the Dollanganger saga--even before the centrepiece, "Flowers in the Attic". I have my reasons for this; mainly, that the people in this novel are real people, whereas in "Flowers", the characters come off as one-dimensional cardboard travesties. This isn't to say that I don't like "Flowers"--I just think that this prequel and some of the sequels to that book are more realistic.

I feel genuinely sorry for Olivia Foxworth, the narrator of this book who will eventually develop into the forbidding grandmother of "Flowers in the Attic". It may be that I can empathize with her lack of beauty, popularity, and social grace. Deep down inside, she is a very sensitive and even loving woman who is in terrible pain.

I won't bother to illustrate any details of the plot--other reviews have done that enough. Suffice it to say that this author--the ghostwriter chosen after V.C. Andrews's death--has done a good job.

On the other hand, I do have some problems with this story, even though I have awarded it five stars. First of all, even with all that transpires, Olivia still does not seem to be the truly evil woman who terrorizes the four children in "Flowers in the Attic." This is plain to see in the final scene, when Olivia braces herself against loving them, because they remind her so much of Corrine and Christopher, Sr., when they were that age. From what V.C. Andrews created in the grandmother, we should see a much harder and unsympathetic character here. Remember how the grandmother picks Carrie up by her hair on the following night, and slaps Cory--not to mention whipping Corrine? I just can't see this version of Olivia Foxworth doing these things.

And yes, there are many inconsistencies between this book and later books in the series. No abuse or real oppression of Corrine as she grew...and the religious fanaticism that she spoke of so bitterly in "Flowers" does not enter the picture here until almost the end, when she is a young adult. I think that if Olivia had included some incidents to back this information up, along with her convictions that she was doing the right thing, a much more balanced portrait would have evolved.

In conclusion, I can say again that I felt sorry for Olivia. In a way, I wish she would have left Malcolm, her husband, and taken the children with her--she does seem too independent and strong, not to mention rich--to put up with all she does, although in those days, divorce was certainly a bigger taboo than it is now. I suppose that was her logic. I also wish that Olivia would have come up with an alternative to bringing Corrine and the children back to Foxworth Hall when Christopher was killed...although we wouldn't have the story we do, then, would we?

May I also say that I feel sorry for Malcolm, the future grandfather of the Dollanganger children? It makes you think back over that theory that there really are no heroes or villains in this world of ours.

Rating:
Summary: Just as good, if not better, than FLOWERS.
Review: I loved this book! Olivia was such a wonderful storyteller, and although she's completely despicable in FLOWERS, I learned through her story why she turned out the way she did and was able to empathize with her.

She put up with a lot of abuse yet managed to keep her equilibrium. Most people would have gone off the deep edge if they had to live through what she did. But she holds it together; it wasn't till the end of the story, when she hits an emotional low after the deaths of her sons, that she is cajoled into becoming a religious fanatic by her cousin John Amos.

Corinne's letter in which she requested to return to Foxworth Hall with her children was very touching and my favorite part of the book.

Rating:
Summary: Ok, So She's A Psycho
Review: After reading this book, I have lost whatever iota of pity I had for Grandmother Foxworth. I'm sorry, but I do not feel like I was given an adequate, if not at least reasonable, explanation for how she could have turned out the way she did. And I don't understand why she blamed Alicia for her husband's sin (I won't say anymore about that). Not to mention, she tries to cause Alicia to miscarry Chris sr., so I felt that she was a very cold, jealous person, even before all hell really broke loose. And I didn't find that her personality was very consistent either. She was always the one to not blame children for their parents actions, and then, she turns into this witch who will literally almost kill all her innocent grandchildren (she probably did help kill Cory) because their mother and father had the nerve to commit incest. Besides, she could have easily told Malcolm about the kids, and he was supposedly dying anyway so it wasn't as if he'd really have the chance to dote on them that much or warp them. She could have seen to that. She hated her husband for tormenting her sons. How come she didn't hate her cousin for even suggesting torturing children who had nothing to do with their parents' mistakes. I guess the real reason I'm so angry is because so many people say that Olivia is innocent and Malcolm is guilty. Malcolm has a story of his own to tell. His mother's abandonment of him is not an excuse for how he turned out, but then again, having an abusive husband is an even more pitiful excuse for abusing children. She was the one who starved and beat little kids. She was worse. So if you are going to feel sorry for Olivia, it is stupid to have it be at the expense of Malcolm. You know what though, V.C. Andrews fans seem to have more sympathy for the female characters and they try harder to understand them than the male characters. It's a double standard, and this really annoys me. But then again, it just reflects on the reader's failure to get anything out of what they read except that which suits their purpose, yet I hate how they blame the character instead of just admitting that they were bored by him, or her, and really didn't take the time to see beyond the obvious. That would be the more honest approach.
Interesting to learn more hidden family secrets, but the main characters were weak (and where was the abuse Corrine had to endure as a child, like being locked in the attic?) If the real V.C. Andrews only left an outline of this book for the GW, it's no wonder that it is so full of holes, not to mention mistakes. Is it Corrine or Corinne? And is John Amos first cousin or third cousin? I only hope that if it was written by Andrews instead of Andrew, it would have been better.

Rating:
Summary: at last the story of the hated grandmother's life
Review: as much as we hated the grandmother in flowers in the attic, this
story tells her early life and all the tragic events that led
up to the sadisic cold woman she would turn out to be. this book
is very good because it shows that we are a product of our environment and that most of us are not evil from the beginning
but circumstances sometimes make us turn out that way.

Rating:
Summary: Garden of Lies
Review: Althought it is a good book to read,ever noticed that Corrine and Olivia tell to different stories.
For example.
Olivia says that she caught Chris and Corrine in the Swan room, but Corrine tells her kids that they married on her 18th birth,then came back a week later and told her parents what they did.
It is a fantastic book to read,but I get confused and that is hat recks the story.
If it had been more scents,then it would have gotten 5 stars instead of 4.