If There Be Thorns

I liked this book the least of the retreads so far. I forgot how incredibly creepy Bart and John Amos interactions were. ( )

If There Be Thorns is the third book in the Dollanganger series that started with Flowers In The Attic. It begins with Cathy and Christopher living together and raising Cathy's two sons. The oldest is Jory, Julian Marquet's son—Cathy's first husband, and the youngest is Bart, who is the son of Dr. Paul Scott Sheffield (or is he?)—Cathy's second husband. The story is creepy right from the start as Cathy, who seems a little off in the head, insists on adopting an orphan girl named Cindy. Next, a strange old lady with a weird servant moves in next door. When Bart starts coming around they befriend him with treats, pets, and a journal that seems to be written by one of his ancestors...old Malcolm Winslow. Bart quickly becomes twisted and violent as he learns more and more about his true beginnings. If you like intrigue, drama, complicated relationships that are often incestuous, and really insane people, you will love this gothic horror story. ( )

Virginia Andrews has a lot to answer for, probably, when it comes to my tastes. I blame several on reading her books when I was probably way too young to be doing so. Of course, I gobbled them all up.
( )

So many mental illnesses!
This book is full of mental illnesses!

You have Bart, who is just completely nutso -- a lot like his mother, Cathy, who continues to be completely batty! Then Chris, who continues to have an unhealthy attraction to his mother (Oedipus Syndrome), but who also hates her because she locked them in the attic ... but loves her too ... so clings to Cathy because Cathy looks like his mother. So many issues!

I really expected to hate this book all the way through but things were sort of cleaned up nicely at the end and now I'm curious how the story continues.

Adrianne ( )

And so ends the tale of the Dresden Dolls....

This book was very good and had such a variety of moments ranging from heartbreaking sadness to white hot rage. The ending had me shedding a few tears for Cathy.

One thing that annoyed me throughout this book/bind-up is the fact that Chris and Cathy never truly did anything to get Bart away from the terrible influences of John Amos in his (Bart's) childhood or Joel in his adulthood. They (mainly only Cathy) were suspicious of the two men, and at times hated them, but they never took any action to save Bart from their evilness, choosing instead to only sit by and occasionally argue about doing something. I, in part, blame them for Bart turning out the way he did.

I always found Cathy's relationship with her brother to be on the disturbing side, but that being said, I did shed a few tears when Chris died in the same way that their father did. The ending, and indeed the lives, of the Dresden Dolls was so incredibly sad and heartbreaking. Nothing ever seemed to go completely their way. First it was their mother's actions and her parents, then in their adulthood, it was Bart and his ability to be so easily influenced by evil, religious men.

The shining spot in this story was Jory. He had his own tragedies, but with help of his loving parents, he was able to overcome them and find new love in Toni along with his little twins.

The ending chapter and epilogue was so bittersweet. With Cathy constantly mentioning her past, I knew something had to happen in the attic again. Though it was never explicitly stated, I believe she ended her life with arsenic to be with Chris and her twin siblings where the grass grows purple. The details of the attic revealed in her suicide note were heartbreaking in and of themselves. I knew she talked about the attic frequently, but I didn't suspect that she had been going up there to decorate it, snail and worm thing and all. It's beautiful in a tragic kind of way. ( )