Olivia dreamed of a sun-filled love, a happy life. Then she entered Foxworth Hall… V.C. Andrews’ thrilling new novel spins a tale of dreadful secrets and dark, forbidden passions — of the time before Flowers in the Attic began. Long before terror flowered in the attic, thin, spinsterish Olivia came to Virginia as Malcolm Foxworth’s bride. At last, with her tall handsome husband, she would find … husband, she would find the joy she had waited for, longed for. But in the gloomy mansion filled with hidden rooms and festering desires, a stain of jealous obsession begins to spread…an evil that will threaten her children, two lovely boys and one very special, beautiful girl. For within one innocent child, a shocking secret lives…a secret that will taint the proud Foxworth name, and haunt all their lives forevermore
A great book. Now, I’ve only read Flowers in the Attic, Secret Brother, and now this one, so I still have lots to go in the series.
In tnis one, we learn the truth through Olivia’s eyes; for those who don’t know, Olivia is the grandmother in Flowers in the Attic. We learn her origins and gain sympathy for her having to put up with Malcolm Foxworth and the hell he put her through, as well as the origins of the Dollanganger children who end up in the attic, what I mean is where they come from.
Side note, Malcolm Foxworth makes JR Ewing look like a saint.
Now, this book does have some discrepancies in it, and things that don’t match up with what Corrine told Cathy and Christopher, which partly can be explained by Corrine being full of it at times, I think anyway. The rest of the discrepancies are another matter, mostly the time of year in which Corrine and the children arrived at Foxworth Hall.
All-in-all, a great book, and I think can be read like a stand-alone novel in the series, or as a direct prequel to Flowers.
3 out of 5 stars to Garden of Shadows, the 5th book in the young adult thriller series written in 1987 by V.C. Andrews. Two key things to note about this book. The author passed away while writing this book, and I’m not clear on how much VC Andrews wrote versus a ghost writer at the publishing firm. Also, it’s the fifth book in the series, but it is actually a prequel to Flowers in the Attic, so it should be read first. That said, if you read it first, you’d totally lose the power of the first book… it’s better to see someone as bad before you find out they were once good, as well as what pushed them to turn towards the bad life! If you haven’t read Flowers in the Attic, stop reading this review and go back to the beginning.
We find out what Olivia, the grandmother, was like as a child. We learn to like her for awhile, seeing how she was broken down by a wicked man and the loss of her parents at a young age. You begin to feel sympathy, but then you remember, it doesn’t quite matter what was done to you, you should know better than to repeat the cycle, right?
I loved and hated this book. Took too much to read, pushed in the wrong directions. But it also continued a devastating and complex family saga. I had some different ideas on how it should have come together, but I was barely a few years at this point to be able to say anything. Imagine a young kid saying “Oh, I can write that better.” LOL
If you read the series, you owe it to yourself to finish it with this one. If you didn’t, don’t start with this one even tho it’s technically the “first.”
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.